A Note From Bob

Sunday. He took command of the Pacific Fleet on the last day of 1941, in a short ceremony on the deck of a submarine at Pearl Harbor. Five months later he sent three carriers toward a speck of coral and changed the direction of the war. Today we hand you twenty questions on the hill-country Texan who ran the largest naval command in history. Chester Nimitz is today's featured quiz. Pour the coffee.

Trivia Question of the Day

The answer is at the bottom of this email.

Today's Featured Quiz

He wanted West Point and got Annapolis instead. Forty-four years later he stood on the deck of the USS Missouri and signed the Japanese surrender for the United States. Between those two points sit Midway, the island campaigns, and a fleet rebuilt out of the mud of Pearl Harbor. How well do you know the admiral? 20 questions.

The Answer

Rochefort worked in a smoking jacket and slippers against the chill of the basement air conditioning, and he was certain the Japanese designator AF meant Midway. Washington disagreed. So in May 1942 his unit had Midway broadcast an uncoded message that its water distillation plant had failed. Within days the Japanese reported that AF was short of water. Nimitz had his target, his date, and his ambush: the subject of today's second quiz, thirty questions on the Battle of Midway.

On This Day

On this day in 1945, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis slipped into Tinian and unloaded a wooden crate and a lead-lined cylinder holding the uranium projectile for the first atomic bomb. She had crossed from San Francisco in ten days. Four days later a Japanese submarine sank her in the Philippine Sea, and the Pacific war that had turned at Midway was weeks from its end. Test yourself with 30 questions on the Battle of Midway.