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47-629: Chūichi Nagumo ( 南雲 忠一 , Nagumo Chūichi , 25 March 1887 – 6 July 1944) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II . Nagumo led Japan's main carrier battle group , the Kido Butai , in the attack on Pearl Harbor , the Indian Ocean raid and the Battle of Midway . He never recovered from the crushing defeat at Midway, and committed suicide during

94-403: A kendoka . Mentally, he had become a cautious officer who carefully worked over the tactical plans of every operation in which he was involved; his inflexibility in command decisions became more apparent. Admiral Tsukahara had doubts about Nagumo's appointment, and commented, "Nagumo was an officer of the old school, a specialist of torpedo and surface maneuvers.... He did not have any idea of

141-447: A vice-amiral -ranking officer. The vice-amiral rank used to be an OF-8 rank in NATO charts, but nowadays, it is more an OF-7 rank. The rank of vice-amiral d'escadre (literally, " squadron vice-admiral ", with more precision, "fleet vice-admiral") equals a NATO OF-8 rank. In the ancien régime Navy, between 1669 and 1791. The office of "Vice-Admiral of France" ( Vice-amiral de France )

188-698: A Greek Christian, known as George of Antioch , who previously had served as a naval commander for several North African Muslim rulers. Roger styled George in Abbasid fashion as Amir of Amirs , or Amīr al-Umarāʾ, with the title becoming Latinized in the 13th century as ammiratus ammiratorum . The Sicilians and later the Genoese took the first two parts of the term from their Aragon opponents and used them as one word, amiral . . The French gave their sea commanders similar titles while in Portuguese and Spanish

235-595: A major role in Japan’s naval air arm." Nagumo was appointed by the Navy General Staff, rather than the Combined Fleet. Vice-admiral Jisaburō Ozawa was Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto 's choice for the command of First Air Fleet but Yamamoto did not have a strong enough case to remove Nagumo. By this time, he had visibly aged, physically and mentally. Physically, he suffered from arthritis , possibly from his younger days as

282-463: A news article published by an Arabic news outlet: On 24 May 2012, in a change of command ceremony aboard aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) , while docked at Khalifa Bin Salman Port, Bahrain , U.S. Marine Corps Gen . James Mattis , Commander, U.S. Central Command , introduced Vice Admiral Mark I. Fox as "Admiral Fox, the prince of the sea, emir of the sea – to translate 'admiral' from

329-509: A pistol shot to his temple. Defeated commanders were expected to perform seppuku in accordance with bushido , but he may not have had the time for such a complex ritual. His remains were recovered by U.S. Marines in a remote cave where he had been forced to maintain his headquarters due to extensive bombardment. He was posthumously made a full admiral and awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of

376-544: A suicide ramming, or out of control, narrowly missed striking the carrier's bridge, which could have killed Nagumo, before it crashed into the ocean. Nagumo soon launched another attack on Midway, in direct violation of Yamamoto's order to keep the reserve strike force armed for anti-ship operations. That change in plans required arming the available planes with bombs, suitable for attacking land targets, rather than torpedoes, designed for anti-ship actions. However, when Nagumo received scouting reports that American ships were in

423-652: Is expressly defined as "of the sea, Lat. marinus, epith. of sea-gods , nymphs , etc." Though there are multiple meanings for the Arabic Amīr (أمير), the literal meaning of the phrase Amīr al-Baḥr (أمير البحر) is "Prince of the Sea." This position, versus "commander of the sea," is demonstrated by legal practices prevailing in the Ottoman Empire , whereas it was only possible for Phanariots to qualify for attaining four princely positions, those being grand dragoman , dragoman of

470-522: Is pronounced "naúarkhēs," existed from very ancient times in Greece. While ναύαρχος may be defined as "admiral" as used by Plutarch in his Parallel Lives , the very pronunciation of ναύαρχος demonstrates that it is not a part of the etymology for the English word "admiral." The word "admiral" has come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest naval rank in most of the world's navies , equivalent to

517-526: Is ranked differently depending on the country. Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal . A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral . In the Royal Australian Navy , the rank of vice admiral is held by the Chief of Navy and, when the positions are held by navy officers, by

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564-511: The Arabic amīral ( أمير الـ ) – amīr ( أمير ) [ʔmjr] ( listen ), " king , prince , chief, leader, nobleman , lord , a governor , commander , or person who rules over a number of people" and al ( الـ ), the Arabic definite article meaning "the." In Arabic, admiral is also represented as Amīr al-Baḥr ( أمير البحر ), where al-Baḥr (البحر) means the sea . The 1818 edition of Samuel Johnson 's A Dictionary of

