Marc Andrew Mitscher

Admiral Marc Andrew Mitscher

Marc Andrew Mitscher (born January 26, 1887 in Hillsboro , Wisconsin , † February 3, 1947 in Norfolk , Virginia ) was an American naval aviator and admiral . Mitscher was one of the pioneers of naval aviation; he was best known as the commander of Task Force 58 and 38 in the Pacific War , with which he was involved in almost all major battles in the Pacific War.

Life

Youth and education

Marc Mitscher was born in Hillsboro, Wisconsin, the son of store manager Oscar August Mitscher and his wife Myrta V. Shear. When Indian territory was opened to American settlers on April 22, 1889, the Mitscher family also moved to Oklahoma City . In 1891, Mitscher's father was elected mayor of Oklahoma City and in 1900 was appointed Indian agent by President William McKinley . The father with the schools in Oklahoma was not satisfied, he sent his son to school for Washington, DC tried in vain Mitscher, at the US Military Academy in West Point to be accepted until 1904 by the Republican congressman Bird Segle McGuire for U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland , was nominated. At the Naval College, Oklahoma Pete , as he was called his whole life, did well as a mediocre to poor student. He struggled with the strict discipline, collected reprimands and reprimands, and eventually left the academy without a degree. Since his father was able to convince the MP McGuire to nominate him again in 1906, Mitscher finally graduated in 1910 - as 108th of 131 students of his year.

Naval aviation

Lieutenant Mitscher in a Type A seaplane, around 1916

After graduating from the Naval Academy, Mitscher spent the required two years at sea before being promoted to lieutenant on March 7, 1912. The next year he married Frances Smalley from Tacoma . The marriage remained childless. After further on-board commands on various warships, Mitscher was promoted to first lieutenant in 1915 and then reported to naval aviation at the Pensacola Naval Air Station . He attended naval flight school and sailed the USS North Carolina , which was one of the first US ships to have a seaplane on board. Mitscher received his pilot's badge on June 2, 1916 as Naval Aviator No. 33 and took part in catapult experiments on board the USS Huntington . He spent the First World War on various naval aviation stations on the east coast of the USA and, in June 1918, promoted to Lieutenant Commander (German Corvette Captain) on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations (February 1919).

In May 1919 Mitscher piloted the NC-1, one of three Navy Curtiss seaplanes attempting a transatlantic crossing from Rockaway, New York, to Plymouth, England. Mitscher's NC-1 and NC-3 had to land shortly before the Azores and could no longer take off because of the heavy seas, but the NC-4 (LtCdr Albert Cushing Read ) made the first transatlantic flight in history. Mitscher received the Navy Cross , the first of three , for his participation in the company .

In the following years, Mitscher served in various roles in naval aviation and in staff positions. In May 1926 he was transferred to the experimental aircraft carrier Langley and in 1927 he became first officer on the carrier USS Saratoga . Here, on January 11, 1928, he was given the honor of taking off and landing the first aircraft, a Vought UO-1 , from the flight deck . In October 1930 he was promoted to Commander and moved to the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics for three years . After a time as skipper of the aircraft tender USS Wright , he was promoted to captain in 1938 and commander of Patrol Wing One . After a further assignment as chief of staff in the Bureau of Aeronautics , he was given command of his first aircraft carrier on October 20, 1941, the USS Hornet , which entered service on the same day .

Second World War

LtCol James Harold Doolittle (left) and Captain Mitscher (right) on board the Hornet

In April 1942, the Hornet was selected as the carrier ship and base for the long-haul flight known as the " Doolittle Raid " , which had the bombing of Tokyo as its target. The company of Lieutenant Colonel James Harold Doolittle and a group of volunteer Air Force pilots was so secret that Mitscher only found out about it when the 16 twin-engine B-25 bombers came on board. The bomber squadron did not cause any major damage in Tokyo, but it had an enormous psychological effect.

Mitscher took part with the Hornet in the Battle of Midway (June 4-7) before he left the Hornet on June 30, 1942.

