Complete detailed information of Takeo Kurita

Kurita Takeo (くりた たけお April 28, 1889 - December 19, 1977), Lieutenant General of the Japanese Navy. Born into a family of Mito feudal lords in Ibaraki Prefecture. His grandfather was a disciple of Toko Fujita and Masashisai Ainuma, a professor of literature at Tokyo Imperial University, Hirota Hiroshi, a doctor of literature, and his father was a Sinologist, Tsutomu Kurita, an editor of the Japanese History. Graduated from Ibaraki Prefectural Mito Junior High School and Naval Academy (38th class). After graduating from the military academy, he was the commander with the longest military experience in the Japanese Navy (34 years). He served as the captain of 11 destroyers, 3 destroyer fleet commanders, 3 torpedo squadron commanders, chief teacher of the mine school, and has rich torpedo warfare experience. . He has been serving at sea all year round and has no time to go to the Naval University for gilding. He has never been on land except for illness. He is a true veteran of the fleet with no experience in government work. Basic introduction Chinese name: Kurita Takeo Foreign name: くりたたけお Nationality: Japanese Place of birth: Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan Date of birth: April 28, 1889 Date of death: December 19, 1977 Occupation: Japanese Navy Vice Admiral Escaped Kurita, Bombardment of Guadalcanal, Frightened Birds, Turn of the Lost, Heart's Cemetery, Escape Kurita was promoted to rear admiral in 1941. At the beginning of the war, as the commander of the Seventh Battle Group, he led four Mogami-class heavy cruisers to participate in the Battle of the Gulf of Ceylon, and in 1942 On February 28, 2016, General Jun Imamura's 16th Army was covering the landing in Banten, Java Island. In the dark, two allied warships escaped through the Banten Strait. Kurita withdrew from the battlefield out of concern for his own safety and ignored the requests for assistance from other troops. , and was nicknamed "Escape from Kurita". After understanding the situation, he turned back and sank the American heavy cruiser USS Houston and the Australian light cruiser USS Perth. However, the torpedoes he fired also sank 4 Japanese transport ships, including Commander Imamura's ship, but he concealed this from Imamura. The torpedo was actually launched by him, but he lied that it was a torpedo launched by the US military. Later, it participated in the Battle of Midway and was planned to be used for beachhead bombardment support. However, after Chuichi Nagumo's air fleet suffered a devastating blow during the day on June 4, Yamamoto Isoroku urgently ordered the 7th Battle Group closest to Midway to return. In the early morning of the 5th, Mogami, who was in the dark, collided with the sister ship Mitaku, which was turning to avoid the submarine. The bow of the ship was knocked off, and the speed dropped to 12 knots. Fearing that the US military aircraft would come again, the commander of the team, Kurita Takeo, ordered the destroyer Asashio to be left behind. Huang Chao and two heavy cruisers accompanied him and quickly opened the way. The Americans did arrive at dawn, and the Mikuma was sunk. This was the first heavy cruiser Japan lost in the war. After the bombardment of Guadalcanal at the Battle of Midway, Kurita was still under the command of Kondo Nobutake's Second Fleet. In order to compete for air supremacy over Guadalcanal, on October 11, Combined Fleet Commander Yamamoto Isoroku ordered the "Kongo" and "Haruna" of the Third Fleet. The battleship bombarded the runway at Henderson Field. This is the first time in history that a battleship has been used to bombard a target like an airport. Yamamoto also stipulated that if two battleships are torpedoed by an enemy submarine or destroyer during the bombardment, they must find a way to beach and run aground. The crew will act as naval officers The Marine Corps went ashore to fight, and for this purpose, all crew members were issued Type 38 rifles. Lieutenant General Takeo Kurita, commander of the Third Team, believes that carrying out such an operation when the enemy is superior is undoubtedly a suicidal operation like "a mouse tying a bell around a cat's neck" and a "last resort". However, despite the overwhelming military orders, even though he is reluctant I had no choice but to accept it. On the 11th, Kurita led the ship from Truk and headed south at a speed of 16 knots. At about 22:00 on the evening of the 13th, "Kongo" and "Haruna" arrived north of Savo Island under the escort of