611-545: The Battle of Saipan . Nagumo was born in the city of Yonezawa , Yamagata Prefecture , in northern Japan in 1887. He graduated from the 36th class of the IJN Academy in 1908, with a ranking of 8 out of a class of 191 cadets. As a midshipman , he served in the protected cruisers Soya and Niitaka and the armored cruiser Nisshin . After his promotion to ensign in 1910 he was assigned to cruiser Asama . After attending torpedo and naval artillery schools, he

658-470: The Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force . A vice-admiral is a flag officer , the naval equivalent of a general officer . A vice-admiral is senior to a rear-admiral and major general , and junior to an admiral and general . The rank insignia of a Canadian vice-admiral is as follows: Two rows of gold oak leaves are located on the black visor of the white service cap. From 1968 to June 2010,

705-598: The United States Navy Naval Station Pearl Harbor . While commanding the First Air Fleet, Nagumo oversaw the attack on Pearl Harbor , but he was later criticized for his failure to launch a third attack, which might have destroyed the fuel oil storage and repair facilities. This could have rendered the most important U.S. naval base in the Pacific useless, especially as the continued operation of

752-746: The Vice Chief of the Defence Force , the Chief of Joint Operations , and/or the Chief of Capability Development Group . Vice admiral is the equivalent of air marshal in the Royal Australian Air Force and lieutenant general in the Australian Army . In the Royal Canadian Navy , the rank of vice-admiral (VAdm) ( vice-amiral or Vam in French ) is equivalent to lieutenant-general of

799-607: The Yellow Sea . As a leading officer of the militaristic Fleet Faction , he also received a boost in his career from political forces. From 1937 to 1938, he was commandant of the Torpedo School, and from 1938 to 1939, he was commander of the 3rd Cruiser Division . Nagumo was promoted to vice admiral on 15 November 1939. From November 1940 to April 1941, Nagumo was commandant of the Naval War College. On 10 April 1941, Nagumo

846-501: The Arabic to English;" On 04 Feb 2021, in an announcement of his coronavirus -related death, the Arabic news website Saudi 24 News referred to Admiral Edmond Chagoury by the title "Prince of the Sea." One alternate etymology proposes that the term admiral evolved, instead, from the title of Amīr al-Umarā ʾ (أمير الأمراء). Under the reign of the Buyid dynasty (934 to 1062) of Iraq and Iran ,

893-656: The English Language , edited and revised by the Rev. Henry John Todd , states that the term "has been traced to the Arab. emir or amir, lord or commander, and the Gr . ἄλιος , the sea, q. d. prince of the sea . The word is written both with and without the d, in other languages, as well as our own. Barb. Lat. admirallus and amiralius. V. Ducange. Barb. Græc. ἄμηρχλιος. V. Meursii Gloss. Græco-Barbarum, edit. 1610. p. 29. Fr. admiral and amiral. Dan.

940-573: The Golden Kite . Nagumo's grave is located at the Ōbai-in sub-temple of Engaku-ji in Kamakura , next to the grave of his son, Susumu Nagumo, who was killed in battle aboard the destroyer Kishinami on 4 December 1944. Admiral The word admiral in Middle English comes from Anglo-French amiral , "commander", from Medieval Latin admiralis , admirallus . These evolved from

987-434: The area, he changed plans and ordered his planes be rearmed with torpedoes to attack American ships. The situation caught his aircraft in-between, with half his planes armed with torpedoes and the other half with bombs and no time to switch everything back to torpedoes. American dive-bombers attacked Akagi , Kaga and Sōryū , resulting in fires and further explosions due to unsecured ordinance, crippling all three. After

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1034-416: The army rank of general . However, this was not always the case; for example, in some European countries prior to the end of World War II , admiral was the third highest naval rank after general admiral and grand admiral . The rank of admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, several of which are historically extinct while others remain in use in most present-day navies. The Royal Navy used

1081-449: The attack, Nagumo appeared to have gone into a state of shock; he stood near the ship's compass looking out at the flames on his ship and two other carriers, and despite being asked to shift his flag to another vessel, Nagumo was reluctant, muttering, “It's not time yet”. Nagumo's chief of staff, Rear Admiral Ryūnosuke Kusaka , was able to persuade him; Nagumo nodded, with tears in his eyes. Nagumo and his staff were forced to evacuate through

1128-461: The capability and potential of naval aviation." One son of Nagumo described him as a brooding father, obsessed with and later regretful about pressuring his sons into joining the IJN. In contrast, Nagumo's junior naval officers thought of him as a father figure. Despite his limited experience, he was a strong advocate of combining sea and air power, although he was opposed to Admiral Yamamoto's plan to attack

