Background

Ethnicity: Chester Nimitz's paternal grandfather was a German.

Chester Nimitz was born on February 24, 1885, in Fredericksburg, Texas, United States. He was the son of Anna Josephine Henke and Chester Bernhard Nimitz. His father died on August 14, 1884. Nimitz was influenced by his paternal grandfather, Charles Henry Nimitz, who was a former seaman in the German Merchant Marine.

Education

After Chester Nimitz's failed attempt of applying for the post of an army officer, he was accepted into the United States Naval Academy in 1901. He eventually graduated in 1905, securing the seventh rank in a class of 114. Nimitz also attended the Naval War College from 1922 to 1923.

Career

After Chester Nimitz graduated from the United States Naval Academy, he joined the battleship Ohio and cruised on her from San Francisco to the Far East. Then after working on the cruiser Baltimore for a year, he served at sea as a warrant officer. He later served on destroyer Decatur, cruiser Denver, and the gunboat Panay. In January 1909, he began instruction in the First Submarine Flotilla. A year later, he commanded USS Snapper (later C-5) and USS Narwhal (later D-1). Nimitz was ordered to the Boston Navy Yard to aid in fitting out USS Skipjack in 1911 and later he commanded that submarine and became an expert in submarine diesel engines. In 1913, sent by the navy to Germany to perfect his knowledge of such engines, he returned and supervised the construction of diesel in a new oiler. In World War I, Nimitz served as an engineering aide and chief of staff to the commander of the United States Atlantic submarine flotilla.

Nimitz, recognizing his main talent, now shifted the direction of his career from operating machinery to directing people. In 1920, he oversaw the building of a submarine base at Pearl Harbor. After studying at the Naval War College, he served in the Battle Fleet as assistant chief of staff to the commander. He later assisted the Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet. In June 1929, Nimitz commanded Submarine Division 20. Two years later, he took command of Rigel and subsequently Augusta. By the end of 1935, he had served as assistant chief at the Bureau of Navigation as well. In 1938, as a rear admiral, he assumed command of Battleship Division One. The following year, he went ashore as a bureau chief with the function of assembling and training officers and enlisted men for naval expansion in the impending World War II.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, following the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, appointed Nimitz Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet and subsequently of the Pacific Ocean Areas, entrusting to his command all American and Allied sea, land, and air forces in the north, central, and South Pacific. During the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway, Nimitz faced superior Japanese forces. Despite enduring losses in terms of total damage suffered, he was successful in turning back a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby. From November 1943 to February 1944, Nimitz launched major fleet offensives and destroyed Japanese forces in the central Pacific region and later freed Saipan, Guam, and Tinian from them in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. In 1944, he once again faced the Japanese army in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Later in December that year, he was appointed fleet admiral of the navy. In 1945, Nimitz, wearing the five stars of his new rank of fleet admiral, directed the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa from his advanced headquarters on Guam and ordered the bombings and bombardments of Japan that preceded the Japanese capitulation.

Following the war, Chester Nimitz served as Chief of Naval Operations. In 1947, he retired and moved to San Francisco. A year later, he was appointed Plebiscite Administrator for Kashmir by the United Nations. From 1949, he devoted much time to serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. He also served as a regent of the University of California from 1948 to 1956, where he had formerly served as a professor of naval science for the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program. In early 1965, Nimitz suffered a stroke and died a year later at his home on February 20, 1966.

Achievements

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  Chester Nimitz was an American navy officer who was known as fleet admiral of the United States Navy. He served as Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet in World War II. Besides he commanded all air, sea, and land forces in the central Pacific area. Nimitz directed operations against the Japanese at Midway and subsequent battles.
  
  Chester Nimitz received many decorations and awards, both national and international, such as the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Order of Orange-Nassau, the Order of George I, and the Liberation Medal. Many camps, highways, towns, libraries, trails, and gates have been named in his honor. Henry Fonda portrayed Nimitz in the 1965 film In Harm's Way and the 1976 film Midway.

Views

Quotations: "I do believe we are going to have a major war, with Japan and Germany, and that the war is going to start by a very serious surprise attack and the defeat of the Unites States armed forces, and that there is going to be a major revulsion on the part of the political power in Washington against all those in command at sea, and they are going to be thrown out, though it won't be their fault necessarily. And I wish to be in a position of sufficient prominence so that I will then be considered as one to be sent to sea because that appears to be the route."

"A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder."

"The war with Japan had been enacted in the game rooms at the War College by so many people and in so many different ways that nothing that happened during the war was a surprise – absolutely nothing except the kamikaze tactics toward the end of the war. We had not visualized these."

"Today all freedom-loving peoples of the world rejoice in the victory and feel pride in the accomplishments of our combined forces. We also pay tribute to those who defended our freedom at the cost of their lives."