a cruiser and nine destroyers. The speed increased to 28 knots. Half an hour later, the lights of Cape Esperance were seen. mark. The nine destroyers of the Second Mine Team were arranged in the front and rear to serve as a warning. At 2337 hours, "Kongo" and "Haruna" reduced their speed to 18 knots, advanced along the coast of Guadalcanal, and then began to bombard Henderson Airport. Henderson Airport is located 25,000 yards ahead of the battleship. The "King Kong" first dispatched a ship-borne Zero water reconnaissance bomb, dropped illumination bombs above the airport, and then fired tracer bombs. After correcting the trajectory, it began to bomb the airport indiscriminately. During the bombardment, the "Kongo" main gun fired 104 rounds of Type III incendiary shells and 331 rounds of Type I armor-piercing shells at the airport runway. The secondary battery fired 37 rounds of normal rounds at the searchlight position; the "Haruna" main gun fired 294 rounds at the airport. Type 1 armor-piercing projectiles and 189 rounds of Type 0 normal rounds, and the secondary battery fired 21 rounds of normal rounds at the searchlight position. For a time, the shore of Guadalcanal was a sea of ??fire, like a Shura field. The U.S. Marines around the airport were running around in search of cover. Some were so frightened that they knelt down in the center of the bombardment area and prayed to God. After confirming that it was their own artillery fire, the Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal all smiled and clapped their hands in celebration. The headquarters of the Seventeenth Army of the Japanese Army on the island sent a secret message to the Navy, stating that "the bombardment of two battleships is better than a thousand field guns." An unexploded 356mm armor-piercing bomb fired by the "Haruna" was discovered by the Japanese who were visiting the remains of the Guadalcanal battlefield after World War II. It was transported back to the country and is still displayed on the campus of the Etajima Maritime Self-Defense Force Cadre School. The bombardment of Henderson Field caused serious losses to the U.S. military. There were originally 90 aircraft on the island. In this bombardment, 32 shore-based carrier-based dive bombers, 19 carrier-based fighters, and all 8 carrier-based torpedo planes were lost. , as well as 4 P-39s and 2 B-17s, a total of 65 aircraft.

The main runway of the airport was completely destroyed, only the fighter jet runway could barely be used, and all the aviation gasoline in stock was burned during the bombardment. However, although the two battleships fired 976 large-caliber artillery shells, only 41 U.S. personnel, including members of the 32nd Naval Air Force Command, were killed. None of the Japanese warships were lost. Only two sailors in the ammunition depot at the bottom of the battleship "Haruna" contracted heat stroke due to high-intensity work in an environment with excessive temperatures for a long time. Treatment of hyperthermia failed and died. While "King Kong" and "Haruna" were busy bombarding the Longo Point searchlight position with their secondary guns, the four torpedo boats of the U.S. Navy PT38, PT46, PT58 and PT60, which were responsible for protecting cargo ships on Florida Island north of Guadalcanal, suddenly left the port. The PT38 torpedo boat Under the leadership of the enemy, they rushed towards the Japanese fleet. In the dark night, they mistakenly mistook the long wave caused by the destroyer on the right side of the "King Kong" for the bow wave of the battleship, so they approached it at high speed. The nervous Kurita Takeo mistook these four torpedo boats for American submarines, so he ordered the bombardment to be terminated at 0056 hours before the extent of the damage on the shore was known, and fled north at a high speed at a speed of 29 knots without looking back. Go and withdraw from the battlefield. Battleships being chased all over the world by torpedo boats can be regarded as a rare fact in the history of world naval warfare. But this time, Kurita became the so-called "Navy Hero" because of the Army's strong praise, and Yamamoto did not pursue his embarrassing behavior. After the death of the frightened Isoroku Yamamoto in battle, Koga Mineichi became the commander of the Combined Fleet, and Kondo Nobutake retired. From August 1943, Kurita was appointed commander of the Second Fleet and commander of the Fourth Fleet, which coincided with the US military landing in Bougainville. When Imamura prepared to launch a