Posted on 06/03/2007 7:30:58 PM PDT by BGHater
Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's "Halsey's Typhoon" is man-against-nature drama at its best. It's an inspiring and thrilling read.
It is a true story of heroism and hardship at war. It's also an account of the occasional cowardice, incompetence and cock-ups that occur in every military conflict. It's a story worth knowing and well told, with the pace and riveting immediacy of a good novel.
In December of 1944, while supporting Gen. Douglas MacArthur's "I will return" invasion of the Philippine Islands, Adm. William "Bull" Halsey's 170-ship armada suffered a sneak attack from Typhoon Cobra, an unexpected enemy that did more damage to Halsey's fleet than the Imperial Japanese Navy had managed to inflict in the preceding three years.
The battle against Cobra, which packed winds up to 150 mph, was as intense as any fight the American Pacific fleet waged during World War II. In three hellacious days in a part of the Pacific known as "Typhoon Alley," this perfect storm broke up and sunk three American destroyers, badly damaged dozens of other ships and destroyed on decks, or blew overboard, more than 100 war planes. Almost three times as many sailors died in this dust-up with Mother Nature than were lost fighting at the Battle of Midway.
Almost 900 young American sailors were washed overboard, trapped below decks or taken down by their sinking ships. Hundreds spent up to 60 hours in the Pacific, clinging to any flotsam they could find, fighting to stay afloat and alive. Their formidable opponents were wounds, dehydration, exhaustion, opportunistic sharks and a clamorous sea that threw up 70-foot waves. All in all, it was a hell of a couple of days at the office.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
This book review caught my eye. I had not heard about this inicident, but I'm always happy to read about Heroes.
Er..Halsey’s
If I recall, Halsey managed to take a U.S fleet into a typhoon TWICE.
I just finished it...one of the most gripping books I have read in a while.
A must read for any historian, and most certainly any naval historian...
You should read it.
Remember, they did not have weather satellites back in those days. When someone saw the eye of the typhoon on shipboard radar, they said WTF is that???
Never seen an eye before...
“The only good Japenese is dead Japanese, I want to make as many Japanese good Japanese as I can.”
-William “Bull” Halsey
Happy Birthday Matt! I hope you enjoy this.
“I had not heard about this inicident”
You need to spend more time of FreeRepublic. There have been a couple of threads:
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Typhoon Cobra - Disaster at Sea - Dec. 18th, 2002
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/808538/posts
The FReeper Foxhole Revisits Typhoon Cobra ~ Disaster at Sea (18 December 1944) - Dec. 27th, 2003
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1844299/replies?c=1
Victory at Sea sequences show scenes from either this or something entirely similar to it. It shows the bows of Iowa class ships going straight down into the water and coming up again.
a much older cousin was on the USS Essex during the typhoons. He said it was the scariest thing he’s ever been through.
Thanks for the info. Jeeze, there is only 24hrs in a day to be on FR..:)
And while we are at it, here’s a related thread - a Bio thread on Halsey.
The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Fleet Admiral William (Bull) Halsey, Jr. USN - Apr. 19th, 2003
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/896204/posts
I cheated. I indexed the military history threads up to a couple of years ago. I need to get around to finishing the list. If you are interested in miltary history, it’s a good place to start. (It loads a little slowly because of poor coding.
The FReeper Foxhole Index
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/vetscor/1316923/posts?page=4
Hint: the at the top are indexes by era and by subject through January 05; at the bottom are cumulative updates for each.
... and a butterpie?
... no butterpie?
The butter always melts so fluid in the pie.
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