1st Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
The IJN 1st Fleet (第一艦隊 Dai-ichi Kantai) was the main battleship fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
History
First established on 28 December 1903, the IJN 1st Fleet was created during the Russo-Japanese War when the Imperial General Headquarters divided the Readiness Fleet into a mobile strike force of cruisers and destroyers to pursue the Imperial Russian Navy's Vladivostok-based cruiser squadron (the Imperial Japanese Navy's 2nd Fleet), while the remaining bulk of the Japanese fleet (the IJN 1st Fleet) continued to blockade Port Arthur in hopes of luring the battleships of the Russian Pacific Fleet out into a classic line-of-battle confrontation. The two fleets were combined into the Combined Fleet for the final Battle of Tsushima. The decisive victory of the Japanese fleet over the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima validated the doctrine of the "decisive victory", or kantai kessen as stipulated by naval theorists such as Alfred Thayer Mahan and Satō Tetsutarō in the eyes of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, and future naval procurement and deployment was centered on refinements of this doctrine.[1] The Mahanian objective was to build a fleet in being, a naval force kept deliberately in strategic reserve, as secondary forces based on cruisers and destroyers waged a campaign of attrition against an approaching enemy, who would then be destroyed in a climatic final battle similar to the Battle of Tsushima.[2][3] As a result of this doctrine, although individual ships and task forces were dispatched on occasion for specific combat operations, the main force in the Imperial Japanese Navy was mostly held in reserve from the time of its inception until near the end of World War II.
Commanders of the IJN 1st Fleet
Commander in chief [4]
| Rank | Name | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fleet Admiral | Marquis Heihachiro Togo | 28 December 1903 – 20 December 1905 |
| 2 | Admiral | Shichiro Kataoka | 20 December 1905 – 22 November 1906 |
| 3 | Vice Admiral | Marquis Shinichi Arima | 22 November 1906 – 26 May 1908 |
| 4 | Fleet Admiral | Baron Goro Ijuin | 26 May 1908 – 1 December 1909 |
| 5 | Admiral | Baron Hikonojo Kamimura | 1 December 1909 – 1 December 1911 |
| 6 | Admiral | Baron Shigeto Dewa | 1 December 1911 – 1 December 1913 |
| 7 | Fleet Admiral | Viscount Tomosaburō Katō | 1 December 1913 – 10 August 1915 |
| 8 | Admiral | Koichi Fujii | 10 August 1915 – 23 September 1915 |
| 9 | Admiral | Motaro Yoshimatsu | 23 September 1915 – 1 December 1917 |
| 10 | Admiral | Baron Gentaro Yamashita | 1 December 1917 – 1 December 1919 |
| 11 | Admiral | Tanin Tamaya | 1 December 1919 – 24 August 1920 |
| 12 | Admiral | Sojrio Tochinai | 24 August 1920 – 27 July 1922 |
| 13 | Admiral | Isamu Takeshita | 27 July 1922 – 27 January 1924 |
| 14 | Admiral | Baron Kantarō Suzuki | 27 January 1924 – 1 December 1924 |
| 15 | Admiral | Keisuke Okada | 1 December 1924 – 10 December 1926 |
| 16 | Admiral | Hiroharu Kato | 10 December 1926 – 10 December 1928 |
| 17 | Admiral | Saburo Hyakutake | 10 December 1928 – 11 November 1929 |
| 18 | Admiral | Eisuke Yamamoto | 11 November 1929 – 1 December 1931 |
| 19 | Admiral | Seizo Kobayashi | 1 December 1931 – 15 November 1933 |
| 20 | Admiral | Nobumasa Suetsugu | 15 November 1933 – 15 November 1934 |
| 21 | Admiral | Sankichi Takahashi | 15 November 1934 – 1 December 1936 |
