Admiral William Halsey: The US Navy's Raging Bull

Admiral William Halsey: The US Navy's Raging Bull

During world war ii there were a lot of american generals and admirals who commanded combat forces they could be roughly divided into two categories strategic commanders like dwight eisenhower or chester nimitz viewed the big picture of the war guiding strategy mastering logistical problems and installing the right people in the right places to get the job done tactical commanders by contrast had a more limited focus they were front-line battlefield officers often exposing themselves to great physical danger in order to accomplish their mission no officer in the united states better typified the tactical commanders and admiral william halsey in the dark days following pearl harbor halsey commanded the greatest part of what was left of the shattered pacific fleet having command of an aircraft carrier task force 

He sought to use this force to bring the war to the japanese however he could whenever he could his standing order was always attack and hit them harder than they can hit you throughout the duration of the pacific war halsey was in the front lines of many of the major battles and his inspirational leadership and courage made him a hero to his sailors and to the civilian population he wasn't perfect he made several key mistakes that might have costed more had he been a less famous commander but his contributions to the victory of the united states over japan were also obvious to everyone who worked with him and he was rewarded for his service with a rank that to date only three other officers in the u.s navy have achieved william frederick halsey jr was born on october 30th 1882 in elizabeth new jersey a large suburb of new york city the navy was in his blood from the start his father william senior was a captain in the united states navy and an ancestor captain john halsey served in the royal navy in the american theater of the war of spanish succession 1702-1713 growing up halsey was destined to become a naval officer he hit a slight snag though when he failed two years in a row to secure an appointment at the united states naval academy at annapolis the academy is where most naval officers come from and it was where his father had graduated from so it must have been a difficult blow he decided to study medicine at the university of virginia and become a doctor in the navy after graduation however after his freshman year at virginia he finally received an appointment to annapolis and he graduated in 1904. halsey rose rapidly through the ranks and when the first world war broke out he was a lieutenant commander in command of a destroyer uss shaw for his distinguished service throughout the conflict he was awarded the navy cross the second highest medal for valor at the navy awards halsey continued to serve primarily in command of destroyers throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. 

But the course of his career changed completely in 1934 when he was offered command of the navy's third aircraft carrier uss saratoga he was only required to complete an observers course in order to take command but captain halsey decided to enroll himself in the rigorous naval aviator program saying i thought it better to be able to fly the aircraft itself than to just sit back and be at the mercy of the pilot in 1935 hussey received his gold naval aviator wings he was at the age of 52 the oldest person to do so in the history of the navy he immediately became a leading advocate for the use of air power in naval tactics by 1941 he had been promoted three times to vice admiral and was the commander of the aircraft battle force of the pacific fleet overseeing all three aircraft carriers that the navy had at pearl harbor at the time the pacific fleet was primarily composed of large battleships with heavy guns and aircraft carriers were considered to be a support ship throughout 1941 tensions with japan had increased and many felt that war was imminent naval intelligence believed that the small american outpost on wake island was going to be a likely target of a japanese attack in response to this the commander of the pacific fleet admiral kimmel dispatched halsey aboard uss enterprise to wake on november 28 1941 to deliver planes to the marine garrison there as reinforcements throughout the journey halcy kept a lookout for any japanese activity intending to attack any forces that he saw as a threat to his ship but nothing appeared and enterprise started the journey back to pearl harbor the ship was scheduled to return to port on december 6th but a storm had delayed her which meant that on the morning of december the 7th she was still 200 miles west of oahu and desperate radio messages soon told halsey what was happening the japanese had indeed attacked but not wake island they had attacked pearl harbor itself in the chaos of that day kimmel radioed halsey ordering him to take command of any and all ships at sea that all other ships in the vicinity of hawaii were to rally to the enterprise halsey deployed his wing searching to the south and west of the islands for the japanese combined fleet that had carried out the pearl harbor attack but he was unable to locate them as they had retreated to the north hulsey returned to pearl harbor the next day viewing with dismay the damage the attack had done to the pacific fleet in his anger.

