Raymond Ames Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral during World War II. He commanded U.S. naval forces during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, one of the most significant naval battles of the Pacific Theatre. He also commanded Task Force 16 at the Battle of Midway, comprising the carriers and . At Midway, dive bombers from American carriers sank four fleet carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Most historians consider Midway the turning point of the Pacific War.
Official Navy historian Samuel Eliot Morison characterized Spruance's performance as "superb", and he was nicknamed "electric brain" for his calmness, even in moments of supreme crisis, a reputation enhanced by his successful tactics.Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won He emerged from the war as one of the greater admirals in American history. After the war, Spruance was appointed President of the Naval War College, and later served as American ambassador to the Philippines.
Early life Spruance was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 3, 1886, to Alexander and Annie Hiss Spruance. He was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. Spruance attended Indianapolis public schools and graduated from Shortridge High School. From there he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1907 early on September 12, 1906, and received further, hands-on education in electrical engineering a few years later.
Career prior to World War II Spruance's first duty assignment was aboard the battleship , an 11,400-ton veteran of the Spanish–American War. In July 1907 he transferred to the battleship and was aboard her during the historic around-the-world cruise of the Great White Fleet from 1907 to 1909.
Spruance's seagoing career included command of the destroyers from March 1913 to May 1914, , three other destroyers, and the battleship .
In 1916 he aided in the fitting out of the battleship and he served on board her from her commissioning in June 1916 until November 1917. During the last year of World War I he was assigned as Assistant Engineer Officer of the New York Naval Shipyard, and carried out temporary duty in London, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland.U.S. Naval Heritage & History Command, Biography, Raymond A. Spruance , accessed March 17, 2013
Following his return to the United States, Spruance served aboard transport ship , before he was ordered to Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, for duty in connection with fitting out of destroyer in March 1919. He commanded that vessel during the patrols with the Atlantic Fleet until January 1920, when he assumed command of newly commissioned destroyer in San Francisco, California.
He commanded the Percival during the sea trials off the California coast and during the patrol cruises with the Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet until May 1922, when he was ordered to Washington, D.C., for duty in the Bureau of Engineering under Rear Admiral John K. Robison. While in that capacity he assumed additional duty as a member of the board on doctrine of aircraft in connection with fleet fire control.
Spruance served in Washington until early 1924, when he was ordered to the headquarters, Commander Naval Force in Europe. He served as Assistant Chief of Staff under Vice Admiral Philip Andrews during the period of tensions between Greece and Turkey and was decorated with the Gold Cross of the Order of the Savior by the Government of Greece for his service.
Spruance ran a quiet bridge, without chit-chat; he demanded that orders be given concisely and clearly. In one incident a distraught officer rushed to report, "Captain, we've just dropped a depth charge over the stern!" "Well, pick it up and put it back," was Spruance's measured response.Tuohy, William. 2007. American's Fighting Admirals: Winning the War at Sea in World War II
He began attendance at the Naval War College in 1926, and graduated in 1927. Spruance served as executive officer of USS Mississippi from October 1929 to June 1931. He also held several engineering, intelligence, staff and Naval War College positions up to the 1940s. He served as an instructor at the Naval War College from 1935 to 1938. He commanded the battleship USS Mississippi from April 1938 to December 1939, when he was promoted to rear admiral. On February 26, 1940, Spruance reported as commandant of the 10th Naval District with headquarters at Naval Station Isla Grande in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On August 1, 1941, he finished his tour in Puerto Rico.
World War II Before Midway In the first months of World War II in the Pacific, Spruance commanded the four heavy cruisers and support ships of Cruiser Division Five from his flagship, the heavy cruiser . His division was an element of the task force built around the aircraft carrier and commanded by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. Early on, Halsey had led his task force on hit-and-run raids against the Japanese in the western Pacific: striking the Gilbert and Marshall islands in February 1942, Wake Island in March, and projecting the air power of the Doolittle Raid against the Japanese homeland in April. These raids were critical to morale — setting a new tone of aggressiveness by U.S. commanders while providing invaluable battle experience for the commanders and sailors of the U.S. Navy.