| 22 | Admiral | Mitsumasa Yonai | 1 December 1936 – 2 February 1937 |
| 23 | Fleet Admiral | Osami Nagano | 2 February 1937 – 1 December 1937 |
| 24 | Admiral | Zengo Yoshida | 1 December 1937 – 30 August 1939 |
| 25 | Fleet Admiral | Isoroku Yamamoto | 30 August 1939 – 11 August 1941 |
| 26 | Admiral | Shiro Takasu | 11 August 1941 – 14 July 1942 |
| 27 | Vice Admiral | Mizumi Shimizu | 14 July 1942 – 20 October 1943 |
| 28 | Admiral | Chuichi Nagumo | 20 October 1943 – 25 February 1944 |
Chief of Staff [4]
| Rank | Name | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fleet Admiral | Baron Hayao Shimamura | 28 December 1903 – 12 January 1905 |
| 2 | Fleet Admiral | Viscount Tomosaburō Katō | 12 January 1905 – 20 December 1905 |
| 3 | Admiral | Koichi Fujii | 20 December 1905 – 22 November 1906 |
| 4 | Fleet Admiral | Baron Gentaro Yamashita | 22 November 1906 – 10 December 1908 |
| 5 | Admiral | Takeshi Takarabe | 10 December 1908 – 1 December 1909 |
| 6 | Admiral | Kaneo Nomaguchi | 1 December 1909 – 11 March 1911 |
| 7 | Vice Admiral | Saneyuki Akiyama | 11 March 1911 – 1 December 1912 |
| 8 | Admiral | Isamu Takeshita | 1 December 1912 – 24 May 1913 |
| x | position vacant | 24 May 1913 – 1 December 1913 | |
| 9 | Vice Admiral | Tetsutaro Sato | 1 December 1913 – 17 April 1914 |
| 10 | Vice Admiral | Kazuyoshi Yamaji | 17 April 1914 – 1 December 1914 |
| 11 | Vice Admiral | Shibakichi Yamanaka | 1 December 1914 – 13 December 1915 |
| 12 | Vice Admiral | Saburo Horiuchi | 13 December 1915 – 1 December 1917 |
| 13 | Vice Admiral | Hanroku Saito | 1 December 1917 – 1 December 1918 |
| 14 | Vice Admiral | Kajishiro Funakoshi | 1 December 1918 – 1 December 1919 |
| 15 | Vice Admiral | Hansaku Yoshioka | 1 December 1919 – 1 December 1921 |
| 16 | Vice Admiral | Kumazo Shirane | 1 December 1921 – 1 December 1923 |
| 17 | Rear Admiral | Bekinari Kabayama | 1 December 1923 – 10 November 1924 |
| 18 | Vice Admiral | Kanjiro Hara | 10 November 1924 – 1 December 1925 |
| 19 | Vice Admiral | Naotaro Ominato | 1 December 1925 – 1 November 1926 |
| 20 | Admiral | Sankichi Takahashi | 1 November 1926 – 1 December 1927 |
| 21 | Vice Admiral | Eijiro Hamano | 1 December 1927 – 10 December 1928 |
| 22 | Vice Admiral | Ken Terajima | 10 December 1928 – 30 October 1929 |
| 23 | Admiral | Koichi Shiozawa | 30 October 1929 – 1 December 1930 |
| 24 | Admiral | Shigetarō Shimada | 1 December 1930 – 1 December 1931 |
| 25 | Admiral | Zengo Yoshida | 1 December 1931 – 15 September 1933 |
| 26 | Admiral | Soemu Toyoda | 15 September 1933 – 15 March 1935 |
| 27 | Admiral | Nobutake Kondō | 15 March 1935 – 15 November 1935 |
| 28 | Admiral | Naokuni Nomura | 15 November 1935 – 16 November 1936 |
| 29 | Rear Admiral | Yasutaro Iwashita | 16 November 1936 – 18 February 1937 |
| 30 | Vice Admiral | Jisaburo Ozawa | 18 February 1937 – 15 November 1937 |
| 31 | Vice Admiral | Ibo Takahashi | 15 November 1937 – 5 November 1939 |
| 32 | Vice Admiral | Shigeru Fukudome | 5 November 1939 – 10 April 1941 |
| 33 | Admiral | Seiichi Ito | 10 April 1941 – 11 August 1941 |
| 34 | Vice Admiral | Kengo Kobayashi | 11 August 1941 – 6 January 1943 |
| 35 | Vice Admiral | Gihachi Takayanagi | 6 January 1943 – 25 February 1944 |
References
Books
- D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
- Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
- Evans, David (1979). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
External links
- Nishida, Hiroshi. "Imperial Japanese Navy".
- Wendel. "Axis History Database".
