There the story of typhoons and the United States Navy in World War Two in the Pacific would end except
for one item of controversy, which bubbles to the surface to this day. The Third Fleet, which was twice
mauled by typhoons and the only fleet, which suffered serious damage by typhoons during World War II, was
under the command of the same man on both occasions.
Halsey on the USS New Jersey, 1944
Some argue he was incompetent and should have been relieved -- hence the controversy and the question I will examine in these pages -- Should Admiral William Halsey have been relieved of command after the second typhoon?
Background
Late in WWII Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey Jr., was recognized as one of America’s most audacious, aggressive, respected and experienced naval commanders. He also led his powerful Third Fleet into the paths of two typhoons.
The first typhoon in December of 1944 capsized three of his destroyers the Hull, the Spence, and the Monaghan. Major structural damage was inflicted on two of the large escort carriers, three light carriers, one battleship, one cruiser, and three other destroyers. Nineteen of his other ships suffered less severely. One hundred fifty six aircraft were lost or damaged beyond repair. Seven hundred of his officers and sailors died. Six months later, in June 1945, Admiral Halsey and his Third Fleet gave a repeat performance. Amazingly this time only six officers and sailors were lost. However a total of thirty-three of his ships suffered severe damage with 76 aircraft destroyed.
Culpable?
Was Halsey responsible for the losses inflicted by these storms? Should Halsey have been relieved of command after either the first of these incidents or certainly after the second? If so why wasn’t he? Was there a cover up?
A brief look at Admiral Halsey resume’ during WWII is necessary at this point.
Damn The Typhoons Full Speed Ahead!
Admiral Halsey never said the words above but his attitude and actions always said it for him. Halsey was without a doubt the Navy’s most aggressive admiral during WWII. Halsey was to the United States Navy what General George S. Patton, Jr. was to the United States Army. He was vocal in stating publicly what he felt privately, which to the story starved press early in WWII was a well of welcome ink.
No one can deny Admiral Halsey’s resume’ of accomplishments in WWII in the Pacific. From before Pearl Harbor to the final Japanese surrender on his flagship, Halsey’s contributions dwarf in comparison, all those of his contemporaries.
Before we’re through with ‘em,
the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!
-- Halsey at Pearl Harbor Dec 8, 1941
To get a feel for Halsey’s fighting spirit one has to look no further back than immediately before Pearl Harbor. Halsey, on November 28, 1941 as Vice Admiral Commanding the Pacific Fleet Carriers and commanding Task Force 2 sailed with aircraft and men aboard to reinforce Wake Island and Midway Island. His personal sailing orders to his fleet were, “You are operating under war time conditions”.
When questioned by one of his senior officers as to his authority to issue such an order Admiral Halsey’s reply was “Shoot first the responsibility is mine!”.
Halsey’s force completed their reinforcement mission without Japanese interference then turned and steamed for their return to Pearl Harbor. His force was scheduled to arrive back at Pearl Harbor on Sunday December 7th but was delayed one day by bad weather.
Halsey and his carrier the Enterprise and escorts were 150 miles out from Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack. After the Japanese orchestrated the naval disaster at Pearl Harbor, a USN force was sent on December 16 to reinforce Wake Island. Wake Island, it was surmised by the navy brass, correctly as it turned out, would be the next immediate objective of the Japanese. Halsey’s force was ordered to sail as a back up and departed on December 20 to provide support and hopefully catch the Japanese invaders unaware.
Due to indecisiveness or defeatism, both from the commander at Pearl Harbor, and the commander of the force sent to reinforce Wake Island, the relief did not arrive in time. Rather, it was finally ordered to turn back. Contemporary accounts record Halsey’s rage at this faint heartedness by the admiral commanding the relief force. Instead of charging ahead to relieve Wake Island with his carrier the Admiral stopped to refuel his accompanying destroyers not once but twice. These delays Halsey felt gave the Japanese sufficient time to overrun Wake Island. Historians today agree.
In testimony to the Roberts Commission, appointed by President Roosevelt to investigate immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Halsey was asked his opinion on the strategy of operations of a carrier task force. Halsey replied “ … to get to the other fellow with everything you have and as fast as possible and to dump it on him.”
Admiral Halsey was a true advocate of offense. (Robert’s Commission – Supreme Court Associate Owen J. Roberts)
Halsey’s Special Relationship With Nimitz
“Bill Halsey came to my support and offered to lead the attack, I’ll not be a party to any enterprise that can hurt the reputation of a man like that." --Chester W. Nimitz
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrived to replace the disgraced Admiral Husband E. Kimmel as Commander in Chief Pacific (CinCPac) on December 31, 1941. This was only a day after Admiral Earnest King became Chief of Naval Operations. Nimitz was directed by King to initiate immediate raids and actions in the Gilbert Islands, an action meant show the American public there was a United States Navy left in the Pacific. Nimitz desperately needed support at this time for the raids.
Nimitz retained all of Admiral Kimmel’s staff on assuming command. Unfortunately as a result of the disaster at Pearl Harbor some of these officers were demoralized, afraid, and lacking in confidence. Though Nimitz pressured them to undertake a carrier raid in Japanese waters in January 1942 his new staff resisted. Discussions and plans for the raid were first laid out on January 2. From then until January 7 it was Nimitz challenging his new staff to attack and his staff finding reasons not to. Halsey arrived back at Pearl entered the discussions and forcefully supported the attack plan. It was only Halsey who lent his total support to Nimitz for the raids offering to lead them. On January 10th, Admiral Nimitz accepted Halsey’s offer.
