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Show tool figure Of MH tt II The towering naval figure of World War II in the American Navy was Admiral Chester Nimitz. Nimitz was born on Feb. 24. 1885. at Fredericksburg, Frederick-sburg, Tex. As a youngster he leaned toward West Point but won an appointment to the Navy Academy at Annapolis in 1901. AFTER graduation in 1905, ter, he was sent to that Pacific base (Dec. 17. 1941) to take command of the Pacific fleet. HE SERVED there tor the rest of the war, eventually commanding the largest and most powerful naval force ever assembled. The Navy began World War II badly prepared and with interior in-terior torpedoes. Though the though he asked for duty aboard battleships, he was assigned to submarines. In the First World War he served on the staff of the commander of the submarine force in the Atlantic, and was commended for wartime service. By 1939, he was an admiral and chief of the Bureau of Navigation in Washington, already considered to be second in the Navy only to Admiral Harold Stark. Following Fol-lowing the Pearl Harbor disas- japanese won many 01 me early ear-ly naval engagements, the U.S. Navy gradually emerged during 1942 and early 1943 as the more effective fleet. SUBMARINES of the U.S. Navy Nimitz's old speciality special-ity were outstanding and did more than air power or surface units to strangle the economy of Japan. But air and surface forces were also brilliantly utilized; util-ized; the architect of this memorable American triumph was Chester Nimitz. |