1175-470: The colours red, white, and blue, in descending order to indicate seniority of its admirals until 1864; for example, Horatio Nelson 's highest rank was vice-admiral of the white. The generic term for these naval equivalents of army generals is flag officer . Some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the Cromwellian "general at sea". While the rank is used in most of NATO countries, it

1222-541: The definition of Amīr (أمير), as given in Edward William Lane 's Arabic-English Lexicon , concurs, in part, with Minsheu's definition, stating that the term means "One having, holding, or possessing, command; a commander; a governor; a lord; a prince, or king." While other Greek words of the period existed to indicate "belonging to the sea," or "of the sea," the now obsolete Gr. ἄλιος mentioned in Johnson's Dictionary

1269-639: The events of Midway to his two sons in 1944. Afterwards, Nagumo was reassigned as commander-in-chief of the Third Fleet and commanded aircraft carriers in the Guadalcanal campaign in the battles of the Eastern Solomons and the Santa Cruz Islands . His actions were largely indecisive, and with Japanese naval forces steadily losing manpower, fuel, and material for building replacement ships and aircraft,

1316-585: The fleet , and the voivodees of Moldavia and Wallachia . Those Phanariots who attained the princely position of dragoman of the fleet served under the Ottoman admiral having administration of the Aegean islands and the Anatolian coast. Modern acknowledgement of the phrase Amīr -al-Baḥr (أمير البحر) meaning "Prince of the Sea" includes a speech made in an official U.S. military ceremony conducted in an Arabic port, and

1363-631: The fleet gradually frittered away most of its strength. On 11 November 1942, Nagumo was reassigned to Japan, where he was given command of the Sasebo Naval District . He then transferred to the Kure Naval District on 21 June 1943. From October 1943 to February 1944, Nagumo was once again made commander-in-chief of First Fleet, which was by that time largely involved in only training duties to conserve what little remained of Japan's air force. As Japan's military situation deteriorated, Nagumo

1410-459: The forward windows of the bridge by rope. An expert in judo, Nagumo landed lightly, whereas Kusaka badly sprained both ankles and was burned during the evacuation. The First Air Fleet lost four carriers during the turning point of the Pacific War , and the massive losses of carrier aircraft maintenance personnel would prove detrimental to the performance of the IJN in later engagements. The loss of

1457-479: The four carriers, their aircraft, and their maintenance crews, plus the loss of 120 experienced pilots, resulted in Japan losing the strategic initiative in the Pacific. In the aftermath of the battle, Kusaka found a downcast Nagumo, seemingly contemplating suicide; Kusaka eventually talked him out of it. Following the battle, Nagumo appeared to have lost his aggressiveness and effectiveness; he teared up when talking about

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1504-507: The highest rank in the Polish Navy. Józef Unrug was one of the only two officers to achieve the rank. The other was Jerzy Świrski . Poland had only one sovereign sea port, Port of Gdynia , and was slowly building a small modern navy that was to be ready by 1950. The navy was not a priority for obvious reasons. At present, it is a "two-star" rank. The stars are not used; however, the stars were used in between 1952 and 1956 and are still used in

1551-524: The latter of which sank an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and two destroyers, and caused Admiral Sir James Somerville to retreat to East Africa . The Battle of Midway , in June 1942, brought Nagumo's streak of victories to an end. During the battle, a Martin B-26 Marauder , seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, flew directly at the bridge of the aircraft carrier Akagi . The aircraft, either attempting

1598-666: The most senior command or administrative appointments, barring only Chief of Defence Staff , which is held by a full admiral or general . Appointments held by vice-admirals may include: Charles III holds the honorary rank of vice admiral in the Royal Canadian Navy. In France , vice-amiral is the most senior of the ranks in the French Navy ; higher ranks, vice-amiral d'escadre and amiral , are permanent functions, styles and positions (in French rangs et appellations ) given to

1645-503: The navy blue service dress tunic featured only a wide gold braid around the cuff with three gold maple leaves, beneath crossed sword and baton, all surmounted by a St. Edward's Crown located on cloth shoulder straps. Vice-admirals are addressed by rank and name; thereafter by subordinates as "Sir" or "Ma'am". Vice-admirals are normally entitled to a staff car ; the car will normally bear a flag, dark blue with three gold maple leaves arranged one over two. A vice-admiral generally holds only