He said before with through wisdom the japanese language will be spoken only in hell the attack had destroyed or heavily damaged all of the large battleships in the fleet but halsey's command was still intact uss saratoga was in san diego while uss lexington had departed pearl harbor on december 5th to bring reinforcements to midway island the carriers were now the only ships the navy had left in the pacific to counter the japanese and halsey intended to use them with approval from the new commander of the pacific fleet admiral nimitz halsey's ships engaged in hit-and-run raids on japanese-held islands the attacks did little lasting damage but the american public reeling from a series of defeats didn't care someone was hitting back at the japanese and that was all that matters his sailors who loved the admiral's gruff demeanor and aggressive tactics referred to the raids as hauling ass with halsey it was during this time that also acquired a rather unusual nickname all his life had been known as bill halsey short for william however in the early months of the war an unknown journalist had accidentally recorded his name as bull halsey the name actually suited his public persona as he continued to be called this for the remainder of his life though never to his face when he returned to pearl harbor at the end of may 1942 halsey was in poor health a debilitating skin condition which was variously referred to as shingles atopic dermatitis and psoriasis caused a rash to break out over most of his body it's believed that a combination of the high stress environment that he had been in for the last six months combined with his near-constant smoking and coffee drinking had aggravated a skin condition he had managed for most of his life with creams unable to sleep and having lost 20 pounds admiral nimitz had to order him into a hawaii hospital for treatment halsey was taken back to the mainland united states for treatment being out of action until september 1942. he had missed the crucial battle of midway that had occurred in june in which the americans sank four japanese aircraft carriers and largely neutralized their offensive capabilities for the remainder of the war halsey's recommended replacement admiral raymond spruance had distinguished himself in that battle the first step on his own command journey that by the war's end would parallel halsey's in october halsey was sent to the south pacific theater the scene of a desperate struggle on the island of guadalcanal first marine division had invaded the island back in august but after the disastrous battle of sarvo island had seen four navy cruisers sunk and two admirals killed the navy had retreated stranding the marines on the islands without most of their supplies in the two months since then naval support had been spotty and inconsistent while the japanese continued to pour resources onto the island largely unimpeded admiral nimitz had concluded that 

The naval commander vice admiral robert cormly was overwhelmed and had lost the will to fight and decided to relieve him of command replacing him with halsey he was now in command of all forces in the south pacific and was determined to take guadalcanal at all costs where gormley had been cautious halsey was aggressive he wasn't afraid to commit his ships to decisive battles to stop the japanese reinforcement of guadalcanal and to protect american reinforcements landing these tactics paid off and by february 1943 guadalcanal was secured halsey's forces spent the rest of the year attacking up the solomon islands chain in particular borgenville as part of this campaign halsey directed a daring early morning raid on the heavily fortified japanese port of rabal taking the enemy by surprise and inflicting heavy damage in what was called the american answer to pearl harbor by the end of 1943 the south pacific area was largely in the hands of the allies and admiral nimitz had a new assignment for halsey in 1944 nimitz reorganized the bulk of the pacific fleet into what became known as the big blue fleet this was to be the fleet that would attack all the way across the pacific to the shores of japan itself to win the war control of the big blue fleet was to alternate between halsey and admiral spruance hulsey's friend and the celebrated victor of the battle of midway while one admiral was leading the fleet into battle the other was on shore planning the next campaign this allowed the pacific fleet to increase the tempo of offensive action throughout 1944 in order to confuse the japanese and make them believe the americans had even more ships than they did while halsey was in command the fleet was referred to as the third fleet while sprunce was in command it was referred to as the fifth fleet spirons had commands of the fleet during the first half of the year fighting in the gilbert marshall and mariana islands meanwhile halsey and her staff which he dubbed the department of dirty tricks were back in hawaii planning for the most important and ambitious military operation in the pacific to date the liberation of the philippine islands general douglas macarthur had requested hulsey's assistance personally as he was one of the few admirals he was able to work well with the celebrated and also rather egotistical general the third fleet would act in conjunction with vice admiral thomas kincaid seventh fleet to provide the troop landings bombard japanese shore positions and oppose any movement by the japanese fleet on october 20th 1944 american troops led by macarthur landed on the island of late and quickly pushed inland to the japanese high command the situation was dire if they lost control of the philippines they would lose their fuel pipeline from the dutch east indies back to japan and they would run out of oil to power their navy and air force in short if they lost the philippines they would lose the war they put into motion an operation they called shogo one and almost all of their remaining ships steamed to the philippines setting up what would be the largest naval battle of the war the japanese plan was to split their forces into three groups northern southern and center force the northern force had almost all of the japanese navy's remaining carrier forces and it was supposed to lure halsey's third fleet away from leyte to the north as a diversion then when the southern force kept to the seventh fleet occupied the powerful centerforce headlined by the two largest battleships ever built yamato and musashi would be free to steam unopposed to the landing positions at leyte where they would sink troop transports and bombard the american troops on shore disrupting and perhaps stopping the invasion entirely american submarines detected the movement of the japanese center force on october 23rd and reported it to halsey who deployed his air wings in response what would later be known as the battle of leyte golf was actually four separate battles in the waters around leyte the first engagement was the battle of sibuyan sea on october 24th halsey's carrier aircraft attacked the center force commanded by admiral takiyo kurita inflicting heavy damage on it including sinking the musashi karita turned his ships around to get away from the aircraft and hulsey believed that he was retreating and was no longer a threat at the same time third fleet scout planes protected the northern force and halsey turned his fleet to engage them what he didn't know was that the northern force was a diversion but the carriers in the japanese task force had few planes or aircrews to threaten halsey's fleet he also didn't know that during the evening of october 24th karita reversed course and steamed his centerforce through the san bernardino strait this was towards the landing zone on the east side of leyte the third fleet had two main components to it task force 38 which consisted of the aircraft carriers and task force 34 which consisted of a group of powerful battleships the seventh fleet commanded by kinkade believed that halsey was leaving task force 34 to cover the san bernardino strait taking only task force 38 to attack the northern force as a result kincaid deployed his entire force to attack the southern force decisively defeating it in the battle of surigao strait a vicious nighttime battle that was the last time in history battleships fought each other directly but halsey had made a fateful decision taking the entire third fleet to attack the northern force and leaving the san bernardino straight completely unguarded kincaid didn't realize until too late what had happened and was too far away to intervene when on the morning of october 25th the center force consisting of four battleships eight cruisers and eleven destroyers steamed into the philippine sea off the island of samar the only american ships in the area was task group 7743 known as taffy 3 a group of small unarmored escort carriers protected by a screen of destroyers taffy 3 was designed to act as close air support for the ground troops and attack submarines not engage capital ships in pinched battle but the commander of taffy 3 rear admiral clifton sprague knew that he needed to buy as much time as he could until halcy or kincaid could come to his aid so he engaged karita's center force with everything he had the battle of smur also known as the last stand of the tin can sailors was one of the most lopsided battles in naval history at least on paper.