Midway
During the third week of May 1942, U.S. naval intelligence units confirmed that the Japanese would—by early June—invade Midway Island. Capturing and occupying Midway was the brainchild-plan of commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. With it he intended to significantly expand the Imperial Japanese Navy's outer defense perimeter across the central Pacific; and, he believed, this very powerful stroke against Midway would so severely threaten Hawaii and Pearl Harbor that the U.S. government would be induced to sue for peace. On the other hand, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz knew he must intercept the Japanese invasion fleet, and that he must give battle to the enemy aircraft carriers before they could project their overwhelming power against the naval air station at Midway.
Fewer than two days before launch from Pearl Harbor, Nimitz's commander of the fleet carrier force, Admiral Halsey, was hospitalized with severe shingles; Halsey immediately recommended Admiral Spruance to Nimitz as his replacement with Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher receiving overall command. Although Spruance was proven as a cruiser division commander, he had no experience handling carrier-air combat; Halsey reassured Nimitz, and he told Spruance and Fletcher to rely on their newly inherited staff, particularly Captain Miles Browning, a battle-proven expert in carrier warfare. Spruance assumed command of Task Force 16 with its two carriers, and , under battle command of Admiral Fletcher. Fletcher would command Task Force 17, but the task force flagship, , had been badly damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the formation's other carrier, , had been sunk, but at Nimitz's behest Yorktown was patched-repaired in "rush" time purposefully to join the Midway operation.
The U.S. Navy intercept force centered on the three carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown, and their air-attack squadrons. It faced a Japanese invasion fleet organized into two groups: the air-attack task force of four carriers with support ships under command of Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, and the surface and occupation forces under Admiral Nobutake Kondō and others. Admiral Yamamoto commanded the combined invasion fleet from aboard his flagship .
At 0530 June 4, a scout plane from Midway sighted the Kido Butai; however, the scout only reported sighting "(t)wo carriers and battleships," and giving course and speed. Since US intelligence had reported the possibility that the Kido Butai would be operating in two separate task forces, that meant that Fletcher only knew the location of half of the carrier force. Armed with this information, Fletcher ordered Spruance to launch a strike at the Japanese with Enterprise and Hornet while holding Yorktown in reserve in case the other Japanese carriers were discovered. Since the Japanese planes were returning from the Midway strike, Spruance ordered that his strike be launched without delay so as to maximize the chances that the Japanese carriers would be caught while landing planes or spotting the next wave. In this state the Japanese carriers would be extremely vulnerable. Unfortunately, the launch plan for TF 16's strike groups had been conceived poorly. Aboard both carriers the escort fighters--the planes with the shortest range--were spotted so as to take off first, followed by the dive bombers and some of the torpedo bombers. Because of limitations in deck space, it had not been possible to spot the remainder of the torpedo planes on deck, but Capt. Browning wanted them to be included in the strike groups; so he ordered that the planes on deck be launched and then made to circle overhead, consuming fuel, until the remaining planes could be hoisted up to the flight deck and sent up to join them. Spruance, believing that the spotting and launch of the additional planes was taking too long (and putting the circling planes at risk of fuel exhaustion), decided to intervene, ordering that the squadrons that were circling depart for their targets before the strike group could form up properly, gambling that by doing so the attacks would arrive in time to disrupt the enemy carriers as they prepared to launch their own counterstrike. Though this gamble paid off, Enterprise air squadrons would pay a heavy price, flying in piecemeal, low on fuel, and mostly without fighter escort.
The battle commenced on the morning of June 4; the first several waves of U.S. attack aircraft were badly beaten, both near Midway and at sea around the Japanese task force. Then U.S. dive bombers from Spruance's Enterprise flew to Nagumo's fleet of four carriers – which, fatefully, were without air cover. Most of Nagumo's attack planes had just returned from the first strike on Midway and were immobilized in the carrier hangars, while his combat air patrol cover planes were engaged with battling torpedo bombers from Hornet. Enterprise dive bombers critically damaged two Japanese carriers including Nagumo's flagship ; while the Yorktown air group, launched after Fletcher was confident that all Japanese carriers were accounted for, crippled the Soryu. All three were eventually scuttled.
, the surviving carrier, gave the Japanese some brief respite by sending strikes that again damaged Yorktown. But several hours later—near the end of daylight hours—a U.S. scout plane located Hiryū again. Fletcher quickly ordered his dive bombers to strike, which fatally damaged the fourth Japanese carrier; it was scuttled the next day. However a second strike from Hiryū would fatally cripple Fletcher's flagship, Yorktown and as a result, Fletcher passed command to Spruance, who would command the mop-up phase of the battle.