Richmond Turner was born in Portland, Oregon on May 27, 1885, to Enoch and Laura Frances (née Kelly) Turner. His father alternated between being a rancher and farmer, and working as a printer in both Portland (for The Oregonian with his older brother Thomas) and Stockton, California (where he owned a small print shop). The young Richmond spent most of his childhood in and around Stockton, with a brief stop in Santa Ana, and he graduated from Stockton High School in 1904.[1]
After his promotion to the rank of commander in 1925, Turner served with the Bureau of Ordnance at the Navy Department. In 1927, he received flight training at Pensacola, Florida, was designated as a naval aviator, and a year later became commanding officer of the seaplane tender Jason and commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Asiatic Fleet. He had further aviation-related assignments into the 1930s and was executive officer of the aircraft carrierSaratoga in 1933–34. Captain Turner attended the Naval War College and served on that institution's staff in 1935–38 as head of the Strategy faculty.
Turner's last single ship command was the heavy cruiserAstoria, on a diplomatic mission to Japan in 1939. During his service with that vessel, Astoria, the body of deceased Japanese Ambassador to the United States, Hiroshi Saito was returned to Japan. Saito died of tuberculosis in February 1939. Following World War II, Turner received Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd Class by the Emperor of Japan.[4]
Turner was Director of War Plans in Washington, D.C., in 1940–41 and was promoted to rear admiral January 1941.[3]
Responsibility for Pearl Harbor
As Director of War Plans in the office of Chief of Naval Operations, Captain Turner became the Naval Member of the Joint Planning Committee of the Joint Board. Turner and Colonel Joseph T. McNarney, Air Corps, U.S. Army wrote "Study of the Immediate Problems concerning Involvement in War" in late December 1940. This led to Plan D, a strong offensive war in the Atlantic and a defensive war in the Pacific. This evolved into U.S. war plan "Rainbow Five".[3]
On November 25, 1941, Turner drafted a dispatch to the Commander in Chief of the Asiatic Fleet for release by the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), which contained the words: "I consider it probable that this next Japanese aggression may cause an outbreak of hostilities between the U.S. and Japan." CNO Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark took this message to President Roosevelt, who in relaying it to his High Commissioner to the Philippines softened the judgment words "probable" to "possible" and "may" to "might." Roosevelt also added the bad guess: "Advance against Thailand seems the most probable."
The Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, was highly aware of the threat of surprise Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. The final and most important warning was sent from Washington to Pearl Harbor and other Pacific outposts on November 27, 1941. It was specifically designated as a "war warning."[5]
Turner made the decision not to send Kimmel details of the intercepted Japanese diplomatic communications although they pointed strongly to an imminent air or sea attack on the Pacific Fleet's base at Pearl Harbor. Kimmel testified after the war that had he known of these communications, he would have maintained a much higher level of alert, and the fleet would not have been taken by surprise by the Japanese attack. As historian of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Professor Gordon Prange, wrote in Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History that was correct, even allowing for Kimmel's desire to exculpate himself: "If Turner thought a Japanese raid on Hawaii... to be a 50-percent chance, it was his clear duty to say so plainly in his directive to Kimmel... He won the battle for dominance of War Plans over Intelligence, and had to abide by the consequences. If his estimates had enabled the U.S. to fend off... the Japanese threat at Pearl Harbor, Turner would deserve the appreciation of a grateful nation. By the same token, he could not justly avoid his share of the blame for failure."[6]
Vice Admiral Homer N. Wallin wrote a much more comprehensive analysis of the reasons for the U.S. defeat at Pearl Harbor.[7] See also Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton, Kimmel's chief intelligence officer, and his book, And I Was There.[8] "To anyone who is familiar with the mutinous conditions provoked by Turner's interference in the intelligence process . . .throughout 1941, (Turner's) barefaced denial of any responsibility for its consequences was as outrageous as it was untrue." Page 142.
Admiral Turner testified to the Roberts Commission on January 19, 1942, the Admiral Thomas C. Hart Inquiry on the April 3rd and 4th, 1944, the Navy Court of Inquiry headed by Admiral Orin G. Murfin on September 15, 1944 and the Joint Congressional Committee Investigating Pearl Harbor in 1946.[9]
World War II
Quote,"Deliver for D-Day!"Turner with Marine Major General Vandegrift during the planning of Operation Watchtower in July–August 1942.
In December 1941, Turner was appointed assistant chief of staff to the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (a new position created after Pearl Harbor for Admiral Ernest King) and served until June 1942. He was then sent to the Pacific to take command of the Amphibious Force, South Pacific Force. Over the next three years, he held a variety of senior Amphibious Force commands as a rear admiral and vice admiral. He helped plan and execute amphibious operations against enemy positions in the south, central and western Pacific. He would have commanded the amphibious component of the invasion of Japan.
