United fleet

First Sino-Japanese War

The United Fleet was officially created on July 18, 1894 as a result of the merger of the Permanent Ready Fleet and the Western Fleet . The permanent readiness fleet included the most modern warships of the Japanese fleet; Western - obsolete, but still suitable for defensive operations. Vice Admiral Ito Sukeyuki , who commanded the Fleet of Permanent Readiness, led and led the new fleet throughout the war.

Russo-Japanese War

After the outbreak of war with the Russian Empire, the Combined Fleet was recreated for the reduction under the unified command of Admiral Heihatiro Togo of the three Japanese fleets. The 1st fleet included battleships intended for general battles. The 2nd fleet consisted of high-speed armored and armored cruisers used as mobile forces. Outdated vessels of the 3rd Fleet were considered unsuitable for heavy collisions, but could carry out secondary operations, such as the blockade of Port Arthur .

The interwar period

In 1905-1924, the United Fleet was recreated periodically for naval maneuvers. In 1924, by order of the Imperial Fleet, the United Fleet was transferred to a permanent base, including the 1st and 2nd fleets. The commander of the 1st Fleet also commanded the United, the United Fleet at first also did not have its own headquarters. The headquarters was created after the Mukden incident ; after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the United Fleet included most of the Imperial Navy units except the Marine Corps and the Chinese Waters Navy.

World War II

Two days before the start of the Polish campaign in Europe , Vice Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto , who held this post until his death in January 1943, was appointed to the post of commander of the United Fleet. Before the outbreak of the Pacific War , marked by the attack on Pearl Harbor by Kido Butai , the carrier fleet, the United Navy became almost synonymous with the Imperial Navy. It included battleships, aircraft carriers , naval aviation and other leading combat forces of the Japanese fleet. The forces of the United Fleet were concentrated in the Battle of Midway , but the disasters in this battle and in the campaign on the Solomon Islands convinced the Japanese headquarters that it would be more expedient to divide the remaining ships into fleets responsible for specific geographical areas; from that moment on, the United Fleet was rather an administrative unit. In connection with the situation, which continued to deteriorate in all seas, in the autumn of 1944, the Japanese made an attempt to join forces again for a general battle in Leyte Gulf . A new defeat forced the remnants of the fleet to retreat to Okinawa , then the fleet only carried out local operations like the suicidal expedition "Yamato" . Formally, the United Fleet was finally dissolved on October 10, 1945.

Commanders-in-Chief

Chiefs of Staff

• Nishida, Hiroshi IJN Fleets Imperial Japanese Navy (English) (unopened) (link not available) . Date of treatment June 1, 2010. Archived January 30, 2013.
• Wendel, Marcus Axis Database (English) (Neopr.) . Date of treatment June 1, 2010. Archived on April 27, 2012.
• World War II Armed Forces - Orders of Battle and Organizations
• Nihon Kaigun
• The Combined Fleet ( nav .) At navalhistory.flixco.info