The United States Asiatic Fleet was a fleet of the United States Navy during much of the first half of the 20th century. Before World War II, the fleet patrolled the Philippine Islands. Much of the fleet was destroyed by the Japanese by February 1942, after which it was dissolved, and the remnants incorporated into the naval component of the South West Pacific Area command, which eventually became the Seventh Fleet.
The fleet was created when its predecessor, the Asiatic Squadron, was upgraded to fleet status in 1902. In early 1907, the fleet was downgraded and became the First Squadron of the United States Pacific Fleet. However, on 28 January 1910, it was again organized as the Asiatic Fleet. Thus constituted, the Asiatic Fleet, based in the Philippines, was organizationally independent of the Pacific Fleet, which was based on the United States West Coast until it moved to Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii in 1940.
Although much smaller than any other U.S. Navy fleet and indeed far smaller than what any navy generally considers to be a fleet, the Asiatic Fleet from 1916 was commanded by one of only four four-star admirals authorized in the U.S. Navy at the time. This reflected the prestige of the position of Asiatic Fleet commander-in-chief, who generally was more powerful and influential with regard to the affairs of the United States in China than was the American minister, or later United States Ambassador, to China.Foreword by Kemp Tolley in Winslow, p. xii.
1902–1907 In 1904, all armored cruisers were withdrawn from the Far East. Gunboats patrolled the Yangtze River in the Yangtze Patrol.
After Rear Admiral Charles J. Train became commander-in-chief of the fleet in March 1905, it was involved in various ways with the closing weeks of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. After the Imperial Japanese Navy's decisive defeat of the Imperial Russian Navy in the Battle of Tsushima Strait in May 1905, units of the Asiatic Fleet escorted three fleeing Russian cruisers into Manila Bay in the Philippine Islands, where Train ensured that their crews were well taken care of during a lengthy stay until they were able to return to Russia.Anonymous, "Admiral Train Dies at Che-Foo, China", The New York Times, 4 August 1906.
In November 1905, Train was at the center of a diplomatic dispute while with a group of American officers on a pheasant-hunting expedition near Nanjing (Nanking), China, when he accidentally shot a Chinese woman with birdshot, inflicting minor injuries on her. A mob of hundreds of Chinese villagers formed around Trains party and attacked it, pushing Train into the mud, seizing the officers' guns, and taking Train's son, Navy Lieutenant Charles R. Train, hostage. When the Asiatic Fleet landed 40 United States Marines to rescue the officers, the villagers attacked them with pitchforks and the Marines fired two shots. Local Chinese officials refused to return the officers' guns, but Train and his companions were able to extricate themselves without further injury to anyone. The governor of Nanjing later apologized for the mob's actions, returned the American officers' guns, and punished the ringleaders of the mob.Tenth report of the Secretary of the Class of 1865 of Harvard College, July 1900 to July 1907, Boston: Geo. H. Ellis Co., 1907, p. 57.
On 4 August 1906, Train died in Yantai (known to Westerners at the time as "Chefoo"), China, while still in command of the Asiatic Fleet. After a memorial ceremony, which Japanese Admiral Heihachiro Togo and other dignitaries attended at Yokohama, aboard Trains flagship, the battleship , the steamer Empress of China carried his body out of the harbor under escort en route to Washington, D.C.Anonymous, "In Honor of Adm. Train". The Evening News, San Jose, California, 8 August 1906, p. 8.
In early 1907, the Asiatic Fleet was abolished, and its ships and personnel became the First Squadron of the United States Pacific Fleet.
1910–1937
On 28 January 1910, the United States Asiatic Fleet was reestablished.
In December 1922 the U.S. Navy was restructured, with the U.S. Pacific Fleet and United States Atlantic Fleet combining to form a unified United States Fleet. However, the Asiatic Fleet remained a separate entity and was charged with defending the Philippines and Guam and with upholding the Open Door Policy in China.
Due to political unrest in China, the Asiatic Fleet assigned the gunboats and and destroyers to the Chinese ports of Amoy, Fuzhou, and Shantou in 1932 to protect American lives and property.Hackett, Bob, "RISING STORM - THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY AND CHINA 1931–1941: The Seizure of Fuchow (Fuzhou) - 1941," combinedfleet.com, 17 April 2013 Accessed 1 January 2022
In late July 1937, the Asiatic Fleet's commander-in-chief, Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, took his flagship, the heavy cruiser , to the Soviet Union's main naval base in the Pacific, Vladivostok, along with four of the fleet's destroyers. The visit, urged by the Soviet government, was an attempt to display solidarity between the Soviet Union and the United States in the face of increasingly aggressive Japanese behavior in China and along the border between the Soviet Union and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. The visit was unsuccessful in deterring further Japanese military operations in either area.Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, , p. 3.
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War began on 7 July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The United States was not a participant in the conflict, but it complicated the Asiatic Fleet's mission as the fleet continued to maintain a presence and take action to protect American lives and property.