Halsey carried out this naval raid in the Pacific with incredible success. Known as the Gilbert and Marshall Island raid, it was publicized throughout the nation. The press declared Halsey’s attack on the Japanese Gilbert and Marshall Island bases the first United States victory against the Japanese.
While the raid was in fact the first coordinated offensive action against the Japanese and though the material damage inflicted on the Japanese in no way compensated for Pearl Harbor the psychological morale boost to the American public was incalculable at the time. Nimitz was and would remain eternally grateful for Halsey’s unflinching support and performance in his Nimitz’s, first planned operation as CinCPac.
Halsey did not rest on his laurels. He followed the Gilbert and Marshall Island raid in February 1942 with other well-publicized and successful raids on Wake Island and Marcus Island. Then, in April, he enshrined his reputation with the American public and Nimitz by leading the most audacious raid of them all. Halsey commanded the carriers that launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo on April 17, 1942.
Nimitz had another job for Halsey after the Doolittle raid. Nimitz wanted Halsey to lead the American Naval Forces in the first American planned, large-scale encounter with the Japanese navy. This would be the Battle of Midway Island. However, Halsey had become a sick man suffering from exhaustion brought on by dermatitis.
Halsey contributed to the successful outcome of the battle by recommending Vice Admiral Raymond Spruance as his replacement. Then he spent the next six months recovering his health.
Halsey returned to action in October 1942, when ordered by Nimitz to replace Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley as Commander South Pacific Area. This would be Halsey’s first shore command during the war. He would not be leading his ships on the water, rather he would be remotely directing them from his command base at Noumea, New Caledonia.
The reason behind his new assignment was the battle for Guadalcanal. It was a mess and the navy was being blamed, justifiably. Nimitz’s reported estimate of the Guadalcanal situation that month was bleak, “It now appears that we are unable to control the sea in the Guadalcanal area. … The situation is not hopeless, but it is certainly critical.”. He concluded Ghormley was not the man for the job but that Bill Halsey was.
On October 26th shortly after assuming his new job as Commander South Pacific Area carrier aircraft under his command spotted Japanese carriers. Halsey kick started the campaign issuing the order “ATTACK – REPEAT – ATTACK!”.
Throughout the next four months a steady stream of aggressive orders issued by Halsey drove his carriers, cruisers, and destroyers into a slugging match with the Japanese Navy in battle after battle. He also insured that whatever the danger his transports continued to reinforce and supply the ground and aviation forces for the island. By February Halsey had done it again for Nimitz. The Japanese were finished at Guadalcanal.
Halsey’s forces spent the rest of 1943 and beginning of 1944 battling up the Solomon Island chain in the South Pacific to Bougainville and supporting General Douglas Macarthur’s opening offenses in the Southwest Pacific. Finally by securing strategic positions in the Admiralties and Bismarck islands he was credited with deci-mating the aircraft at, driving the Japanese fleet from, and isolating the great Japanese naval and air base at Rabaul.
Halsey’s reputation for results and his popularity was such that he was selected as Time Magazine’s "Man of the Year" in 1943. Time, wrote “Outstanding among Americans for accomplishment in battle stood the name of Admiral William Halsey, who, not once but again and again, took his task force into swift encounters against the Japs to deal them telling blows.”
During 1943 General Douglas MacArthur described his opinion of Halsey,
“I liked him from the moment we met.” “…blunt, outspoken, dynamic” “the bugaboo of many sailors, the fear of losing ships, was completely alien to his conception of sea action”.
Later after the war MacArthur would describe Admiral Halsey as, "…the greatest fighting admiral" of World War II.
By April 1944 the Japanese were finished in the South Pacific. Admirals King and Nimitz not wanting to lose so valuable a commander as William Halsey in the now relative backwater of the South Pacific decided to move him into the central Pacific. Concurrently both admirals reached another decision. The flood of new navy war craft arriving in the Pacific Theater would finally allow them to eliminate the use of ad-hoc task forces.
They now possessed enough ships for a permanent operational fleet. Standing on that rung of decision they then reached for a higher one (or borrowed an idea from the Romans) and ordered that this fleet would have two names and two commanders. Admiral Spruance would be in command while Halsey was ashore planning the next campaign, then Admiral Halsey would command while Spruance planned for the next. While under Spruance the fleet would be known as the Fifth Fleet. Conversely under Halsey it would be the Third Fleet. June of 1944 Halsey was relieved as Commander South Pacific Area assuming his new responsibilities as Commander Third Fleet.
The War Becomes Less Simple
Halsey’s South Pacific operations in 1942 had begun on a shoestring. With the exception of coordinating with MacArthur it was a semi independent small numbers of ships with relatively simple logistics. All this had changed by midyear 1944 when he assumed command of the Third Fleet. Halsey had been away from sea command for two years during a period of almost unbelievable growth of surface power.
Back in April of 1942 when Halsey had led Task Force 16, which launched Doolittle, and his crews on the attack on Japan his entire force consisted of only two aircraft carriers, four cruisers, eight destroyers, and two oilers. It was the largest American force assembled in the Pacific at that time.
Compare that to the size of Halsey’s Third Fleet before the first typhoon encounter in December of 1944. He had under his command at that time seven Essex-class carriers, six light carriers, eight battleships, four heavy cruisers, eleven light cruisers, and fifty destroyers. His support and fueling group alone comprised five escort aircraft carriers, twelve fleet oilers, three fleet tugboats, five destroyers, and ten destroyer escorts.
More Halsey's Typhoons
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© Copyright 2002 by David W. Tschanz.
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