Ugaki Matome

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Admiral Ugaki Matome with his ceremonial sword in 1945

Ugaki Matome ( Japanese 宇 垣 纏 ; * 1890 in Okayama , Okayama Prefecture , † August 15, 1945 off Okinawa ) was a Japanese admiral during World War II . Among other things, he served in the air / sea battle in the Gulf of Leyte in October 1944 as commander of the battle fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy and commanded the 1st battleship division with the two super battleships Yamato and Musashi . Appointed commander of the 5th Air Fleet of the Navy Air Force in Kyushu in February 1945 , he commanded numerous kamikaze missions against the US fleet in the Battle of Okinawa . Ugaki achieved greater notoriety when, on August 15, 1945 - the last day of the war - he ordered the final kamikaze mission with 11 aircraft against ships of the United States Navy off Okinawa, where he himself flew and was also killed.

biography

Early years

Ugaki Matome was born in a small town in Okayama Prefecture in 1890 . He came from a relatively wealthy and respected family. After attending elementary and middle school, he joined the Imperial Japanese Navy at the age of 16. After training and serving on various ships, he chose an officer career on recommendation and graduated from the Japanese Navy Academy with success in 1912.

First World War

During the First World War , Japan occupied the islands of Micronesia and the German colony of Kiautschou in China . Ugaki Matome took part in the occupation of Kiautschou and was deployed on various warships as a lieutenant at sea .

Interwar period

About a month after the end of the war, on December 1, 1918, Ugaki became a first lieutenant at sea and continued to serve on various ships before he was called to the Naval Staff College for further theoretical training. In 1924 he was promoted to lieutenant captain immediately after successfully completing the Navy Staff College . Appointed frigate captain on December 10, 1928 , Ugaki served in this same rank as a naval attaché in Germany until 1930 . On his return to Japan that year, he was promoted to sea captain , whereupon Ugaki became a lecturer at the Naval Staff College that same December .

In 1935 Ugaki was assigned after his teaching activity for a year as a staff officer of the Japanese Combined Fleet ( 聯合 艦隊 , Rengō Kantai , English: Combined Fleet ) before he took command of a cruiser and a little later a battleship . Ugaki was considered a capable commander and was extremely popular among his seafarers. In 1938 he was promoted to rear admiral .

Second World War

Chief of Staff of the High Seas Fleet

After Japan's entry into the Second World War with the attack on Pearl Harbor , the main naval base of the US Navy in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 Ugaki became the Chief of Staff of the High Sea Fleet under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto . In this position he was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1942 . On April 18, 1943, Admiral Yamamoto was shot down by US fighter planes while approaching the Buin airfield during an inspection trip from Rabaul ( New Guinea ) to Ballalae south of Bougainville (Northern Solomon Islands ) (→ Operation Vengeance ). Ugaki, who accompanied Yamamoto in another plane, was also shot down, but survived the crash into the sea practically unharmed and ended up on land with the pilot Hayashi Hiroshi . Yamamoto was then replaced by Admiral Koga Mineichi , Ugaki remained his chief of staff until October 1943.

Commander of a battleship division

In the same October 1943 Ugaki, as the second-highest-ranking commander of the deep sea fleet, immediately commanded the 1st Battleship Division of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the battleship Nagato and the super battleships Yamato and Musashi . He led this fleet under Admiral Kurita Takeo during the sea ​​and air battles in the Gulf of Leyte (Philippines). He then also commanded naval formations in the Sibuyan Sea on October 24, 1944 and off the coast of Sibuyan on October 25 of that year.

Commander of the 5th Air Fleet

When Ugaki was recalled to Japan in February 1945, he was given supreme command of the 5th Air Fleet of the Navy Air Force in Kyushu , one of the four main islands of Japan. He led all naval aircraft throughout the province from its headquarters in a cave - bunker from which he and his staff in front of the ever-increasing threat of attacks by heavy US bombers of type Boeing B-29 Superfortress offered effective protection.

First kamikaze attacks

In his headquarters, Ugaki devised plans for a large-scale deployment of kamikaze pilots, considering them to be the last remaining means of effective combat against the US fleet. He developed the ideas of the inventor of the kamikaze attacks, Vice Admiral Ōnishi Takijirō , to protect the main Japanese islands from a possible invasion and thus Japan from a military defeat. In early March 1945, he launched the first wave of suicide attacks from Kyushu against the US fleet anchored in Ulithi , damaging several ships. As a kamikaze aircraft, Ugaki used Mitsubishi A6M3 Reis-sen / Zero-sen especially at the beginning, which in this version as fighter aircraft were no longer up-to-date but still numerous. He also had damaged machines of this type repaired for a final corresponding use.

