Third Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
The 3rd Fleet (第三艦隊 Dai-san Kantai) was a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), which was created, and subsequently disbanded on six separate occasions and revived on five separate occasions.
History
Russo-Japanese War
First established on 28 December 1903, the 3rd Fleet was created by the Imperial General Headquarters as an administrative unit to manage vessels considered obsolete for front-line combat service. These vessels were used primarily for training and for coastal patrol duties. The 3rd Fleet came under the aegis of the Combined Fleet for the duration of the Russo-Japanese War from March 1904. Although initially derided as a "dinosaur fleet",[1] the 3rd fleet proved invaluable at the Battle of Tsushima and the Invasion of Sakhalin. It was disbanded on 20 December 1905.
South China Fleet
The 3rd Fleet was revived on 24 December 1908 as an expeditionary force during the Chinese Republican Revolution, to safeguard Japanese interests (civilians and property) on the Chinese mainland and (if necessary) to conduct emergency evacuation. It was nicknamed the "South China Fleet" after its chief area of envisioned activity was the South China Sea. Its cruisers patrolled the Yangtze River and other large rivers in China, and its headquarters was based in the Japanese concession in Shanghai. It was disbanded on 25 December 1915.
World War I
The 3rd Fleet was reconstituted on the same day as the dissolution of the "South China Fleet", initially to act as a training force to supplement Japan's contribution to the World War I under the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. When the Russian Revolution was proclaimed by the communist forces in Russia, the mission of the 3rd Fleet was changed to that of patrols of the Russian sea coast for the Siberian Intervention by Japanese ground forces in support of anti-Bolshevik forces. The 3rd Fleet was disbanded on 1 December 1922, and many of its vessels were scrapped almost immediately under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.
First China Expeditionary Fleet
The 3rd Fleet was again raised on 2 February 1938 as part of Japan's emergency buildup of forces after the Shanghai Incident. The buildup took the form of three separate expeditionary fleets, consisting primarily of cruisers and gunboats to patrol the Chinese coast and major riverways and to support the landings of Japanese ground forces. With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the 3rd Fleet came under the aegis of the China Area Fleet. It was disbanded on 15 November 1939; however, some of the organizational and command structures for ground forces under the First China Expeditionary Fleet remained in place until August 1943.
Southern Expeditionary Fleet
The 3rd Fleet was recreated once again on 10 April 1941 with the additional designation "Southern Expeditionary Fleet" for the specific task of invading the Philippine islands. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, its headquarters was based in Palau and its mission expanded to include the invasions of Java, Borneo and other islands of the Netherlands East Indies. It was superseded by the 2nd Southern Expeditionary Fleet under the aegis of the Southwest Area Fleet on 10 March 1942.
World War II
The sixth (and final) incarnation of the 3rd Fleet was formed on 14 July 1942 immediately after the disastrous Battle of Midway as an aircraft carrier task force modeled after similar units in the United States Navy. It was centered on the new aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku. It played an important role during the Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Santa Cruz, in which the American aircraft carrier Hornet was sunk, but at the cost of many of the best air crews in the Japanese Navy.
After March 1944, the 3rd Fleet was basically merged with the 2nd Fleet, and suffered through the disastrous Battle of the Philippine Sea, losing 3 of its aircraft carriers, including the newly commissioned Taihō and over 350 carrier planes.