"We shall never forget that it was our submarines that held the lines against the enemy while our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds."

"The enemy of our games was always Japan, and the courses were so thorough that after the start of World War II, nothing that happened in the Pacific was strange or unexpected."

"Our present control of the sea is so absolute that it is sometimes taken for granted."

"Naval forces are able, without resorting to diplomatic channels, to establish offshore anywhere in the world, air fields completely equipped with machine shops, ammunition dumps, tank farms, warehouses, together with quarters and all types of accommodations for personnel."

Membership

Chester W. Nimitz was a member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco.

Personality

Chester W. Nimitz was a soft-spoken and relaxed person. According to historian Robert Love, Nimitz possessed a sense of inner balance and calm that steadied those around him. Besides, he had the ability to pick able subordinates and the courage to let them do their jobs without interference.

Quotes from others about the person

• Edwin Palmer Hoyt: "The qualities of the Nimitz character were apparent in his face, in his career, and in his heritage. Combined these factors made him precisely the man he was and placed him in this particular situation at this moment in history."
  
  Robert William Love: "He brought to his new job a number of advantages, including experience, detailed knowledge of his brother officers, and a sense of inner balance and calm that steadied those around him."
  
  E. B. Potter: "He surrounded himself with the ablest men he could find and sought their advice, but he made his own decisions. He was a keen strategist who never forgot that he was dealing with human beings, on both sides of the conflict. He was aggressive in war without hate, audacious while never failing to weigh the risks."
  
  Ian W. Toll: "It was true that Nimitz was not a cinematic naval hero in the mold of Nelson, Decatur, or Jones. Like most American officers of his vintage, he had no experience of combat. He had never even seen a shot fired in anger. But the fleet did not need a show of blood and thunder after the beating it had suffered; there was plenty of the real stuff to go around. Nimitz was an executive, strategist, and leader. He was a gentleman of the old school."
  
  James Mattis: "It was very clear that as difficult as his task was - to take over the war on the Pacific, with the Pacific fleet on the bottom of Pearl Harbor – pretty much. He never lost sight of the fact that there were human beings on both sides of that war. He did his duty; he dealt very strong blows against the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army, but he never forgot that there were human beings on both sides."

Connections

Nimitz married Catherine Vance Freeman on April 9, 1913, in Wollaston, Massachusetts. The marriage produced four children.

Father:

Chester Bernhard Nimitz

(September 8, 1855 – August 15, 1884)

Mother:

Anna Josephine Henke

(February 16, 1864 – February 12, 1924)

Grandfather:

Charles Henry Nimitz

Wife:

Catherine Vance Freeman

(March 22, 1892 – February 1, 1979)

Son:

Chester Nimitz Jr.

Chester Nimitz Jr. (February 17, 1915 – January 2, 2002) was an American submarine commander in the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War, and a businessman.

Daughter:

Mary Aquinas

Mary Aquinas (June 17, 1931 – February 27, 2006) was a sister in the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), working at the Dominican University of California.

Daughter:

Catherine Vance Nimitz

Catherine Vance Nimitz (February 22, 1914 – January 14, 2015) served as a music librarian at the Washington D.C. Public Library.

Daughter:

Anna Elizabeth Nimitz

Anna Elizabeth Nimitz (1919 – February 19, 2004) was an expert on the Soviet economy at the RAND Corporation from 1952 until her retirement in the 1980s.

colleague:

Raymond Spruance

Raymond A. Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral during World War II.

References

• Admiral Nimitz: The Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater In this first biography in over three decades, Brayton Harris uses long-overlooked files and recently declassified documents to bring to life one of America's greatest wartime heroes.
  2012
• How They Won the War in the Pacific: Nimitz and his Admirals More than 70 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, this is the classic book about the principal architects of victory in the Pacific during World War II.
  1970
• The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King – The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea In The Admirals, award-winning historian Walter R. Borneman tells their story in full detail for the first time. Drawing upon journals, ship logs, and other primary sources, he brings an incredible historical moment to life, showing us how the four admirals revolutionized naval warfare forever with submarines and aircraft carriers, and how these men – who were both friends and rivals – worked together to ensure that the Axis fleets lay destroyed on the ocean floor at the end of World War II.
  2012
• Nimitz: The Man and His Wars A book by Randall Brink.
  1996
• Chester W. Nimitz: Admiral of the Hills From his boyhood days in the Hill Country of Central Texas to the apogee of his career as Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific, Chester W. Nimitz reflected the best qualities of his German-European heritage and the frontier society of his native land. These two Texas authors bring out the influences that profoundly shaped the man Nimitz from his boyhood days, through his years as a cadet, and finally to the development of the officer that subordinates would come to love and respect.
  1983