Mitscher, promoted to Rear Admiral on June 15, 1942 , temporarily took over Patrol Force Two in Hawaii and was Commander Fleet Air in Nouméa from December 1942 to March 1943 . In April 1943, in the final phase of the Battle of Guadalcanal , he became the commander of the Air Force in the Solomon Islands (Commander Air, Solomon Islands, ComAirSols), which consisted of Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps pilots and New Zealand units . His associations are credited with sinking 17 Japanese ships and shooting down 470 aircraft, including a bomber with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto on board. In August 1943, the physically and mentally exhausted Mitscher was transferred to a quieter post as Commander of Naval Aviation on the American West Coast ( Commander Fleet Air, West Coast ).

Fast Carrier Task Force 38/58

Mitscher aboard his flagship USS Lexington , June 1944

When in December 1943 a successor to Admiral "Baldy" Pownall, who had come under criticism for his hesitant leadership, was sought as leader of Task Force 50 , Mitscher was chosen, who then returned to the Pacific on January 5, 1944. Since Mitscher had previously only led one aircraft carrier, but not a carrier association, he was initially only commander of Carrier Division 3 in Admiral Spruances ' 5th Fleet and was only temporarily in command of the newly formed carrier task force 58 on January 6th. In this way, he could have been moved to another post without causing a stir, had he not proven himself in the planned attack on the Marshall Islands . But after the conquest of the Marshall Islands (→ Operation Flintlock / Catchpole ) and the Truk Atoll (→ Operation Hailstone ) in February 1943, during which one of the most important Japanese bases in the Pacific could be shut down, Oklahoma Pete had passed his test. He was promoted to Vice Admiral on March 21 and was given final command of the fast carrier fleet in the Central Pacific, the famous Fast Carrier Task Force 58/38 ( Commander Fast Carrier Forces, Pacific Fleet ).

The Carrier Task Force , which consisted essentially of the modern Essex- class aircraft carriers , the two pre-war carriers Enterprise and Saratoga , and a few light carriers of the Independence- class , was the main force of the US Navy in the second half of the war and was on involved in almost all major battles in the Pacific. She supported the landings on Hollandia and the Mariana Islands and then took part in the battle in the Philippine Sea (June 19-20) with the task of covering the landing operations on Saipan .

On the first day of the battle in the Philippine Sea, on June 19, 1944, the American airmen launched by Mitscher's porters were able to shoot down a total of around 450 Japanese carrier aircraft, losing only around 16-30 (the information varies depending on the source) machines themselves . Because of the success rate of over 10: 1, this event was "as The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot " ( The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot ) known.

Mitscher was known for his innovative tactics, which he used towards the end of the Pacific War in a series of attacks on the last Japanese bases.

After the end of the war

Shortly before the war ended Mitscher was John S. McCain replaced and after a short vacation as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for the Naval Aviation - - DCNO (Air) to the Department of the Navy transferred to Washington. On March 1, 1946, promoted to four-star admiral, he took command of the newly established US 8th Fleet in Norfolk , Virginia, and became Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet on September 20 of the same year .

Oklahoma Pete Mitscher died on February 3, 1947 after a heart attack . His grave is in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery . His widow Frances Smalley Mitscher was buried next to her husband after her death in 1982.

Two Navy destroyers were named after Mitscher , the USS Mitscher (DDG-35) and the USS Mitscher (DDG-57) . In the 2001 film Pearl Harbor , he was played by Michael Shamus Wiles .

literature

• Arleigh Burke : Marc Mitscher, a Naval Aviator. In: United States Naval Institute. Proceedings. Vol. 101, 1975, ISSN  0041-798X , pp. 53-63
• Paolo E. Coletta: Admiral Marc A. Mitscher and US Naval Aviation. Bald Eagle (= Studies in American History. Vol. 12). Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston NY et al. 1997, ISBN 0-7734-8676-3 .
• Paolo E. Coletta: From Ponies to Planes: Marc Andrew "Oklahoma Pete" Mitscher. In: The Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 74, No. 1, Spring 1996, ISSN  0009-6024 , pp. 50-75.
• Paolo E. Coletta: Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, USN: A Silhouette. In: American Aviation Historical Society. AAHS Journal. Vol. 38, No. 1, 1993, ZDB -ID 1396594-3 , pp. 66-74.
• Theodore Taylor : The Magnificent Mitscher. Norton, New York NY 1954 (Reprint. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1991, ISBN 1-55750-800-3 ).

Web links

Commons : Marc Andrew Mitscher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Gregor Brand: Marc A. Mitscher. US admiral and war hero, grandson of a carpenter from Traben. Eifel newspaper from October 6, 2010