With the loss of 4 aircraft carriers at the Battle off Cape Engaño, the 3rd Fleet effectively ceased to exist. It was officially disbanded on 15 December 1944.[2]
Commanders of the 3rd Fleet
Commander in chief [3]
| Rank | Name | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Admiral | Shichiro Kataoka | 28 December 1903 | 20 December 1905 |
| X | Disbanded | 20 December 1905 | 13 December 1915 | |
| 1 | Admiral | Kakuichi Murakami | 13 December 1915 | 6 April 1917 |
| 2 | Admiral | Ryokitsu Arima | 6 April 1917 | 1 December 1918 |
| 3 | Admiral | Teijiro Kuroi | 1 December 1918 | 1 December 1919 |
| 4 | Admiral | Kaneo Nomaguchi | 1 December 1919 | 1 December 1920 |
| 5 | Admiral | Kozaburo Oguri | 1 December 1920 | 1 December 1921 |
| 6 | Admiral | Baron Kantarō Suzuki | 1 December 1921 | 27 July 1922 |
| 7 | Vice-Admiral | Naoe Nakano | 27 July 1922 | 1 December 1922 |
| 8 | Disbanded | 1 December 1922 | 2 February 1932 | |
| 1 | Admiral | Kichisaburō Nomura | 2 February 1932 | 28 June 1932 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Seizo Sakonji | 28 June 1932 | 1 December 1932 |
| 3 | Admiral | Mitsumasa Yonai | 1 December 1932 | 15 September 1933 |
| 4 | Vice-Admiral | Shinjiro Imamura | 15 September 1933 | 15 November 1934 |
| 5 | Admiral | Gengo Hyakutake | 15 November 1934 | 1 December 1935 |
| 6 | Admiral | Koshirō Oikawa | 1 December 1935 | 1 December 1936 |
| 7 | Admiral | Kiyoshi Hasegawa | 1 December 1936 | 25 April 1938 |
| 8 | Admiral | Koshirō Oikawa | 25 April 1938 | 15 November 1939 |
| X | Disbanded | 15 November 1939 | 10 April 1941 | |
| 1 | Admiral | Ibō Takahashi | 10 April 1941 | 10 March 1942 |
| X | Disbanded | 10 March 1942 | 14 July 1942 | |
| 1 | Admiral | Chuichi Nagumo | 14 July 1942 | 11 November 1942 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Jisaburō Ozawa | 11 November 1942 | 15 November 1944 |
Chief of Staff
| Rank | Name | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rear-Admiral | Shizuka Nakamura | 28 December 1903 | 12 January 1905 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Koshi Saito | 12 January 1905 | 2 November 1905 |
| X | Disbanded | 20 December 1905 | 13 December 1915 | |
| 1 | Rear-Admiral | Shichitaro Takagi | 13 December 1915 | 1 April 1916 |
| 2 | Rear-Admiral | Tokutaro Hiraga | 1 April 1916 | 19 March 1917 |
| 3 | Vice-Admiral | Hisatsune Iida | 19 March 1917 | 1 December 1917 |
| 4 | Vice-Admiral | Shichigoro Saito | 1 December 1917 | 1 December 1918 |
| 5 | Vice-Admiral | Shinzaburo Furukawa | 1 December 1918 | 10 June 1919 |
| 6 | Vice-Admiral | Kosaburo Uchida | 10 June 1919 | 20 November 1920 |
| 7 | Rear-Admiral | Hisamori Taguchi | 20 November 1920 | 1 December 1921 |
| 8 | Vice-Admiral | Naomoto Komatsu | 1 December 1921 | 1 December 1922 |
| X | Disbanded | 1 December 1922 | 2 February 1932 | |
| 1 | Admiral | Shigetarō Shimada | 2 February 1932 | 28 June 1932 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Shigeru Kikuno | 28 June 1932 | 1 April 1933 |
| 3 | Rear-Admiral | Seizaburo Mitsui | 1 April 1933 | 15 November 1933 |
| 4 | Admiral | Shirō Takasu | 15 November 1933 | 15 November 1934 |
| 5 | Vice-Admiral | Eijiro Kondo | 15 November 1934 | 2 December 1935 |
| 6 | Vice-Admiral | Seiichi Iwamura | 2 December 1935 | 16 November 1936 |
| 7 | Vice-Admiral | Rokuzo Sugiyama | 16 November 1936 | 25 April 1938 |
| 8 | Vice-Admiral | Jinichi Kusaka | 25 April 1938 | 23 October 1939 |
| 9 | Admiral | Shigeyoshi Inoue | 23 October 1939 | 15 November 1939 |
| X | Disbanded | 15 November 1939 | 10 April 1941 | |
| 1 | Vice-Admiral | Toshihisa Nakamura | 10 April 1941 | 10 March 1942 |
| 2 | Vice-Admiral | Ryunosuke Kusaka | 14 July 1942 | 23 November 1942 |
| 3 | Vice-Admiral | Sadayoshi Yamada | 23 November 1942 | 6 December 1943 |
| 4 | Rear-Admiral | Keizo Komura | 6 December 1943 | 1 October 1944 |
| 5 | Rear-Admiral | Sueo Obayashi | 1 October 1944 | 15 November 1944 |
Notes
References
- 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.
- Jukes, Geoffry (2002). The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. Osprey Essential Histories. ISBN 978-1-84176-446-7.
- Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
External links
- Nishida, Hiroshi. "Imperial Japanese Navy". Retrieved 25 August 2007.
- Wendel, Marcus. "Axis History Database". Retrieved 25 August 2007.
