Admiral Raymond A. Spruance: Modest Victor of Midway

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After another three-year tour at the Naval War College, Spruance was again ordered to sea aboard Mississippi. This was in July 1938, and this time he was the battleship’s commander. By 1939, at the age of 53, Spruance had spent 18 years at sea. That December he was elevated to rear admiral, and in February 1940 he was placed in command of the 10th Naval District (Caribbean), with his headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The following year, the new admiral was ordered to the Pacific.

Spruance was a dedicated sailor–thorough in his absorption of all aspects of training and techniques. His steady rise, according to Newsweek magazine, has borne the imprint of his personality–unobtrusive but undeviating. Early in his career he was
catalogued as someone to watch; there was never any possibility that he would be passed over in the lists for promotion.

Spruance’s performance at Midway so impressed Admiral Nimitz that he made him his chief of staff. His new duties involved planning rather than operations, and Spruance chafed for more action. His chance would come. When Nimitz named him commander of the disputed Central Pacific Area, this made him responsible for the planning and execution of the attack on the Gilbert Islands in November 1943. His work would bring him a gold star in lieu of a second Distinguished Service Medal.

The heavily fortified islands, former British possessions, were of strategic value because of their good landing strips and naval base. The assault began at dawn on November 20, 1943, and the fighting raged for 76 hours. The struggle by the U.S. Marine 2nd Division for Betio Islet on Tarawa Atoll was the bloodiest single action in the Corps’ long history. The American toll was 1,100 dead and almost 2,300 wounded. Only 17 of the island’s 4,690 Japanese defenders survived to become prisoners.

The Gilberts attack was planned and directed by Spruance, with the assistance of Rear Adms. Richmond Kelly Turner and Harry W. Hill and Marine Generals Holland M. Smith and Julian C. Smith. The airstrips in the Gilberts were put to good use two months later when they were used in the invasion of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. For that assault, Spruance led the most powerful naval strike force in history.

After three days of pre-invasion bombardment, Marines landed on Roi Islet and captured it the same day. One commentator said: The quick success of the offensive was attributed to the strategic daring by which Vice Admiral Spruance’s forces cut behind the eastern chain of the Marshalls. The Japanese had been battered for weeks by aerial bombardment, and knew the invasion was imminent. But they expected it to come at the obvious and exposed outer fringe, and when we struck at the heart of the archipelago with a huge fleet that had approached undetected, we enjoyed complete tactical surprise. Four days after the invasion, all immediate objectives had been taken, and by February 8, 1944, all organized resistance had ceased. Navy Secretary Frank Knox said of Kwajalein: The Japanese had been there 20 years. But we went in and took their possessions in a few days, without the loss of a single ship.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Spruance for promotion to full admiral on February 10, 1944, and he was approved. But due to a printing error on the executive calendar of nominations, Spruance was officially promoted only to his former rank of vice admiral.

Kwajalein was in American hands, but the rest of the Marshalls group–about 30 islands and more than 800 reefs scattered over hundreds of miles of ocean–remained to be dealt with. Spruance launched an assault on February 16-17 against Truk, the Japanese Pearl Harbor, at the same time that Admiral Turner’s forces were attacking Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshalls, about 700 miles to the west.

Spruance himself directed a task group of battleships, cruisers and destroyers that left the main body to go after Japanese ships that were fleeing Truk, sinking the light cruiser Katori and destroyer Maikaze. This was said to be the first time that a four-star admiral took part in a sea action aboard one of the ships engaged. The Japanese lost 19 ships sunk, seven probably sunk and more than 200 aircraft destroyed, and their installations were bombed and strafed. The Americans lost only 17 planes and no ships. Admiral Spruance commanded with deadly precision, reported an observer.

The American offensive in the Pacific theater was now enjoying considerable momentum, aided in no small measure by Rear Adm. Marc Mitscher’s Task Force 58, the most powerful and destructive unit in the history of sea warfare. Five days after the Marshalls campaign, Spruance sent the Mitscher force to attack Tinian and Saipan in the Mariana Islands. The defenders fought fiercely but were unable to inflict any damage on the U.S. vessels.

>On March 29, 1944, Admiral Spruance took tactical command of a three-pronged assault against the Palau Islands, 550 miles east of the Philippines, and against Yap Island and Ulithi Atoll in the western Carolines. The three-day operation was the most extensive ever undertaken by carriers. U.S. losses were low: 25 airplanes and 18 lives. On April 22, Task Force 58’s guns and planes supported the U.S. invasion of Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea and Aitape in Australian New Guinea. On April 28, the last day of the invasion, Spruance’s command was redesignated as the Fifth Fleet. Admiral Halsey was given command of the Third Fleet, and later that year Task Force 58 was transferred to Halsey’s fleet.

Meanwhile, Task Force 58 was busy in the forefront of clearing the Japanese from the 600-mile-long Marianas chain. The Saipan campaign began with air attacks on June 10, 1944. Spruance’s naval guns started their bombardment two days later. On June 14, while Mitscher led a diversionary attack on the Bonin Islands 800 miles to the north, U.S. Marines and infantrymen stormed ashore. British Royal Navy units helped support the landings.

>A few days later, Mitscher rejoined Spruance and the Fifth Fleet. Both commanders hoped for a classic battle with the Imperial Japanese Navy, but only Mitscher’s carrier planes were able to reach the enemy. On June 19, however, hundreds of planes from nine Japanese aircraft carriers attacked the Fifth Fleet. They were hurled back decisively, and the losses–353 enemy planes downed, 21 U.S. aircraft lost–amazed the Americans. The Japanese managed to inflict only superficial damage on three ships.

