Benutzer:Gunsou/Hyakutake Haruyoshi
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Haruyoshi Hyakutate [Hyakutake] (1888-1947) was a Japanese general who led the defense of the Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal against U.S. forces throughout 1943-1944.
Born in Saga prefecture, Hyakutate graduated as an infantry officer from the Japanese Military Academy in 1909. He would later study cryptoanalysis while at the Army Staff College before his graduation in 1921. Within three years, Hyakutate had been promoted to Major and later served on the Army General Staff's Intelligence Division as Chief of the Cryptographic Section from 1927 to 1929.
In 1931, Hyakutate was transferred to Harbin as Chief of the Special Service Agency, attached to the Kwantung (Guangdong) Army headquarters. A colonel by 1935, Hyakutate would become a regimental commander and, in 1939, he attained the rank of Major General and served as army superintendent of the Army Signal School as well as given command of the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade, again being promoted to Lieutenant General before the end of the year.
Briefly serving as commander of the 18th Infantry Division in 1940, Hyakutate was acting as inspector general of amy signals training during the first two years of the Second World War. Assigned command of the 17th Army based on Rabaul in May 1942, Hyakutate was preparing to capture strategic locations in the South Pacific region including New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa (as well as the capture of Port Moresby) before reversals at Battle of Midway and other defeats forced Hyakutate to take a defensive position as he prepared to defend the Solomons.
In the ensuing Solomon Islands campaign, Hyakutate's command would eventually be overrun by inadequate supplies and superior aircraft presence in a desperate attempt to defend Guadalcanal from August 1942 until February 1943. Initially surprised at the American landing at Rendova on New Georgia on June 30, his later counterattack at Torokina Point in March 1944 suffered extremely heavy casualties. Eventually reassigned to the 8th Army headquarters in April 1945, he returned to Japan following its surrender living in retirement until his death in 1947.
[Bearbeiten] Reference
- Dupuy, Trevor N. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1992. ISBN 0-7858-0437-4