For the assault on Tarawa and Makin, Rear Admiral Turner was named as the Commander, Assault Force Task Force 51, which included 10 Groups, including Northern Attack Force for Makin and Southern Attack Force for Tarawa, Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill.[11]
At Tarawa: "Rear Admiral Turner, the Task Force Commander and Immediate Senior in Command, was well over the horizon and busy with the problems of Makin. Vice Admiral Spruance, the Commander Central Pacific Force, was present at Tarawa in the Indianapolis, but with that quality which endeared him to all his subordinates, did not undertake to kibitz on the minute-by-minute performance of the local Task Force or Task Group Commanders. To Rear Admiral Harry Hill belongs full credit for a great and hard-fought victory at Tarawa."[12]
As a result of his leadership in those many amphibious assaults, Turner was promoted to vice admiral on March 7, 1944.[14]
For the assaults on Tinian, Guam and Saipan, Vice Admiral Turner was the Commander, Joint Expeditionary Force, Task Force 51, which included the Northern and Southern Task Forces, Expeditionary Task Force, Lt. General Holland Smith and 6 Task Groups.[15]
For the assault on Iwo Jima, Vice Admiral Turner was the Commander, Joint Expeditionary Force, Task Force 50, which included the Attack Force, Rear Admiral Hill, and Expeditionary Task Force, Lt. General Smith.[16]
At the Battle of Okinawa Turner commanded Task Force 51 which included the Northern Attack Force, Rear Admiral Lawrence Fairfax Reifsnider, the Southern Attack Force, Rear Admiral Hill, Expeditionary Troops, Lt. General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., Western Island Attack Group, Rear Admiral Ingolf N. Kiland, Amphibious Support Force Rear Admiral William H. P. Blandy and Gunfire and Covering Force, Rear Admiral Morton Deyo. At the end of the Battle of Okinawa the Amphibious Forces under Admiral Turner's command were manned by 657,000 officers and men.[17]
On May 24, 1945, Richmond Kelly Turner was promoted to full admiral.[18] Had the Pacific war continued, he would have commanded the amphibious component of the invasion of Japan. Under Admiral Turner's command, there were to be 2,700 ships and craft in the Kyushu operation. There had been 1,213 ships and craft under his command for the Okinawa operation, 435 for the Marianas operation and 51 at Guadalcanal.[19]
General Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander during formal surrender ceremonies on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Behind General MacArthur are Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and Lieutenant General Arthur Percival. Admiral Tuner (hands folded) is standing in the row of officers. To his right is Admiral John Henry Towers and to his left is Admiral William Halsey.
Turner's headstone at Golden Gate National Cemetery
After World War II, Admiral Turner served on the Navy Department's General Board and was U.S. Naval Representative on the United Nations Military Staff Committee. He retired from active duty in July 1947.
Admiral Turner was known in his surrounding by his complicated personality and furious temper. Nicknamed "Terrible Turner," many of his subordinates and colleagues recognized his command abilities, but on the other hand criticized his manners, heavy drinking and pedantry.[21] When Admiral Chester Nimitz accepted Turner as commander of his assault force, Nimitz dryly said of the assignment that Turner was "brilliant, caustic, arrogant, and tactless – just the man for the job".[22]
Future Marine general Robert E. Hogaboom, who served as his assistant chief of staff for operations, describes him as:
The greatness of Admiral Kelly Turner was in that Kelly Turner worked his plans out in minute detail himself, right down to the last position of every amphibious vessel; where they would be, when they should be there, what they were to do. I knew him personally and I know that he was a fighting man. He was tough... he was not always fair, but he insisted on his people doing what they were supposed to do.[21][23]
General Nathan Twining, who served as chief of staff of the Allied air forces in South Pacific during World War II, described Turner as:
A loud, strident, arrogant person who enjoyed settling all matters by simply raising his voice and roaring like a bull captain in the old navy.... [His] peers understood this and valued him for what he was, a good and determined leader with a fine mind – when he chose to use it.[24]
Turner appears in To the Shores of Iwo Jima, a documentary short film depicting the American assault on the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima and the massive battle that raged on that key island in the Allied advance on Japan.
The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii, with large secondary facilities at Naval Air Station North Island, California.
Husband Edward Kimmel was a United States Navy four-star admiral who was the commander in chief of the United States Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT) during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was removed from that command after the attack, in December 1941, and was reverted to his permanent two-star rank of rear admiral due to no longer holding a four-star assignment. He retired from the Navy in early 1942. The United States Senate voted to restore Kimmel's permanent rank to four stars in 1999, but President Clinton did not act on the resolution, and neither have any of his successors.