counter-login, he hurriedly ordered the combined fleet to provide full support. In this way, the commander of the Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Kurita Takeo, led the fourth team (Atago, Takao, Maya, Chokai), the seventh team (Suzuya) , Mogami), the 8th Squadron (Chikuma) and the 2nd Mine Squadron (Noshiro, Tamami, Ryonami, Fujinami, Hayami) and 12 other cruisers and destroyers arrived at Labaoji. There is nothing wrong with Kurita Takeo, except that he looks behind him from time to time and thinks about how to escape if something happens. It was the same this time when he came to La Bao'er. He always felt that La Bao'er was too unsafe, so when he entered the port and refueled, he hung up a signal flag, stipulating that the order of escape in case of any trouble was the seventh team, the eighth team, and so on. The fourth team, Ershui Zhan and the tenth team that was originally in Labaoer. Halsey took off 97 planes from Saratoga and Princeton to bomb La Baoer this time. It was stipulated that only ships should be bombed and nothing else should be bombed. Cruisers should be bombed first and then destroyers. However, Takeo Kurita's escape order was simply It was useless, because the warships that had just been refueled had no starting speed, and they were just a batch of bombed cargo. As a result, Atago, Takao, Maya, Mogami, Chikuma, Noshiro, Agano, Fujinami, Wakatsuki, and even Atago were shot. The captain, Colonel Nobuki Nakaoka, died. As soon as Takeo Kurita arrived at La Baoer, Forrest Sherman brought two aircraft carriers and bombed him black and blue. We couldn't stay in this place. Kurita Takeo came to the conclusion on the spot and took his people back to Truk. The Return of the Mystery When General Douglas MacArthur launched an attack on the Philippines on October 20, 1944, Kurita also led his troops to attack American troops. He planned to lure the U.S. military away from the San Bernardino Strait and successfully implemented the plan. Admiral William Halsey led 64 warships of the 38th Task Force "all the way north" to pursue the Ozawa fleet. However, Kurita himself led the First Assault Fleet and prepared to launch an attack on the US invasion force near Leyte Island. But on the way to the San Bernardino Strait, he encountered two American submarines (in the Sibuyan Sea), and their flagship "Atago" was sunk. Kurita, who saved his life, transferred to "Yamato" "On board. At about 08:00 on October 24, aircraft aboard the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier spotted the fleet entering the narrow Sibuyan Sea. Halsey ordered the three aircraft carrier squadrons of the Third Fleet to be assembled to attack Kurita's fleet. A total of 260 aircraft taking off from the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid, USS Cabot and other aircraft carriers began to continuously attack the fleet at about 10:30. The eye-catching Yamato and Musashi became the main targets of attack by the US military. Musashi, Yamato and Nagato were hit. The heavy cruiser Myoko returned home after being seriously damaged. The second wave of air attacks focused on Musashi, which was hit several times by bombs and torpedoes. Eventually it started to fall behind. The third wave of aircraft taking off from the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers Enterprise and Franklin hit the Musashi 19 times (11 bombs and 8 torpedoes). Several other light ships were injured during the air raid. Due to the lack of air cover on his own side, Kurita ordered his fleet to turn around and move out of the attack range of the American aircraft carriers at 15:30. He waited until 17:15, then turned back toward the San Bernardino Strait. His fleet had no time to take care of the seriously injured and lagging Musashi. Musashi finally capsized and sank at about 19:30. Kurita's fleet entered the San Bernardino Strait in the early morning of October 25, and at 03:00 they headed south along the coast of Samar Island. The American fleet was sighted at dawn. Admiral Kincaid had three fleets to block it, each consisting of six escort carriers and seven or eight destroyers. Each escort aircraft carrier carries about 30 aircraft, with more than 500 aircraft a day. Escort aircraft carriers are slow and lightly armored, making them ill-equipped to deal with battleships. Battle of Samar Kincaid mistakenly believed that Willis Lee's battleships were still guarding the San Bernardino Strait and therefore there was no danger from there, but Lee was transferred by Halsey to deal with Ozawa.

