The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
|
| Previous: Blimbing | Table of Contents | Next: Bluemel, Clifford |
U.S. Navy. Via ibiblio.org
Claude C. Bloch had graduated from the Naval
Academy in time to serve in the Spanish-American War. He was
commander of 14 Naval
District,
based at Honolulu, at the start
of the Pacific War. He
was a former commander, U.S.
Fleet, and so was
in rather an uncomfortable position serving under Kimmel, who had a tendency
to interfere with Bloch's management of 14 Naval District. Bloch
had
rejected proposals to install antitorpedo
nets in Pearl Harbor on the
grounds that
they would greatly delay a sortie of the fleet, but he was otherwise a
preparedness advocate and was
a
principal witness at the various Pearl
Harbor
inquiries.
Bloch was among the admirals who advised against carrier raids on the Mandates early in the war. (The raids took place anyway.) He retired a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor (he was 64 years old) but continued to serve on the Navy Board.
| 1878-7-13
|
Born in Kentucky |
|
| 1899 |
Midshipman
|
Graduates from Naval Academy,
standing 14th in a class of 153 |
| 1938 |
Admiral (brevet)
|
Commander, U.S. Fleet |
| 1940-1-6 |
Vice
admiral |
Commander, 14 Naval District |
| 1942-4-4 |
Navy Board |
|
| 1942-8-1 |
Admiral |
Retires |
| 1942-10-16 |
Navy Board/Chair, Board for
Production Awards |
|
| 1967-10-4 |
Dies at Washington, D.C. |
References
Parrish
(1978)
Pettibone (2006)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2009 by Kent G. Budge. Index
