![]() The 36,000-ton Saratoga had been victimized by a Japanese submarine in January and sent back to Puget Sound, Washington, for a full refit the 37,000-ton Lexington was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May. But by late spring of 1942, both of America’s two big carriers had been lost. To be sure, the Japanese had clearly demonstrated at Pearl Harbor that aircraft carriers had supplanted battleships as the principal offensive weapons of modern navies. ![]() America’s vaunted battleships were either in repair facilities stateside or resting on the bottom of the harbor. It wasn’t much of a command when Nimitz took over on the last day of the year. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox remembered the president saying, “Tell Nimitz to get the hell out to Pearl Harbor and stay there till the war is won.” Roosevelt wanted in command at Pearl Harbor after the disastrous Japanese attack on Dec. That was exactly the kind of man that President Franklin D. ![]() He was not impersonal or cold - he was a gifted teller of stories and particularly fond of elegant puns - but his German heritage and his Texas Hill Country upbringing had bred in him a calm reserve that allowed him to remain apparently undisturbed in the midst of crisis. ![]() When exasperated, his most confrontational declaration was: “Now see here!” Undemonstrative and restrained, he rarely swore or even raised his voice. At age 56, with snow-white hair and piercing light-blue eyes, he was a quiet man who seldom betrayed his emotions. ![]()
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