The U.S. military was taken by surprise when the Japanese fleet appeared on Samar. Halsey's fleet had been diverted away from Leite Bay by luring the enemy, but Kurita knew nothing about it. Kurita mistakenly regarded those escort aircraft carriers as the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet. He also thought that the entire U.S. Third Fleet was in front of his 18-inch gun muzzle. The American escort aircraft carrier immediately retreated eastward, hoping that bad weather would affect the accuracy of Japanese artillery, and at the same time immediately sent a request for support, even in clear code. The American destroyers attempted to distract the Japanese battleships to gain time. These destroyers suicidally launched torpedoes at the Japanese ships, attracting fire from the Japanese ships. In order to avoid torpedoes, the Japanese ships had to break up their formation. The Yamato was forced to turn its back by two parallel torpedoes, unable to turn around for fear of being hit by them, thus losing a full ten minutes. Four American destroyers were sunk and others damaged, but they gave the aircraft carriers time to get their aircraft off the ground. These aircraft did not have time to reload with armor-piercing bombs, so they had to take off with the ordnance they were carrying (sometimes even depth charges). The US aircraft carrier then continued to flee south, while the battleship's shells continued to explode around them. One aircraft carrier was sunk and others were damaged. Because the Kurita fleet launched an attack before completing its formation, and the attack by the US destroyer broke his formation, the various battle groups were scattered across the vast sea. He lost tactical command of the battle and three of his heavy cruisers were sunk by concentrated sea and air attacks. Kurita ordered the northward rotation at 09:20 to organize the formation. The attack on the escort aircraft carriers that escaped Kurita's fleet attack did not end. One was sunk by "kamikaze" suicide planes, and the other two were severely damaged. Soon Kurita's fleet changed course and headed for Leite Bay. Just when Japan's plan was about to succeed, Kurita turned north again and retreated. He felt that the U.S. support fleet was closing in on him, so he felt that the longer he stayed in the war, the higher the likelihood that he would be subject to a powerful U.S. air attack. Under constant air attacks he headed north and then west across the San Bernardino Strait. The Third Fleet, which sailed a round trip of 300 nautical miles, sent carrier-based aircraft to attack the stragglers of the Kurita fleet after sunrise on the 26th. Kurita's fleet Nagato, Kongo and Haruna were severely damaged. Kongo was sunk by a US submarine on its way back to Japan. However, since the fleet had left the battlefield, Kongo's losses were generally not listed in Leitai. Among the results of the U.S. military's battle in the Gulf. He brought five battleships into the battlefield, and when he returned to Japan, only the Yamato was still capable of combat. Cemetery of the Heart In the history of naval warfare and naval warfare, the Battle of the Gulf of Leyte was an unprecedented naval battle. This naval battle announced the complete disappearance of a once powerful navy, and the scale of this naval battle in space and time It also far exceeded all naval battles in the history of world naval warfare. And with the changes in the army, weapons and combat methods, the Battle of Leyte Gulf can basically be called "the last naval battle in human history." It is hard to say whether there will be another war in the future, but it can be said with certainty that there will be no more wars in the future. There will never be a naval battle of this scale again, so this naval battle will be remembered forever. However, unlike the scale and emotional significance, the strategic significance of this naval battle is not that important, because the outcome of the Pacific War has been decided, even if the Japanese Navy reached its own level in this naval battle Purpose, the outcome of this naval battle will not have any impact on the direction of the entire war. After listening to the battle plan for the first time, Kurita Takeo put his head in his hands and slumped down on the chair for a long time before whispering: "The United Fleet is helping the Second Fleet find a cemetery, but I really want to die more dignified." ." When conveying the fighting spirit, the venue exploded. This battle plan is so crazy. What's the use of rushing in? Not to mention whether the fleet without air cover can rush in, even if the entire existing fleet is thrown away, what is the use of using cannons to sink all the transport ships carrying combat supplies for MacArthur? Would a wealthy devil care about this? In a few months, they will be traveling again with a lot of luggage. Only after wiping out the evil escort fleet can they achieve sea control and long-term peace and stability. As for whether the US escort fleet can be eliminated is another question. How can it be related? Unable to convince these subordinates, Kurita said his final words: "Everyone knows the current situation of the Combined Fleet. We can no longer fight the US fleet and gain control of the sea. Du Fu has a poem that says, 'the country is broken by the mountains and rivers,' but we must not be 'the country'. The broken warships are there. If the naval officer's self-esteem is that it is a shame to attack the transport fleet, then the continued existence of warships after the combined fleet fails in the war is the greatest shame: "Military order." The Ministry has given the Combined Fleet a cemetery, but can the Combined Fleet refuse to go to this cemetery? "Although the words were not spoken, everyone understood what the commander-in-chief meant, and morale suddenly rose again. Since the Military Command and the Combined Fleet care about us so much and even helped prepare the cemetery, why did they refuse the superior leaders? If you care, go to hell. The Military Command and the Combined Fleet put the Jie-1 operation in the position of special attack operations. Kurita Keno also knew the intentions of the Military Command and the Combined Fleet, but Kurita Keno was not like Nishimura Shoji. He did not want to die.

