Scholars rebut critics of admiral in key battle (Leyte Gulf, Off Samar)

San Antonio Express-News ^ | 09/20/2004 | J. Michael Parker

[SwinneySwitch]

FREDERICKSBURG — Adm. William Halsey has been blamed unfairly for his actions during World War II's Battle of Leyte Gulf, scholars said Sunday at a symposium marking the battle's coming 60th anniversary.

The symposium at Fredericksburg High School featured authors and survivors of the four-day battle, the largest ever fought at sea. Despite the problems often cited, the Navy on Oct. 23-26, 1944, finished the Imperial Japanese Navy as an effective fighting force.

Halsey, commander of the 3rd Fleet, and Adm. Thomas Kinkaid, commander of the 7th Fleet, were under a divided command structure that sowed confusion, Sunday's scholars said.

Both men failed to ensure that a small force of 7th Fleet escort aircraft carriers and destroyers off Samar Island were protected when Halsey took his fleet hundreds of miles north to attack and destroy a Japanese aircraft carrier fleet.

The tiny force off Samar was attacked by a huge enemy battle fleet, which sank two escort carriers, three destroyers and a destroyer escort.

Though Halsey, a popular hero, was never reprimanded, the incident tarnished his reputation.

"But Halsey had orders from Adm. (Chester) Nimitz that if an opportunity to destroy a major portion of the Japanese fleet presented itself, that became his primary mission," said Pacific war author Richard Frank. "Intelligence estimated that the Japanese had 175 to 200 aircraft with trained crews" as well as 13 aircraft carriers of various types and sizes.

Events proved the intelligence estimates badly exaggerated, and even the few aircraft carriers the Japanese had were nearly bereft of aircraft.

Frank said leaving Halsey's battleships to guard San Bernardino Strait — the Japanese link to the U.S. invasion point at Leyte Gulf — could have exposed them to Japanese air attack without protection from U.S. aircraft.

James Hornfischerof Austin, author of "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors," said that placing blame for the endangerment of the Samar ships is less important than realizing that the heroism of sailors and pilots turned disaster into victory.

Capt. Ernest Evans' audacity in attacking the huge enemy ships without orders seized the initiative and confused the Japanese in the battle's early minutes, Hornfischer said. Despite sinking the destroyer USS Johnston and several other ships, the Japanese dropped their plan to attack the U.S. invasion force in Leyte Gulf.

Retired Capt. Robert Hagen of San Antonio, a lieutenant and gunnery officer on the Johnston, said the doomed destroyer took three shells from a Japanese battleship's 14-inch guns.

"They went right through the ship and out the bottom," he said.

Late in the fight, despite the damage and with all the Johnston's torpedoes expended, Evans turned his ship toward the battleship.

"That scared the battleship, and it turned away; we didn't," Hagen said.

-------------------jparker@express-news.net

[SwinneySwitch]

Admiral Ziggy Sprague summed it up best when he wrote in his after-action report, "the failure of the enemy … to wipe out all vessels of this task unit can be attributed to our successful smoke-screen, our torpedo counter-attack, continuous harassment of the enemy by bomb, torpedo, and strafing air attacks, timely maneuvers, and the definite partiality of Almighty God."

Amen

[Professional Engineer]

Thanks for the post.