Editing Chester W. Nimitz (section)

===World War II===
{{See also|United States Navy in World War II|Naval history of World War II}}
[[File:nimitz and miller.jpg|thumb|upright|Admiral Chester W. Nimitz pins the [[Navy Cross]] on [[Doris Miller|Doris "Dorie" Miller]] in a ceremony onboard {{USS|Enterprise|CV-6|6}}, Pearl Harbor, 27 May 1942]]
[[File:Admiral Nimitz with officers on Guadalcanal, 30 September 1942 (NH 62413).jpg|thumb|Nimitz with officers at [[Henderson Field (Guadalcanal)|Henderson Field]], [[Guadalcanal]], 30 September 1942]]
[[File:Nimitz US 1945.jpg|thumb|The [[surrender of Japan]] aboard {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} in Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945: Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, representing the United States, signs the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|instrument of surrender]].]]

Ten days after the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on 7 December 1941, Rear Admiral Nimitz was selected by President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] to be the commander-in-chief of the [[United States Pacific Fleet]] (CINCPACFLT). Nimitz immediately departed Washington for Hawaii and took command in a ceremony on the top deck of the submarine {{USS|Grayling|SS-209|2}}. He was promoted to the rank of [[Admiral (United States)|admiral]], effective 31 December 1941, upon assuming command. The change of command ceremony would normally have taken place aboard a battleship; however, every battleship in Pearl Harbor had been either sunk or damaged during the attack. Assuming command at the most critical period of the war in the Pacific, Admiral Nimitz organized his forces to halt the Japanese advance, despite the shortage of ships, planes, and supplies.<ref>Edwin Hoyt, ''How they won the war in the Pacific: Nimitz and his admirals'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011).</ref>  He had a significant advantage in that the United States had cracked the Japanese diplomatic naval code and had made progress on the [[Japanese naval codes#JN-25|naval code JN-25]]. The Japanese had kept radio silence before the attack on Pearl Harbor, although events were then moving so rapidly they had to rely on coded radio messages they did not realize were being read in Hawaii.<ref>John Winton, ''Ultra in the Pacific: How Breaking Japanese Codes & Cyphers Affected Naval Operations Against Japan 1941-45'' (1993).</ref>

On 24 March 1942, the newly formed US-British [[Combined Chiefs of Staff]] issued a directive designating the [[Pacific War|Pacific theater]] an area of American strategic responsibility. Six days later, the US [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] (JCS) divided the theater into three areas: the [[Pacific Ocean Areas (command)|Pacific Ocean Areas]], the [[South West Pacific Area (command)|Southwest Pacific Area]] (commanded by General [[Douglas MacArthur]]), and the [[Southeast Pacific Area]]. The JCS designated Nimitz as "Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas", with operational control over all [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] units (air, land, and sea) in that area.<ref>{{cite book|title=United States Navy Office of the Chief of Naval Operations: 100th Anniversary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayExVoPZEvMC&pg=PP25|year=2015|publisher=Government Printing Office|pages=25–30|isbn = 9780160927799}}</ref>
 
Nimitz, in Hawaii, and his superior Admiral [[Ernest King]], the Chief of Naval Operations, in Washington, rejected the plan of General Douglas MacArthur to advance on Japan through New Guinea and the Philippines and Formosa. Instead, they proposed an [[Leapfrogging (strategy)|island-hopping plan]] that would allow them to bypass most of the Japanese strength in the Central Pacific until they reached Okinawa. President Roosevelt compromised, giving both MacArthur and Nimitz their own theaters. The two Pacific theaters were favored, to the dismay of generals [[George C. Marshall|George Marshall]] and [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight Eisenhower]], who favored a Germany-first strategy. King and Nimitz provided MacArthur with some naval forces but kept most of the carriers. However, when the time came to plan an invasion of Japan, MacArthur was given overall command.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas B. Buell|title=Master of Seapower: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WsKAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT167|year=2013|publisher=Naval Institute Press|pages=166–68|isbn=9781612512105}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Bruce S. Jansson|title=The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled Its National Priorities from the New Deal to the Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bwJ-u6Z2vdMC&pg=PA49|year=2002|pages=48–49|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231505260}}</ref>