Not only did he not want to die, nor did he want his subordinates to die, Kurita Takeo wanted to bring back as many of his subordinates as possible from the beginning. The question of "why turn around" did not become a big problem in the Japanese Navy at that time. Operation No. 1 failed, but no one expected to succeed. Intellectually, the United Fleet is indeed looking for a graveyard for the Second Fleet, but emotionally, don't the admirers of big ships and cannons really feel a little bit lucky in their subconscious? Kurita Takeo was not originally the material for this kind of core fleet, and he himself had never had such a desire. Kurita Takeo was usually very low-key. He was promoted to lieutenant general in May 1943 and was promoted to commander of the Third Sentai in July. After leading the two high-speed battleships Kongo and Haruna, Kurita thought he He had already reached the end of his career as an official. The next step should be to become the commander of some kind of garrison and then be incorporated into the reserve force. Who knew that in August 1943, he would be promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Second Fleet, which was almost the only remaining combat capability of the United Fleet? For him, the burden seemed too heavy. In Masanori Ito's "The End of the United Fleet" there is this confession by Takeo Kurita: "I didn't feel tired at the time, but I didn't sleep and use my nerves for three days and three nights in a row. Maybe both the body and the brain were not functioning well." This sentence has been used by Kurita Takeo's supporters as evidence to defend Kurita Takeo. But this is not a reason. An officer who cannot command without rest for three days and three nights cannot be a fleet commander. In fact, Kurita Takeo went without rest for three or four days more than once during the training at Linga Anchorage. In fact, according to the famous Japanese The verification that historical writer Sho Kojima obtained from Kurita Takeo was the sentence Ito Masanori obtained from Kurita Takeo by inducing a confession, because at that time, defending Kurita Takeo required considerable risks, and Ito Masanori and Kurita Takeo It was a child's mistake, Ito must seek justice for Kurita. In fact, the current situation is quite clear. Even if all MacArthur's troops and the Seventh Fleet are eliminated, the Japanese fleet departing from Brunei Bay will not be damaged. The Japanese will still be unable to reverse the fate of defeat. If nothing else, they must do it bit by bit. How to fight the oil battle? Therefore, Kurita Takeo had no intention of dying from the beginning, at least he did not think that this kind of death would have any greater significance than Mount Tai. Of course, this does not mean that Kurita Takeo is a great humanitarian. It is indeed difficult for Kurita to get rid of the impression of a "war-avoiding admiral". The Battle of Surabaya, the Battle of Midway, the bombardment of Henderson Airport on Guadalcanal, From the Battle of Mariana to this Battle of Leyte, Takeo Kurita always seems to be able to find people who are fearless of the enemy. If you can escape, you will never stay behind. However, it must be pointed out that no one seemed to point out these things at the time of the incident, and these naughty behaviors did not affect Kurita's career. Kurita still served as the commander of the Second Fleet with a blank slate that had never been to the sea. That is to say, Kurita did not Without playing out of line, these actions are still within the limits that the Navy Ministry, Military Command and the Combined Fleet can tolerate. In fact, those who criticized Kurita were American war historians and Japanese historians from the early post-war period to the 1980s. On the contrary, the nagging Japanese naval officers were basically Kurita's supporters. The only Japanese naval generals who criticized Kurita were Chiaki Matsuda, the inventor and commander of the Fourth Air War, was alone. Before Ozawa Jisaburo passed away at the end of 1966, he once held the hand of Takeo Kurita who went to visit him and said: "I have caused trouble for you." When Kurita ordered a U-turn and headed north, no one in the Second Fleet headquarters raised any objections. The commander of the first team, Lieutenant General Ugaki Matoi, pointed forward and said: "Sir, the enemy is over there", and Kurita Takeo's answer was "Okay, let's go north." There were several controversial naval battles by the Japanese Navy in the Pacific War, such as the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the First Battle of the Solomons. However, in those two times, someone at the headquarters raised objections to the commander's orders, but not this time. Although they clearly knew that Kurita's decision was disobedience, everyone remained silent, or rather, Kurita spoke out everyone's thoughts. The reason why some people opposed Nagumo Chuichi and Mikawa Junichi's decision on the spot was because if they worked harder, they could make future battles much easier. But now these people all know that the tide is over and no matter how hard they try, it will be useless. Think about how to bring more than 10,000 junior officers and sailors home. There was a strange phenomenon in the Pacific War. When punishing high-ranking officials who did not know how to fight, they often made sailors the principals. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Inoue Narumi, who was afraid of fighting, was punished by becoming the navy principal. Rey Kurita Takeo, who actually fled before the enemy during the Battle of the Gulf of Thailand, was punished by serving as the last captain of the navy from January 1945 until the end of the war. Some people joked that maybe this is because they know that the navy is useless anyway, and it doesn't matter if any loser becomes the principal. Kurita died in 1977 at the age of 88.