Operation Ten-Go ("Operation Sky") followed in the same month with several hundred kamikaze aircraft near Okinawa , where a strong US invasion fleet had appeared. This was the prelude to the Battle of Okinawa . On April 7, the super battleship Yamato, along with the light cruiser Yahagi and the eight destroyers Isokaze , Hamakaze , Yukikaze , Asashimo , Hatsushimo , Kasumi , Fuyutsuki and Suzuzuki, set out on a final self-sacrifice mission against the Americans as part of this operation .

Continued kamikaze attacks

Admiral Ugaki had the Allied ships lying off Okinawa repeatedly attacked by kamikaze planes. On March 19, the aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13 ) was hit and nearly sunk by a single Ugaki Air Force dive bomber Yokosuka D4Y Suisei ("Comet" - allied code name : Judy ). British carrier aircraft , which were soon joined by American aircraft carriers with their machines, flew air strikes on airfields on the Sakishima Islands and Kyushu in response . Ugaki left the relatively low-flying Allied machines from the few remaining own fighter aircraft of the types Mitsubishi A6M5 Reis-sen / Zero-sen (Allied code name: Zero / Zeke ), Kawanishi N1K1-J Shiden -KAI ("Violet Lightning" - Allied code name: George ) and Mitsubishi J2M Raiden ("Thunderbolt" - Allied code name: Jack ) with some success regardless of losses. However, fighters of the Army Air Force including the Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate ("Sturm" - Allied code name: Frank ) and Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien ("Schwalbe" - Allied code name: Tony or Antonio ) intervened in the fighting. The Americans and British did not succeed in preventing further kamikaze attacks, however, as Ugaki kept his aircraft hidden until immediately before take-off and construction crews on standby were able to quickly create new runways.

The Japanese major offensive Kikusui 6 , which began on May 10 and in which Ugaki's forces also participated, was launched with 150 kamikaze pilots, followed several times by at least as many. On May 11, an American aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) (the flagship of Task Group 58) was very badly damaged and had to be withdrawn from the combat area. When the "Task Force" withdrew, a kamikaze plane hit another carrier hard. In the following Kikusui operations 7 to 11 on May 24, 25, 27, 28 and 29, the Americans lost eight ships. Several others were damaged, but could be repaired and still used. Meanwhile, the battle for Okinawa continued with undiminished severity.

Preparations for the final battle

In the meantime Ugaki pulled together even more planes - according to reports, really all the machines he could possibly get. He hid these again until further notice, in order to use them in the same way to defend Kyushu as soon as the expected invasion by the Allies, which in his opinion was already looming during the summer of 1945 (starting from Kyushu like both Ugaki and the Japanese Military leadership believed) should be started. Most of these aircraft would only have been usable in this way anyway, since the Japanese Navy Air Force had hardly any fighters that could have effectively countered the heavy Boeing B 29 bombers flying in at high altitudes (the only exception was the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden).

In the Battle of Okinawa, according to Ugaki's ideas, the kamikaze pilots managed to achieve a hit ratio of 9: 1, that is, every ninth attack was a success, although not every hit meant a sinking. In Kyushu he hoped, like the naval leadership, through the better circumstances, to achieve a 6: 1 ratio in order to sink more than 400 ships. Because the pilots were trained not only in the recognition of aircraft carriers and destroyers, as was customary before, but also in the identification of transporters, he expected that the losses of the Allies would be disproportionately higher than on Okinawa. A study by the command staff even spoke of the possible destruction of a third or even half of the invasion fleet.

Ugaki planned for this case, as part of Operation Ketsu-Go ("Crucial Operation"), the invasion forces with hundreds of kamikaze aircraft and other suicide attack weapons such as micro-submarines of the Kairyu class , converted Kaiten one- man torpedoes of the Navy and to hit and hit back with explosives loaded Shin'yō- Kamikaze boats of the army within a few hours. Ugaki of course recognized that Japan no longer had a realistic chance of winning the war and therefore relied on defending the motherland with a strength that would make it possible for the Americans to conquer only with extreme losses. But since the battle of Okinawa dragged on longer than expected, both the Japanese military leadership and Ugaki on Kyushu assumed that the Americans would not be able to start a new operation before typhoon season. The weather would then have become far too risky for an amphibious operation. In fact, the main Japanese islands were not invaded before the end of the war, as Operation Downfall was called off and instead the then new atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th (→ atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ), whereupon that The Japanese Empire informed the governments of the USA , Great Britain , the Republic of China and the Soviet Union that they would accept the ultimatum for unconditional surrender on August 10, 1945 . Ugaki still had a little over a few thousand aircraft available, which, as he had last foreseen, could no longer be used because the end of the war was imminent.