William Frederick "Bull" Halsey Jr. was an American Navy admiral during World War II. He is one of four officers to have attained the rank of five-star fleet admiral of the United States Navy, the others being William Leahy, Ernest J. King, and Chester W. Nimitz.
Raymond Ames Spruance 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 Enterprise and Hornet. At Midway, dive bombers from Enterprise sank four larger carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Most historians consider Midway the turning point of the Pacific War.
Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, KCB was a general in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He is sometimes called the "father" of modern U.S. amphibious warfare. His nickname, "Howlin' Mad" Smith, had been given to him by his troops in the Dominican Republic in 1916.
Harold Raynsford Stark was an officer in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II, who served as the 8th Chief of Naval Operations from August 1, 1939, to March 26, 1942.
Frank Jack Fletcher was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. Fletcher commanded five different task forces through the war; he was the operational task force commander at the pivotal battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, which collectively resulted in the sinking of five Japanese aircraft carriers.
The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fight, mostly on and around the small island of Betio, in the extreme southwest of Tarawa Atoll. At the time, Betio was only 291 acres.
The Battle of Makin was an engagement of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought from 20 to 24 November 1943 on Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands.
Vice Admiral Robert Lee Ghormley was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as commander, South Pacific Area during World War II. Ghormley was long considered to be an ineffective leader–overly cautious, pessimistic, and even defeatist–but recent scholarship has argued that while he may not have been an inspiring leader, he performed well enough under difficult circumstances.
Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was an admiral in the United States Navy, known for his service during World War II. He built a reputation as a "fighting admiral" in the aircraft carrier battles of 1942 and commanded the Allied forces in the Aleutian Islands Campaign. He was Commander Allied Naval Forces and the Seventh Fleet under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific Area, where he conducted numerous amphibious operations, and commanded an Allied fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of World War II and the last naval battle between battleships in history.
Theodore Stark "Ping" Wilkinson was a vice admiral of the United States Navy during World War II. He also received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Veracruz, Mexico.
The Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign were a series of battles fought from August 1942 through February 1944, in the Pacific theatre of World War II between the United States and Japan. They were the first steps of the drive across the Central Pacific by the United States Pacific Fleet and Marine Corps. The purpose was to establish airfields and naval bases that would allow air and naval support for upcoming operations across the Central Pacific. Operation Galvanic and Operation Kourbash were the code names for the Gilberts campaign that included the seizures of Tarawa and Makin, during the Battle of Tarawa on 20–23 November 1943 and the Battle of Makin on 20–24 November 1943. Operation Flintlock and Operation Catchpole were aimed at capturing Japanese bases at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Majuro in the Marshall Islands.
USS Rocky Mount (AGC-3) was an Appalachian-class command ship in the United States Navy.
USS Eldorado (AGC-11) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship, named after a mountain range in Nevada. The ship was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.
USS Panamint (AGC-13) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship named after the Panamint Range of mountains in California. She was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.
Ralph Andrew Ofstie was a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, an escort carrier commander in World War II, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), and Commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. He was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and his hometown was Everett, Washington.
Edwin Thomas Layton was a rear admiral in the United States Navy. Layton is most noted for his work as an intelligence officer before and during World War II. He was the father of the historian Edwin T. Layton, Jr.
Wilson Brown, Jr. was a vice admiral of the United States Navy who served in World War I and World War II. Brown turned 60 in April 1942, making him one of the oldest American naval officers to serve in combat during World War II.
On 10 November 1943, men of the United States Marine Corps invaded the island of Betio, located at the southwest corner of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands chain in the Central Pacific. This invasion, known as Operation Galvanic, was a phase of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
Frank, Benis M. (Fall 1993). "Gen Hogaboom Dies; WWII Vet Was HQ Chief of Staff"(PDF). Fortitudine. Vol.XXIII, no.2. Washington, D.C.: USMC History and Museums Division. pp.26–28. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
Lundstrom, John B. (2006). Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN9781612512204. OCLC839304590.
Simmons, Edwin H. (Fall 1989). "Alabama's Holland M. Smith"(PDF). Fortitudine. Vol.XIX, no.2. Washington, D.C.: USMC History and Museums Division. pp.3–9. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
Hoyt, Edwin Palmer (1970). How They Won the War in the Pacific: Nimitz and His Admirals. New York: Weybright and Talley. ISBN9780762772858. OCLC726620681.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United States Navy 
Admiral 
