Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record

by Ernest Joseph King, Walter Muir Whitehill

Overview

"For forty years Ernest King prepared himself for the supreme test. From 1901 to 1941 he moved through the grades from ensign to admiral; he saw service in battleships, destroyers, submarines, supply ships, and aircraft carriers, in Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean; he served in engineering, on the staff of the commander of the Atlantic fleet in World War I, on the General Board, in the Bureau of Navigation and as chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics; he taught at the Naval Academy and studied at the Naval War College where he worked on problems of Pacific strategy; and he commanded important units of the fleet. When the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor, King was supervising convoy operations to Europe as commander of the Atlantic fleet. Within two weeks he was made Cominch, United States fleet, and three months later replaced Admiral Stark as chief of Naval Operations. No man in the United States navy was better equipped by training and experience to direct the global responsibilities of the navy in World War II; no man could have performed the job with greater success... The volume is a notable contribution to the history of the war... The amount of information on every aspect of the war — plans, operations, and logistics — is overwhelming. The European and Pacific phases are neatly interwoven. There are penetrating observations on leading personalities (of both world wars)." — The Mississippi Valley Historical Review

"[A]n extremely important book... Fleet Admiral King is an important book because it enables us to appreciate the greatness of King. We get some idea of his logical mind, exceptional intellect, integrity, capacity for work, and wide range of professional knowledge. Without doubt this devoted public servant was the right man in the right place when the nation faced the greatest crisis in its history." — Pacific Historical Review

"The memoirs of Fleet Adm. Ernest J. King... have been eagerly awaited for many years. The Admiral was counted on to furnish a bluntly outspoken record of his stewardship, and in this respect his book comes up to expectations... they reward careful reading as the record of one of the most effective and successful war leaders in the history of our country. This book will undoubtedly take its place among the classic military documents in the war annals of the United States." — Ordnance

"Admiral King's memoirs have been worth waiting for. As it stands, this book is one of the most useful contributions to American naval history." — The American Historical Review

"[An] important book... the best and most comprehensive discussion of the inner workings of the Joint and Combined Chiefs of Staff that has appeared... Fleet Admiral King is really two books in one: a skilfully drawn biographical study of the individual and, as a frank personal report of the highest United States naval commander in the war, a significant contribution to the history of World War II." — The New England Quarterly

"[A] valuable book." — The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

"[T]his record of Fleet Admiral King's naval career is essentially autobiographical. The latter half of the... narrative deals with the Second World War and is naturally of the greatest interest. It authoritatively presents the Navy's position on a number of strategic controversies, and adds to our factual knowledge of certain key events, such as the Casablanca, Yalta, Quebec and Potsdam conferences." — Foreign Affairs

"The outstanding naval biography of the year, as well as the outstanding book." — US Naval Institute Proceedings</i>

Product Details

BN ID:	2940186702368
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	11/22/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Born in Lorain, Ohio, Ernest Joseph King (1878-1956) attended the US Naval Academy at Annapolis (1897-1901), graduating fourth in his class. He served on the cruiser San Francisco in the Spanish–American War while still at the Naval Academy. After graduation, King was a junior officer on the survey ship Eagle, the battleships Illinois, Alabama and New Hampshire, and the cruiser Cincinnati. His first command was in 1914, on the destroyer Terry. During World War I, King served on the staff of Vice Admiral Henry Mayo, Commander, Atlantic Fleet. After the war, King headed the Naval Postgraduate School, commanded a submarine squadron, and the submarine base at New London. King was qualified in surface ships, submarines, and as a Naval Aviator. Starting in June 1930, he commanded the carrier Lexington for two years. Promoted to rear admiral, he ran the Bureau of Aeronautics (1933-1936). After a period on the Navy’s General Board and as Commander, Atlantic Squadron, King was promoted to admiral in February 1941 and became Commander, Atlantic Fleet. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, King was appointed Commander in Chief of the US Fleet (COMINCH). In March 1942, King succeeded Harold Stark as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), becoming the only admiral to hold this combined command. As COMINCH-CNO, King directed the US Navy’s operations, planning and administration and was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In December 1944, King became the second admiral, after Admiral Leahy, to be made Fleet Admiral. After retiring from active duty in December 1945, King served as president of the Naval Historical Foundation (1946-1949). His autobiography appeared in 1952.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Walter Muir Whitehill (1905-1978) was a writer, historian, medievalist, and Director and Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum (1946-1973). He received his AB and MA degrees from Harvard in 1926 and 1929 and his PhD from the University of London in 1934 for his thesis on the architecture of medieval Spain. Whitehill spent World War II in the Office of Naval Records in Washington. He edited publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts (1946-1978) and was associated with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard (1951) where he was a lecturer in history (1956-1957).