Koga Mineichi

Koga Mineichi before 1945

Koga Mineichi ( Japanese 古 賀 峯 一 ; born September 25, 1885 in Nishimatsuura-gun , Saga Prefecture , Japan ; † March 31, 1944 in the Pacific ) was a Japanese Grand Admiral ( Gensui ) and commander of the Combined Fleet ( 聯合 艦隊 , Rengō Kantai ) in World War II .

Life

In 1906 he graduated from the Naval Academy and then served on various cruisers and battleships. After attending the Naval College , he was assigned to the Naval General Staff and served in the 1920s as a teacher at the Naval College and as a naval attaché in France. In the latter capacity, he also took part in the 1927 Geneva Conference . In the early 1930s he temporarily commanded the heavy cruiser Aoba and the battleship Ise , before he was promoted to Rear Admiral ( Kaigun-Shōshō ) and headed various departments of the Navy General Staff. After further posts as the commander of a cruiser squadron and the training fleet, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Naval General Staff in 1937.

From 1939 Koga commanded the 2nd fleet, shortly before the outbreak of war he took over the China fleet. He received numerous awards and was on the cover of Time in November 1943 . In 1942 he took over the Yokosuka Naval District. After the death of Grand Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku on April 18, 1943 in the Allied Operation Vengeance , he succeeded it as Commander of the United Fleet.

Although Koga's background was more in the battleship field, he made some reforms to improve the effectiveness of the carrier fleet and naval air force . After he had to give up his plan of a counter-offensive in the Aleutian Islands in 1943, he switched to a defensive strategy that was to preserve the main forces of the fleet for the expected decisive battle for the Philippines .

He died when his plane crashed while retreating from the Palau Islands during a typhoon en route to Davao . Posthumously, he was promoted to Grand Admiral ( Gensui ). He was succeeded by Admiral Toyoda Soemu .

Web links

Commons : Mineichi Koga  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mineichi on the cover of Time

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Koga is the family name, Mineichi the first name.