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Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story
of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic
Storm, and an Untold Rescue
By Robert Drury and Tom
Clavin
with Ship Plans by A.D. Baker
III
(352 pages)
Reviewer: Terry Miller
Overall Rating: Four Stars--Highly recommended. An excellent book.
We know the story. The
destroyers Hull, Monahan, and
Spence were lost in Typhoon
Cobra in December of 1944. Now
Robert Drury and Tom Clavin show
us the truth about those fateful
hours. Admiral William “Bull”
Halsey’s name has been linked to
the disaster but was he guilty
of more than being outguessed by
Nature? Halsey’s Typhoon
analyzes what Halsey and his
staff knew, when they learned
it, what key pieces of
information they lacked, and
what errors made by others
contributed to one of the worst
naval catastrophes of all time.
As we did with James
Hornfischer’s The Last Stand of
the Tin Can Sailors, we embark
on a story the outcome of which
we already know but still we
find ourselves turning pages in
anticipation as new data is
presented in a gripping way.
Halsey’s Typhoon is the most
important treatment of the
subject to come along and
readers will continually find
themselves reanalyzing what they
thought they knew about the loss
of three gallant ships and over
700 men. In this time of so many
excellent new books about
various aspects of naval
history, this is one that stands
out and deserves attention. This
is the book that you will tell
your friends and fellow sailors,
“You have to read this book!”
Reviewer: Capt. R. N. Adrian,
USN (Ret.)
Overall Rating:
Five
Stars--Every Tin Can Sailor will
find this extremely exciting
This is a gripping story of a
fighting Admiral and the most
devastating natural disaster in
the history of the U.S. Navy. It
took the lives of over 800
sailors--3 times as many as the
Battle of Midway--and caused the
loss of 3 destroyers. The Navy
had suppressed the scope of this
disaster, and it is told here by
the authors, probably for the
first time, using all of their
monumental research of
previously unavailable documents
and interviews with survivors.
To Pacific WWII veterans and
historians, the name of Admiral
William "Bull" Halsey is
synonymous with "Warrior." But,
to some in Washington, he was a
brash, profane, tempestuous
rogue, smoking 40 cigarettes and
drinking 14 cups of coffee a
day. However, in his own way,
this "Fighting Admiral" amassed
one of finest records of naval
warfare in U.S. history.
The authors compare Halsey's
temperament with his fellow WWII
Naval task force stable mate,
Commander of the 5th Fleet,
Admiral Raymond Spruance.
Spruance had a calm, low key
personality and is remembered
for his victory at the Battle of
Midway on June 4, 1942, often
referred to in U.S.
Naval history records as our
Trafalgar. .
The authors continue to follow
Halsey's trade off with Spruance
as Fleet Commander from Task
Force 54 to 34 (the stagecoach
system--change drivers but
retain the horses & coach) and
again pick up Halsey's Command
of the Fleet in August 1944,
after Spruance had secured the
capture of the Marianas. During
this time Spruance's carrier
units engaged the Japanese
combined carrier fleet in the
battle of the Philippine Sea
("The Great Mariana Turkey
Shoot"--the largest air battle
in history). This battle
resulted in the loss of 3
additional irreplaceable
Japanese flat-tops and a
majority of their seasoned
carrier pilots, thus removing
the Japanese from any further
carrier operations.
This introduced a new equation
into the defense of the Japanese
homeland as they changed to a
Kamikaze strategy. Before the
war was over 2,550 Kamikazes
would take over 12,000 lives,
wound another 36,000 and sink or
damage 74 U.S. Navy ships.
In the fall of 1944, Halsey took
over from Spruance "The Big Blue
Fleet" changing the task force
number to 34 and assembled his
fleet, comprised of 170 ships,
in the Ulithi atoll. His next
orders from CINCPAC were to
cover and support General ("I
shall Return") MacArthur's
capture and
occupation of the central
Philippines. MacArthur put his
120,000 amphibious troops and
100,000 tons of supplies ashore
on LeYte on October 24, 1944,
with Halsey's support planes
flying 259 sorties.
The authors then review the
Japanese actions taken to oppose
Macarthur's Philippine return
with a complicated 4 prong
attack. The Japanese "kicker" in
this plan was to draw off
Admiral Halsey's main task force
to the north of Samar, using 4
Japanese carriers coming from
Japan as bait for him to chase,
and it worked. Fortunately,
Admiral Kinkaid's Task Force 77
of old Battleships CVEs, DDs,
DEs and PTs completely decimated
two of the groups, while
transiting the Surigio
Straights. In the battle off
Samar, through their outstanding
bravery, and heroic action,
Kinkaid's task force stood off
the Japanese's superior Northern
Force, and they surprisingly
withdrew.
On December 17, 1944, Halsey
again positioned his task force
where he considered it was in
the most advantageous location
for the further support of
General MacArthur's Philippine
Operations, but unwittingly in
the path of a monstrous Typhoon.
In the annals of Navy history,
there are few equals to the
authors' compelling, gripping
and personalized story that puts
the reader right in the middle
of the next 60 hours of 150mph
winds and waves of 90 feet,
causing 900 officers and sailors
to be swept overboard or trapped
in capsized ships. The story
follows this epic tragedy, with
continuing coverage of the
heroic but sometimes sad
accounts of sailor survival
efforts against impossible odds.
Availability:
Tin
Can Sailors Ship's Store
$22.00 Media Rate
$26.00 Priority
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