It is 100% true.
For most of the War in the Pacific, Nimitz had set up a rather unique system of command of the fleet. Not unlike the Blue Crew/Gold Crew system we see in modern submarines. The fleet had 2 complete command staffs. One under William Halsey, the other under Raymond Spruance. And they alternated every few months.
When Halsey was in charge it was the Third Fleet, and Spruance and his team were back in Hawaii planning their next series of operations. Then they would swap. Under Spruance it became the Fifth Fleet, and Halsey and his team were back planning their next operations.
They were sharing the same ships and crews. Just handing off leadership, in order to maintain a steady operational tempo. And it worked amazingly well. (Halsey and Nimitz even shared the same house on Hawaii, and later on Guam as the war progressed westward).
Very late in the war, after Okinawa, this changed. By the mid to late summer of 1945, the US Navy had grown so large, with so many ships of all types, that the Third Fleet and Fifth Fleet could now coexist at the same time.
With Halsey commanding the ships of the Third Fleet, and Spruance the Fifth. With each of the fully realized fleets larger than the 3rd/5th had been through most of 1944. As an example of what I mean 3rd fleet had USS Iowa and USS Missouri. 5th Fleet had USS New Jersey and Wisconsin. with each having three of the other 6 Fast Battleships.
With the Fast Carriers split between them. There was also 7th Fleet which was the “Invasion Fleet”. Primarily made up of the Old Slow Standard Battleships, all the Troop and Supply Transports and Landing ships carrying the Marines and Army units.
A healthy number of Casablanca Class Escort Carriers so the Marines had their own organic close air support, and the needed escorts for all. And it too was far far larger than it had been at Saipan in June of 1944. The shear scale and power of the US Navy in August of 1945 was completely unprecedented.
If you look at the photos of the surrender ceremony aboard the Missouri, you will notice that Raymond Spruance is not there. So ask yourself, where was he? Third Fleet and Seventh Fleet were present in Tokyo Bay that day. Fifth Fleet was not.
Spruance was out to sea with his Fifth Fleet, with full strikes armed loaded and sitting warmed up on his carriers decks. Just in case. These were not the same planes used for the flyby during the ceremony. Those were from Halsey’s third fleet. And they carried no visible ordinance.
This was less than half the Carrier Planes available that day. The rest had full weapons loads and were waiting just in case. In addition most of the Escort Carriers of Thomas Kinkaid’s Seventh Fleet were out to sea warming up planes armed with ground attack loads, or their Avengers were busy doing Anti-Submarine patrol sweeps.
Nimitz wanted Halsey where both he and the Japanese could see him, in order to discourage trouble. And he wanted Spruance guarding his back, just in case there was trouble.
Halsey was the infamous hot head. The Bull. He scared the Japanese. Better to put him where everyone could see him. Spruance was the coolest head under pressure in the US or practically any other Navy. He would not start trouble, but he would end it f it occurred.
It wasn’t that Nimitz or anyone believed that the Japanese surrender was a ruse or a trap. It was that nobody could predict how some units of the Japanese Military were going to react or behave following the order to surrender.
We tend to forget, but the Asian portion of WW2 was started by mutinous mid tier officers in the Japanese Manchuko Army division. Who decided all on their own to invade China. Majors Captains and Lieutenants started the war against Tokyo’s wishes.
But Tokyo was too afraid of the Army to chastise them for this or end the invasion. Further there had already been an attempt by a group of lower level officers to seize the Imperial Palace and the Emperor when they heard of the surrender plans.
What Nimitz feared was some rogue unit attempting a Kamikaze attack or coup during the formal surrender. Throwing everything into chaos.
There was brilliant element of perfectly designed, almost poetic symmetry at that Formal Surrender. Here we had the USS Missouri, the newest and largest Battleship in the world that day.
And next to her, representing 7th fleet, was the USS West Virginia. The most heavily damaged ship from Pearl Harbor to be refloated, repaired, upgraded and returned to service. The beginning and the end.
On the USS Missouri when Japan surrendered formally the Tokyo Bay Navy base showcased many ships along with celebratory vessels. Admiral Nimitz implemented through strategic planning a massive yet soundless security operation.
He knew that although surrender documents were signed the tempestuous pattern of wartime loyalty remained a surprising hazard.
The American naval power exhibit known as Halsey’s Third Fleet visibly set anchor as the centerpiece at the ceremony. Military aircraft from the fleet gave an aerial display which showcased overwhelming power through their glimmering wings in the sunshine. Nimitz used this stance as a warning to any officer who might consider hasty action.
The Fifth Fleet of Admiral Spruance remained positioned away from direct view beyond the distant horizon. The aircraft carriers within the armada maintained a silent operational status for combat readiness.
Each functional aircraft and bomb and torpedo stood as proof of the prepared state of the U.S. Navy. The steel aircraft carrier held strategic value to Nimitz as his powerful deterrent under his strategic mask. Spruance acted as the decisive force that Nimitz trusted to stop any insurrections following the Emperor’s speech.
Pacific operations relied on the Seventh Fleet to be constantly on alert as one of its key Pacific campaign workforces. The escort carriers of the fleet inspected maritime areas for submarines and deployed ground-attack aircraft to support any envisioned beach landing actions.
The powerful historical statement emerged from the placement of the Pearl Harbor survivor ship West Virginia beside the industrial Navy destroyer Missouri that served as a symbol of victory. The visual book of triumph and endurance appeared as an emotional milestone in human history.
Nimitz conducted his diplomatic maneuvering while maintaining a firm control of American military strength. His peaceful presence held tightly onto the sword which enabled surrender documents to be both executed and maintained secure.
Aircraft carriers can only be effective combat vessels if they are steaming at sea and able to launch and recover aircraft. On the day of surrender there were several dozen U.S. and British carriers at sea off the coast conducting air operations.
There is a famous film of more than a thousand allied aircraft over flying the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay at the end of the ceremony. Many of these aircraft were carrier planes.
I have attached a link showing Task Force 38 off the Japanese coast a few days after the surrender. If you look closely at the embedded picture you can count nine aircraft carriers.