Nimitz faced superior Japanese forces at the crucial defensive actions of the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]] and the [[Battle of Midway]]. The Battle of the Coral Sea, while a loss in terms of total damage suffered, has been described as resulting in the strategic success of turning back an apparent Japanese invasion of [[Port Moresby]] on the island of New Guinea. Two Japanese carriers were temporarily taken out of action in the battle, which would deprive the Japanese of their use in the Midway operation that shortly followed. The Navy's intelligence team reasoned that the Japanese would be attacking Midway, so Nimitz moved all his available forces to the defense. The severe losses in Japanese carriers at Midway affected the balance of naval air power during the remainder of 1942 and were crucial in neutralizing Japanese offensive threats in the South Pacific. Naval engagements during the [[Battle of Guadalcanal]] left both forces severely depleted. However, with the allied advantage in land-based air-power, the results were sufficient to secure Guadalcanal. The US and allied forces then undertook to neutralize remaining Japanese offensive threats with the [[Solomon Islands campaign]] and the [[New Guinea campaign]], while building capabilities for major fleet actions. In 1943, Midway became a forward submarine base, greatly enhancing US capabilities against Japanese shipping.<ref>Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, and Katherine V. Dillon, ''Miracle at Midway'' (1982).</ref>

In terms of combat, 1943 was a relatively quiet year, but it proved decisive inasmuch as Nimitz gained the [[materiel]] and manpower needed to launch major fleet offensives to destroy Japanese power in the central Pacific region. This drive opened with the [[Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign]] from November 1943 to February 1944, followed by the destruction of the strategic Japanese base at [[Operation Hailstone|Truk Lagoon]], and the Marianas campaign that brought the Japanese homeland within range of new strategic bombers. Nimitz's forces inflicted a decisive defeat on the Japanese fleet in the [[Battle of the Philippine Sea]] (19–20 June 1944), which allowed the capture of [[Saipan]], [[Guam]], and [[Tinian]].<ref>Samuel Eliot Morison,  '' The Two-Ocean War; A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War'' (1963) pp 222-291.</ref> His Fleet Forces isolated enemy-held bastions on the central and eastern [[Caroline Islands]] and secured in quick succession [[Peleliu]], [[Angaur]], and [[Ulithi]]. In the Philippines, his ships destroyed much of the remaining Japanese naval power at the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]], that lasted from 24 to 26 October 1944. With the loss of the Philippines, Japan's energy supply routes from Indonesia came under direct threat, crippling their war effort.<ref>Samuel Eliot Morison, ''Leyte, June 1944-January 1945'' (1958)</ref>
[[File:Photograph of President Truman decorating Admiral Chester Nimitz with a Gold Star (in lieu of a third Distinguished... - NARA - 199222.jpg|thumb|President [[Harry Truman]] decorating Admiral Nimitz with a [[5/16 inch star|Gold Star]] on 5 October 1945]]
[[File:Photograph of troops marching past mock-up of battleship at ceremonies honoring Admiral Chester Nimitz. - NARA - 199216.jpg|thumb|Troops marching at ceremonies honoring Nimitz]]
By act of Congress, passed on 14 December 1944, the rank of [[Fleet admiral (United States)|fleet admiral]] – the highest rank in the Navy – was established. The next day President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Nimitz to that rank. Nimitz took the oath of that office on 19 December 1944.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Alexander Hughes|title=Admiral Bill Halsey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUq6CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA401|year=2016|publisher=Harvard UP|page=401|isbn=9780674049635}}</ref> In January 1945, Nimitz moved the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet forward from Pearl Harbor to Guam for the remainder of the war. Nimitz's wife remained in the continental United States for the duration of the war and did not join her husband in Hawaii or Guam.   In 1945, Nimitz's forces launched successful amphibious assaults on [[Iwo Jima]] and [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]] and his carriers raided the home waters of Japan. In addition, Nimitz also arranged for the Army Air Force to mine the Japanese ports and waterways by air with [[B-29 Superfortress]]es in a successful mission called [[Operation Starvation]], which severely interrupted Japanese logistics.<ref>Megan  Tzeng,  "The Battle of Okinawa, 1945: Final turning point in the Pacific". ''History Teacher'' (2000): 95-117. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3054378 Online]</ref><ref>Morison,  '' The Two-Ocean War'' pp 434-81.</ref>
[[File:Photograph of Admiral Chester Nimitz seated in the back of a limousine, driving by a vast crowd, with the Washington... - NARA - 199211.jpg|thumb|Nimitz in Washington, D.C. in 1945]]
On 2 September 1945, Nimitz signed as representative of the United States when [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|Japan formally surrendered]] on board {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} in [[Tokyo Bay]]. On 5 October 1945, which had been officially designated as "Nimitz Day" in [[Washington, D.C.]], Nimitz was personally presented a second [[5/16 inch star|Gold Star]] for the third award of the [[Navy Distinguished Service Medal]] by President [[Harry S. Truman]] "for exceptionally meritorious service as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, from June 1944 to August 1945".<ref>James C. Bradford,  "Nimitz, Admiral Chester (1885–1966)". in Gordon Martel, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of War'' (2011).</ref>