Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue, by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin.  Atlantic Monthly Press, $25 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-87113-948-1

 

Drury (The Rescue Season) and Clavin (Dark Noon: The Final Voyage of the Fishing Boat Pelican) collaborate on this uneven account of an obscure (unfairly so) and controversial World War II episode.

 

In December 1944, as the Third Pacific Fleet commanded by Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey, Jr., steamed toward the Philippines to support General Douglas MacArthur's invasion of Luzon, a typhoon took shape in the intertropical convergence zone between New Guinea and the Caroline Islands and moved off to the northwest. 

 

The slowly-evolving typhoon—officially Typhoon Cobra but widely referred to as "Halsey's Typhoon"—was discovered by Army meteorologists on Saipan on December 15 when it was 500 miles east of Halsey's fleet.  Commodore George Kosco, Halsey's chief meteorologist, badly miscalculated the storm's path, and Halsey continued on his intended route.

 

Even later, when additional reports from aircraft and distress calls from outlying ships in the task force suggested that Kosco had erred, Halsey hesitated to release his ships to run for shelter.  Noting "Halsey's obduracy," the authors note that "by 8 a.m. on December 18 virtually every ship's commander in the Third Fleet . . . had concluded they were steaming into a massive typhoon."  Even so, it was four more hours before Halsey heeded the warning.  By then, it was too late.

 

The storm crashed into the fleet with winds up to 125 knots (142.6 M.P.H.) and waves as high as 100 feet.  The smaller destroyers and destroyer escorts were tossed about like playthings.  Three ships broke up and sank with their crews.  790 sailors disappeared into the stormy waters.  Only ninety-three were rescued—fifty-five of those by the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Tabberer, whose Captain Henry Lee Plage ignored orders from Halsey to withdraw and continued searching for survivors.  Plage earned the Legion of Merit for his courageous leadership and his entire crew earned the Navy's first-ever Unit Commendation Ribbon.

 

An official Court of Inquiry conducted a hasty review, concluded that "'errors in judgment under stress of war operations" had been made, and classified the report Top Secret thus closing it to inquiring eyes.  Some sailors suspected a "whitewash," and the authors conclude that the "Navy brass were more than anxious to put this typhoon unpleasantness behind them."

 

The authors have interviewed many of the survivors of "Halsey's Typhoon" and have scoured the official documents—some only recently declassified—to produce a dramatic account of a harrowing episode for the sailors of the Third Pacific Fleet.  They are at their most compelling in recreating the devastating impact of the storm on the smaller destroyers and recounting the gruesome stories of survival at sea for the sailors of the sunken ships. 

 

The narrative has an uneven feeling—perhaps inevitable with co-authors—and the meteorological discussions are probably too technical for most readers.  Despite these minor glitches, Halsey's Typhoon is a compelling account of a big ego (Halsey's), a bigger storm, and uncommon heroism on the high seas.