WWII Forums Quiz Part V

The United States Marine Corps 1st Parachute Battalion. Landed on Gavutu during Operation Watchtower (Guadacanal) in August of '42. </font>[/QUOTE]We have a winner! Your turn Bill.

 

QUOTE]We have a winner! Your turn Bill. [/QB][/QUOTE]

Oh geez guys.....I don't have a question ready nearly the caliber that you guys ask. Please go to the next in line and I promise to have a question ready for the next time I can answer a question.

 

I don't know who was next in line Bill. Any question will do,make sure it has to do with Poland as TA 152 will love it!

 

FramerT is right, Bill. You have been able to answer a question nobody else managed to solve, you will be able to ask a decent question. There's no need it to be too difficult.

 

OK.....this is a who am I question.

I graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in 1912. I specialized in torpedo warfare and submarines, but also commanded various suface ships and served on a number of staffs over the following two decades. Late in 1941 I was given command of the Fifth Fleet as a rear admiral. I commanded the carrier strike force during the Battle of Coral Sea and assumed command of the Sixth Fleet in late 1943 as a vice admiral. I was killed on Saipan in July 1944 during the American invasion. Who am I?

 

Nagumo?

 

Nagumo was the commander of the First Air Fleet from early 1941 until after the Guadalcanal operation when he was relieved and assigned to a shore command at the Sasebo Naval Base until given command of the defending forces at Saipan in 1944. And while Nagumo was a vice admiral and died at Saipan, he was never in command of the Fifth or Sixth Fleet.

 

I took a stab at it. A bit too many 'beverages'.

 

Well since I myself am enjoying a few adult beverages I must admit that I did construct the question in a such a way hoping that someone would indeed take a guess at Nagumo. Personally I always thought the Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi would have been a much better commander for the Japanese First Air Fleet. Nagumo would simply out of his element and his league trying to command a carrier task force. But I digress.........

 

Well, this is a bit of a dilema.....
The commander of the 5th Fleet in late 1941 was V. Admiral Hosogaya Moshiro while the commander of the carrier strike force at Coral Sea (5th Carrier Division was Rear Admiral Hara Chuichi with V. Admiral Takeo Takagi in overall charge of operation MO (Coral Sea). However, the only Japanese Vice Admiral killed on Saipan was Chuichi Nagumo. Admiral Takagi was also killed there. He commanded the 6th Fleet (submarines) at Saipan under Nagumo.
So, I assume you meant Admiral Takagi......

 

[/qb][/QUOTE]Well, this is a bit of a dilema.....
The commander of the 5th Fleet in late 1941 was V. Admiral Hosogaya Moshiro while the commander of the carrier strike force at Coral Sea (5th Carrier Division was Rear Admiral Hara Chuichi with V. Admiral Takeo Takagi in overall charge of operation MO (Coral Sea). However, the only Japanese Vice Admiral killed on Saipan was Chuichi Nagumo. Admiral Takagi was also killed there. He commanded the 6th Fleet (submarines) at Saipan under Nagumo.
So, I assume you meant Admiral Takagi...... [/QB][/QUOTE]

We have a winner. It was indeed one Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi. According to Morison, Takagi's role at Coral Sea lists him as Commander Carrier Striking Force while Gordon Prange has him listed as Commander 5th Cruiser Division so evidently we have 3 fairly good sources all attributing Takagi to different roles for the COral Sea operation. However, Morison does indeed have Takagi based on Saipan as commander of the 6th fleet when the US invades in June of 1944. Although Morison makes no mention of Takagi dying there neither does he mention Takagi again after the Saipan operation anywhere in his series. I do however have two sources stating that Takagi did die on Saipan, those being Dunnigan and Noel's "Victory At Sea: World War II in the Pacific" and Masanori Ito's "The End of The Imperial Japanese Navy"

 

OK TAG, you won last month, ask the meaning of life or something !!

 

Monday. I'm not home this weekend....reserves you know....

 

Back home yet, TA.????

 

Yep, and here's the question:

Keeping with a Pacific 'theme:' I am synominious (sp) with the Tokyo Express. My destroyer squadron's exploits are the Japanese equivalent of those of the US Navy's "32 knot Burke" and brought me the respect of my enemies who called me "Tenatious." Who am I?

 

Rear-Admiral Raizo Tanaka of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla.

 

Very good Redcoat. Your turn.

 

OK, thanks.

Name the military commmander who sent this message to his headquarters after a famous battle.

"Fox killed in open".

 

O'Conner....near Trobruk?

 

Correct, it was the message sent to General Wavell by Lieutenant-General Richard O'Conner after the battle of Beda Fomm.

Its all yours