Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King served as Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) from December 1941 through the end of World War II, directing American naval strategy across two oceans simultaneously. In late 1945, King submitted his final official report on the war at sea — a comprehensive assessment covering the Battle of the Atlantic and the U-boat campaign, the Pacific island-hopping strategy and amphibious operations, carrier aviation, submarine warfare against Japan, the naval gunfire support that preceded every major landing, and the logistical achievement of maintaining a two-ocean fleet at the end of supply lines spanning thousands of miles. The January 1946 All Hands published eleven pages of extended excerpts from King's report, giving the fleet a summary of how the Navy had fought and won the war from the perspective of its wartime commander.
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