It is also considered one of the u.s navy's finest hours taffy 3 fought ships several times the size of their own doing an incredible amount of damage four american ships johnson samuel b roberts hole and gambia bay were sunk and over 1 500 sailors were killed a figure representing half of the total american casualties of the entire battle of leyte golf throughout the engagement admiral kincaid sent a string of urgent calls for help for taffy iii to halsey but halsey continued to steam his fleet north away from centerforce back in hawaii admiral nimitz was trying to understand what was going on he sent a message to halsey asking where task force 34 was message ended with a nonsense phrase that didn't mean anything designed to confuse the japanese who might be listening in but the sailors on board halsey's flagship forgot to remove the phrase from the end of the message before delivering it to the admiral as a result the message halsey received said where is task force 34 the world wonders halsey who had a fiery temper at the best of times lost his head completely at what he viewed as a stinging rebuke from his commanding officer he threw his hat on the ground and began swearing violently alarming everyone on the bridge of his flagship his chief of staff rio admiral khani yelled at him to get a hold of himself and halsey calmed down but it would be another two hours before he finally ordered task force 34 to turn around and go to taffy 3's aid but by the time they arrived on the scene the japanese center force was gone admiral karita had met such ferocious resistance from taffy 3 that he became convinced he was fighting halsey's third fleet and withdrew before he could accomplish his mission to disrupt the landings a few hours later halsey's carriers engaged the northern force in the battle of cape ngano sinking all four remaining japanese aircraft carriers the battle of leyte golf was a resounding american victory the japanese navy was effectively finished as a fighting force the remaining ships in their fleet returned to japan and would not sortie again in such a force for the rest of the war but halsey's tactical mistake referred to as hulsey's blunder or bull's run had colored his reputation quite a bit his penchant for aggressive action had worked against him and if it hadn't been for the heroic efforts of taffy iii the americans could have met with disaster halsey would spend the rest of his life defending his actions at leyte golf and attacking his critics including admiral kinkade halsey's reputation took another hit in december when the third fleet was inundated by the powerful typhoon cobra halsey believed the worst of the storm was going to pass to the north of his fleet and ordered his ships to remain on station by the time.

He realized his mistake it was too late the ships were in the teeth of a vicious tropical cyclone which caused three destroyers to sink over 100 aircraft to be washed off the decks of his carriers into the sea and it killed 800 sailors halsey faced a court of inquiry about his conduct regarding the typhoon which stopped short of fully sanctioning him which would have ended his career still the storm became known as hulsey's typhoon among third fleet sailors as the enlisted men began to view the admiral as reckless incredibly in june 1945 hulsey again sailed his fleet through a storm typhoon connie which did even more damage to the fleet the second court of inquiry recommended halsey be reassigned but nimitz refused still loyal to one of his most trusted subordinates it ultimately didn't matter as the japanese surrendered to the allies in august ending the war halsey was present on the uss missouri for the formal surrender of japan in tokyo bay on september 3 1945. in december 1945 president truman selected halsey to be promoted to the five-star rank of fleet admiral one of only four officers in the history of the navy to attain this rank he stepped down from active service in 1947 and later joined the board of the american cable and radio corporation serving until 1957. admiral halsey died on august 16 1959 at the age of 76. his body laid in state at the washington national cathedral and he was buried at arlington national cemetery america's foremost military cemetery william halsey is one of the most important figures in world war ii he understood early on the importance of air power in the war against japan and that the best way to recover from the attack on pearl harbor was to use the pacific fleet's aircraft carriers in an aggressive manner to take on the japanese this focus on sea-based air power was not only instrumental in winning the pacific war but it continues to form the basis of american naval doctrine almost 80 years later it is perhaps a shame that his decisions during the battle of leyte golf have to a large extent overshadowed his accomplishments from earlier in the war but it was perhaps the price the navy had to pay for having an aggressive commander like halsey in command one thing is for sure though if admiral halsey had not been in command of the pacific things would have turned out much differently so i really hope you found that post interesting.

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