Order for the last kamikaze mission

Admiral Ugaki Matome with his Yokosuka D4Y3 before the start of the last kamikaze mission towards Okinawa on the last day of the war (August 15, 1945)

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito gave a radio address ( Gyokuon-hōsō ) in which he announced the capitulation of Japan with the "Imperial Decree on the End of the War" and at the same time called on all armed forces to lay down their arms. After hearing this address, Ugaki Matome made one final entry in his diary that he had not received an "official" order to stop the fight. Ugaki was still the second-highest-ranking commander of the ocean-going fleet at the time. According to reports from many of his former subordinates, officers and soldiers , it was foreseeable that Admiral Ugaki intended to die honorably in order to “display the true spirit of a Japanese warrior” should he face the ultimate defeat of Japan.

Immediately afterwards, he asked his airmen for volunteers who would follow him on a final kamikaze attack against the US fleet. In response, the crew reported eleven dive bombers of the type Yokosuka D4Y Suisei ( "Comet" - Allied code name : Judy ) of the 701st group of hands. Ugaki originally only wanted to request five planes, but the entire unit in close proximity to his headquarters, including its commander, decided to go with him. Before boarding one of the aircraft, he had himself photographed after refueling and starting the engines, along with some machines, had his staff remove the rank badges from his dark green uniform and otherwise only took his short ceremonial sword with him, which Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku once had as a gift. Since he was not a pilot himself, he and the second crew member climbed into the rear of a D4Y that he had already used several times for connecting flights.

The attack group of eleven D4Y took off at sunset and reached the island of Iheya-jima near Okinawa at 7:40 p.m. local time, whereby the entire formation was unable to hit US ships as planned. Apart from a radio message before reaching the target area, there was initially no more news about the association. It is considered certain that some machines crashed into the sea, although it is not conclusively clear whether they were shot down by the Americans. It is also not known exactly how many planes ultimately hit a ship's target. Of the eleven aircraft that took off, three returned to the base in Kyushu (that they did so prematurely is ruled out), with the crews all reporting engine problems. It can be assumed that these three machines were sent back by Ugaki himself to report on the attack, as was common practice on kamikaze missions. When asked, those three crews stated that Admiral Ugaki's plane had definitely hit an enemy US ship, and that he himself was certainly killed in the operation.

Presumed death

The next morning the crew of the not too badly damaged US tank landing ship LST-926 found the still smoking - but not burned out - wreckage of a Japanese D4Y aircraft as well as the remains of a cockpit with three dead (note: all other ten aircraft had with this attack - as is usual with this type of aircraft - only two crew members). One of these three people (unrecognizable because his head was shattered) was wearing a dark green naval uniform, and a short sword was found next to the body - proving that Admiral Ugaki himself flew and was killed in that last kamikaze attack of the war Life had come.

aftermath

The last war mission of Admiral Ugaki, in which he deliberately found his own death, did not only meet with approval within the Imperial Japanese Navy. Critics within the Navy described his action as completely pointless, especially since it would have brought nothing more on the last day of the war and he once again dragged soldiers with him to their deaths. On the other hand, however, he was given high credit for the fact that it was only logical, as the inventor or organizer of kamikaze tactics on a large scale - in which a great many Japanese army and especially naval pilots had died - honorably sought and found the same end himself to have.

Estate and traces

Ugaki Matome went as The Last Kamikaze ( english : The Last Kamikaze ) in history. His diary, which is considered to be an important contemporary document of the Pacific War , fell into the hands of the Americans, despite his last wish, and has been preserved. It was translated into English and published as a book in that same language in 1969 and again in 2001.

His ceremonial sword is kept as a gift from General Douglas MacArthur in the US Merchant Marine Cadet Corps Academy in Kings Point , New York .

Promotions

literature

  • Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon, Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki, 1941-45 , University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8229-5462-1 .
  • Samuel Eliot Morison , History of United States Naval Operations in World War II Vol. VII, Aleutains, Gilberts, and Marshalls, June 1942-April 1944. 15 Vol. Boston, 1947–1962 (New title from 2005: Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze publisher ), ISBN 0-451-21487-0 .
  • Thomas, Evan, The Last Kamikaze, World War II Magazine, p. 28, March 2007.

See also

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Faded Victory: The Diary of Admiral Ugaki Matome, 1941-1945
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ugaki is the family name, Matome the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Ugaki, Matome
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 宇 垣 纏
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese Vice Admiral
DATE OF BIRTH 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Okayama Prefecture , Japan
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1945
Place of death At sea off the island of Okinawa