On 14 August 1937, Augusta with Yarnell aboard arrived at Shanghai from Qingdao just after the Battle of Shanghai began. That day, aircraft of the Republic of China Air Force mistakenly attacked the Royal Navy heavy cruiser in the harbor at Shanghai, but the bombs fell wide of Cumberland and did not damage her.Hackett, Bob, Sander Kingsepp, and Anthony Tully, "RISING STORM - THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY AND CHINA: 1931-1941: The Beginning of The Second Sino-Japanese War - "The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Fall of Peiping and Shanghai - 1937," combinedfleet.com, 1 November 2013 Accessed 14 December 2021 Two bombs also fell close alongside Augusta, but there were no fatalities.
Japanese Special Naval Landing Force and Imperial Japanese Army forces landed on the coast of China at Shantou on 21 June 1939 and seized the city 12 hours later.Hackett, Bob, Sander Kingsepp, and Anthony Tully, "RISING STORM - THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY AND CHINA: 1931-1941: Amphibious Assault on Swatow (Shantou) - 1939," combinedfleet.com, 28 February 2013 Accessed 14 December 2021 At the time, 40 American citizens and 80 British nationals were ashore at Shantou and the Asiatic Fleet destroyer and the Royal Navy destroyer were in the harbor. The Japanese peremptorily ordered the two ships to leave, and when the demand reached Yarnell aboard Augusta — anchored to the north at Qinhuangdao — Yarnell requested instructions from the United States Government, which in turn granted U.S. military personnel in China the authority to make decisions on their own initiative, a response to the Japanese government's habit of blaming any confrontation between Japanese and international forces in China on local Japanese commanders. With this authority in hand, Yarnell ordered Pillsbury to remain at Shantou, sent the destroyer there as a reinforcement, and informed his Japanese counterpart, the commander-in-chief of the China Area Fleet, Vice Admiral Koshirō Oikawa, that U.S. Navy ships would remain present anywhere where U.S. lives and property were in danger. Thanet also remained at Shantou, reinforced by the destroyer , and the Japanese did not take further action against any of the ships or against U.S. or British nationals at Shantou.
World War II On 25 July 1939, Admiral Thomas C. Hart was appointed the commander-in-chief of the fleet. It was based at Cavite Naval Base and Olongapo Naval Station on Luzon, with its headquarters at the Marsman Building in Manila. On 22 July 1941, the Mariveles Naval Base was completed and the Asiatic Fleet began to use it as well.
Hart had permission to withdraw to the Indian Ocean, in the event of war with Japan, at his discretion.
Hart's submarines, commanded by Commander, Submarines, Asiatic Fleet (COMSUBAF) Captain John E. Wilkes were six elderly S-class submarines (plus submarine tender )Blair, Silent Victory (Bantam, 1976), p.77. and seven Porpoises ( Submarine Squadron 5).Blair, p.77. In October 1941, 12 Salmons or Sargos—in Captain Stuart "Sunshine" Murray's Submarine Division 15 and Captain Joseph A. Connolly's Submarine Division 16, accompanied by the tender , were added. Walter E. "Red" Doyle was assigned as Wilkes' relief.Blair, p.82. Hart's defensive plan relied heavily on his submarines, which were believed to be "the most lethal arm of the insignificant Asiatic Fleet", to interdict the Japanese and whittle down their forces prior to a landing, and to disrupt attempts at reinforcing after the landings took place.Roscoe, Theodore, United States Submarine Operations in World War II (Annapolis, 1949), pp. 23-24. When war began, Doyle's inexperience in Asian waters meant Wilkes remained de facto COMSUBAF.
Problems were encountered almost from the beginning. No defensive minefields were laid.Blair, pp. 156-160. Ineffective and unrealistic peacetime training, inadequate (or nonexistent) defensive plans, poor deployments, and defective torpedoes combined to make submarine operations in defense of the Philippines a foregone conclusion. No boats were placed in Lingayen Gulf, widely expected to be where the Japanese would land;Blair, p. 158. in the event, several S boats, aggressively handled, scored successes there.Blair, pp. 127-156 Nor were any boats off ports of Japanese-held Taiwan, despite more than a week's warning of impending hostilities. Successes were few in the early days of the war.Stern, Robert C., U.S. Subs in Action ( Squadron/Signal Publications, 1979), p. 5.
Chinese detachment From 1901 to 1937, the United States maintained a strong military presence in China, to protect trade interests in the Far East, and to pursue a permanent alliance with the Chinese Republic, after long diplomatic difficulties with the Chinese Empire. The relationship between the U.S. and China was mostly on-again off-again, with periods of both cordial diplomatic relations accompanied by times of severed relations and violent anti-United States protests. China's central government was relatively weak in comparison to the local influence of regional warlords. Armed renegade soldiers and boatmen prowled the Yangtze River ready to seize any vessel unable to defend itself.
The cooks, bakers, stewards, and mess attendants were exclusively Chinese aboard all gunboats and cruisers in Chinese waters. These men did not wear naval uniforms, but wore traditional Chinese civilian attire. They wore black satin slippers and a skullcap with a decorative button on top. The remainder of their clothing was made of white satin, consisting of long, rather loose pantaloons tied around the ankles and a short jacket fastened in front with frogs. Not considered part of the ships' crew were the Chinese girls who lived aboard sampans tied to the stern of each gunboat while moored at Shanghai. These sampans would shuttle members of the gunboat crew ashore upon request. The girls also painted the gunboat and polished brightwork in exchange for the ship's garbage.