Kurita Takeo

Takeo Kurita

Kurita Takeo ( Japanese 栗 田 健 男 ; * April 28, 1889 , † December 19, 1977 ) was a Vice Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War during World War II .

Life

Kurita graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in 1910 . He initially served in various positions on several destroyers and attended the artillery schools in 1912 and the naval torpedo schools in 1913 and 1918. In 1920 he became a commanding officer on a destroyer.

In the next few years he commanded various destroyers and destroyer squadrons and taught at the torpedo school. In 1937 he was commander of the battle cruiser Kongo and in 1938 promoted to rear admiral.

During the Second World War he took part in numerous operations. First he commanded a squadron of cruisers in the invasion of the Dutch East Indies . In the Battle of Midway he lost the cruiser Mikuma . Promoted to Vice Admiral, he commanded a battleship squadron in the Battle of Guadalcanal , where he bombed Henderson Field on October 14, 1942 .

Battle of the Leyte Gulf

He commanded the 2nd Fleet and thus the largest Japanese unit (5 battleships, 12 cruisers, 13 destroyers) in the battle in the Gulf of Leyte when he wanted to attack the US landing forces in the Gulf of Leyte . He lost two cruisers in the battle of the Sibuyan Sea to American submarines and the Musashi to air raids. In the Battle of Samar he surprised an American fleet of six escort carriers, three destroyers and four escort destroyers . Kurita's ships sank the carrier USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) , two destroyers, and a destroyer escort. Almost all of the other US ships in the battle were damaged. Kurita herself lost three more heavy cruisers and called off the attack. When his fleet returned to Japan after heavy air raids and further ship losses, only the battleship Yamato was operational. He was heavily criticized in Japan for not fighting to the death. After returning to Japan, Kurita Takeo was relieved of his command in December and was appointed commander of the Navy Academy.

In a brief interview with a journalist in 1954, he stated that he made a mistake at Leyte by turning away from the enemy and not continuing the fight. Kurita only spoke late about his actions at Leyte. He told a former Naval Academy student and biographer, Jiro Ooka, that he pulled the fleet out of battle because he did not believe in wasting his men's lives after believing the war was lost.

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Understanding Kurita's Mysterious Retreat