Mitscher’s force pursued the Japanese fleet and engaged it the following day in the Philippine Sea, sinking the light carrier Hiyo and two oilers (in addition to which submarines Albacore and Cavalla had sunk Taiho and Shokaku the previous day). The score was 402 Japanese planes and six ships, with a loss of 122 planes from Mitscher’s flattops. Spruance’s fleet had prevented the Japanese from reinforcing the Saipan garrison. That achievement brought praise from Churchill, who wrote to Navy Secretary James Forrestal, Admiral Spruance is again to be congratulated for another fine job. My personal congratulations.

>The fleet units shielding the Marianas invasion forces were also under Spruance’s command. In the seven-week campaign, 55 Japanese ships were sunk, five probably sunk and 74 damaged. A total of 1,132 enemy planes were put out of action. The U.S. casualties were 199 planes, 128 flight personnel and damage to four warships. During the operation, the Fifth Fleet burned up 630 million gallons of fuel–more than the entire Pacific Fleet used in 1943.

Admiral Spruance’s last campaigns were the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and he was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism. The Fifth Fleet commander’s citation read: Responsible for the operation of a vast and complicated organization which included more than 500,000 men of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, 318 combatant vessels and 1,139 auxiliary vessels, [he] directed the forces under his command with daring, courage and aggressiveness. Carrier units of his force penetrated waters of the Japanese homeland and Nansei Shoto. The Iwo Jima and Okinawa actions lasted from January to May 1945, and in August the Japanese surrendered.

Spruance was detached from command of the Fifth Fleet on November 8, 1945, and he relieved Fleet Admiral Nimitz as commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean areas. He held that post until the following February, when he was ordered back to the Naval War College at Newport–this time as president. In October 1946 he was awarded the Army’s Distinguished Service Medal for his exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services during the capture of the Marshall and Mariana islands.

Shortly before leaving the Naval War College and retiring from the Navy on July 1, 1948, Admiral Spruance received a letter of commendation from the secretary of the Navy that read: Your brilliant record of achievement in World War II played a decisive part in our victory in the Pacific. At the crucial Battle of Midway, your daring and skilled leadership routed the enemy in the full tide of his advance and established the pattern of air-sea warfare which was to lead to his eventual capitulation.

Samuel Eliot Morison agreed: Power of decision and coolness in action were perhaps Spruance’s leading characteristics. He envied no one, rivaled no man, won the respect of almost everyone with whom he came in contact, and went ahead in his quiet way, winning victories for his country….When we come to the admirals who commanded at sea, and who directed a great battle, there was no one to equal Spruance. Always calm, always at peace with himself, Spruance had that ability which marks the great captain to make correct estimates and the right decisions in a fluid battle situation.

Summing up his appraisal of this outstanding sailor, Morison noted: Spruance in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, overriding Mitscher the carrier expert in letting the enemy planes come at him instead of going in search of them, won the second most decisive battle of the Pacific war. And, off Okinawa, Spruance never faltered in face of the destruction wrought by the kamikazes. It is regrettable that, owing to Spruance’s innate modesty and his refusal to create an image of himself in the public eye, he was never properly appreciated.

Spruance had earned a restful retirement at his home in Pebble Beach, Calif., 125 miles south of San Francisco, with his wife, son and daughter. But his service was not yet finished. President Harry S. Truman appointed him ambassador to the Philippines in January 1952, and he served until March 1955. Then it was back to Pebble Beach.

Spruance was an active man who thought nothing of walking eight or 10 miles a day. In the course of a two-hour interview, he stood or walked about all the time–not restlessly, but slowly and deliberately. He was fond of symphonic music, and his tastes were generally simple. He never smoked and drank little. He enjoyed hot chocolate and would make it for himself every morning. Besides his family, he loved the companionship of his pet schnauzer, Peter. Fit and spare in his 70s, Spruance spent most of his retirement days wearing old khakis and work shoes and working in his garden and greenhouse. He loved to show them to visitors.

Spruance became a shadowy sort of legend in the Navy. His achievements were well-known, but the man himself was a mystery. He did not discuss his private life, feelings, prejudices, hopes or fears, except perhaps with his family and his closest friends.

He was uniquely modest and candid about himself all his life. When I look at myself objectively, he wrote in retirement, I think that what success I may have achieved through life is largely due to the fact that I am a good judge of men. I am lazy, and I never have done things myself that I could get someone to do for me. I can thank heredity for a sound constitution, and myself for taking care of that constitution. About his intellect he was equally unpretentious: Some people believe that when I am quiet that I am thinking some deep and important thoughts, when the fact is that I am thinking of nothing at all. My mind is blank.

He lived quietly at Pebble Beach until December 13, 1969, when he died of arteriosclerosis at the age of 83. He was survived by his wife and a daughter, Mrs. Gerald S. Bogart of Newport, R.I. His only son, Navy Captain Edward D. Spruance, who served for 30 years, was killed in a car accident in Marin County, Calif., in May 1969.

Admiral Spruance was buried with full honors alongside Admirals Nimitz and Kelly Turner in a military cemetery overlooking San Francisco Bay. The Navy honored Spruance by giving his name to a new class of 30 destroyers, the first of which, USS Spruance, was launched in 1973. An academic building at the Naval War College was also named for him.

This article was written by Michael D. Hull and originally appeared in the May 1998 issue of World War II magazine. For more great articles subscribe to World War II magazine today!

Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures, Naval Battles, World War II

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