1692-517: The same. Germ. ammiral. Dutch, admirael or ammirael. Ital. ammiraglio. Sp. almirante. Minsheu, in his Spanish Dictionary, says 'almiralle is a king in the Arabian language.' Amrayl is used by Robert of Gloucester, in the sense of a prince, or governour." The quote from John Minsheu 's Dictionarie in Spanish and English (1599), given in Johnson's Dictionary, has been confirmed as being accurate. Additionally,

1739-503: The submarine base and the use of the intelligence station at the installation were critical factors in Japan's defeat in the Pacific War . Nagumo was surrounded by able lieutenants such as Minoru Genda and Mitsuo Fuchida . He also fought well in the early 1942 campaigns, obtaining success as a fleet commander at the Bombing of Darwin and at the Indian Ocean raid on the Eastern Fleet ,

1786-609: The title of Amīr al-Umarāʾ, which means prince of princes, came to denote the heir-apparent , or crown prince . This alternate etymology states that the term was in use for the Greco-Arab naval leaders (e.g. Christodulus ) in the Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture of Norman Sicily , which had formerly been ruled by Arabs, at least by the early 11th century. During this time, the Norman Roger II of Sicily (1095–1154) employed

1833-559: The vice admiral's pennant. In the Royal Navy the rank of vice-admiral should be distinguished from the office of " Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom ", which is an Admiralty position usually held by a retired "full" admiral , and that of " Vice-Admiral of the Coast ", a now obsolete office dealing with naval administration in each of the maritime counties. While the rank of vice admiral

1880-510: The word changed to almirante . As the word was used by people speaking Latin or Latin-based languages it gained the "d" and endured a series of different endings and spellings leading to the English spelling admyrall in the 14th century and to admiral by the 16th century. It is important to note that the etymology of a word does not suggest the antiquity of the word as it may have appeared in other languages with entirely different pronunciations. The Greek ναύαρχος, for instance, which

1927-479: Was appointed commander-in-chief of the First Air Fleet , the IJN's main carrier battle group , largely due to his seniority. Many contemporaries and historians have doubted his suitability for this command, given his lack of familiarity with naval aviation . Nagumo's friend and fellow admiral Nishizō Tsukahara would say that: "He (Nagumo) was wholly unfitted by background, training, experience, and interest for

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1974-573: Was assigned to duties in Chinese territorial waters. He was appointed captain of the river gunboat Saga from 20 March 1926 to 15 October 1926, followed by the gunboat Uji from 15 October 1926 to 15 November 1927. He then served as an instructor at the IJN Academy from 1927 to 1929. Nagumo was promoted to captain in November 1929 and assumed command of the light cruiser Naka and from 1930 to 1931

2021-458: Was commander of the 11th Destroyer Division . After serving in administrative positions from 1931 to 1933, he assumed command of the heavy cruiser Takao from 1933 to 1934, and the battleship Yamashiro from 1934 to 1935. He was promoted to Rear Admiral on 1 November 1935. As a Rear Admiral, Nagumo commanded the 8th Cruiser Division to support Imperial Japanese Army movements in China from

2068-848: Was deployed on 4 March 1944 for the short-lived command of the 14th Air Fleet and the Central Pacific Area Fleet in the Mariana Islands . The Battle of Saipan began on 15 June 1944. The IJN, under Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa , was overwhelmed within days by the U.S. 5th Fleet in the decisive Battle of the Philippine Sea , where Japan lost three fleet carriers and about 600 aircraft, none of which could be replaced. Nagumo and his Army peer Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito were now on their own to keep control of Saipan . On 6 July 1944, Nagumo, unable to defend his position any longer and refusing to be taken captive, killed himself with

2115-502: Was promoted to sub-lieutenant and served in the battleship Aki , followed by the destroyer Hatsuyuki . In 1914, he was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to the battlecruiser Kirishima , followed by the destroyer Sugi . He was assigned his first command, the destroyer Kisaragi , on 15 December 1917. Nagumo graduated from the Naval War College and was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1920. His specialty

2162-557: Was the highest rank, the supreme office of "Admiral of France" being purely ceremonial. Distinct offices were : In the Philippines , the rank vice admiral is the highest-ranking official of the Philippine Navy . He is recognized as the flag officer in-command of the navy, an equivalent post to the Chief of Naval Operations in the U.S. Navy. Before World War II, the vice admiral was

2209-580: Was torpedo and destroyer tactics. From 1920 to 1921, he was captain of the destroyer Momi , but was soon sent to shore duty with various assignments by the IJN General Staff . He became a commander in 1924. From 1925 to 1926, Nagumo accompanied a Japanese mission to study naval warfare strategy, tactics, and equipment in Western Europe and the United States . After his return to Japan, Nagumo

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