Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue
    Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue
    Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue
    Audiobook10 hours

    Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue

    Written by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury

    Narrated by Eric Conger

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A gripping true account of courage and survival at sea against impossible odds-and one of the finest untold World War II sagas of our time. In December 1944, while on a mission to support MacArthur's invasion of the Philippines, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey unwittingly steered his fleet of 170 ships into the teeth of a massive typhoon. The storm ultimately inflicted twice as much destruction and loss of life as the Battle of Midway, but Navy brass suppressed the scope of the disaster so as not to compromise the American advance on Tokyo. After the ensuing Court of Inquiry, Halsey never spoke again of the disaster. It is only now, thanks to documents declassified sixty years after the events and scores of firsthand accounts from survivors, that the story finally has been told.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJan 18, 2007
    ISBN9781598873535
    Author

    Tom Clavin

    Tom Clavin is the author or coauthor of sixteen books. For fifteen years he wrote for The New York Times and has contributed to such magazines as Golf, Men's Journal, Parade, Reader’s Digest, and Smithsonian. He is currently the investigative features correspondent for Manhattan Magazine. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.

    More audiobooks from Tom Clavin

    Related to Halsey's Typhoon

    Related audiobooks

    Wars & Military For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Bob Drury & Tom Clavin Forging Washington’s Army

      Mar 5, 2019

      With their 2018 book Valley Forge best-selling authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin turn their attention to one of the most underappreciated chapters in American history—the Continental Army’s 1777–78 transformation in that Pennsylvania winter camp. Drur

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Pajama Pilot

      Oct 5, 2021

      The Pajama Pilot
      8 min read

    • Article

      Shot Heard Round the World

      Nov 23, 2021

      Shot Heard Round the World
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Bloodbath And The Bomb

      Mar 19, 2020

      The Bloodbath And The Bomb
      9 min read

    • Article

      Great Battles YORKTOWN

      Apr 14, 2018

      Great Battles YORKTOWN
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Southern Flank

      Feb 26, 2020

      The Southern Flank
      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Such A Splendid Soldier’

      Jun 1, 2021

      ‘Such A Splendid Soldier’
      19 min read

    • Article

      Target Vicksburg

      Aug 24, 2021

      Target Vicksburg
      13 min read

    • Article

      A Moment Of Truth

      Aug 24, 2021

      A Moment Of Truth
      12 min read

    • Article

      Valor ‘Gatling Gun Parker’

      Jan 24, 2023

      Valor ‘Gatling Gun Parker’
      2 min read

    • Article

      Surviving Napoleon’s Wars

      Jan 10, 2023

      Surviving Napoleon’s Wars
      12 min read

    • Article

      Look Before You Leap

      Dec 4, 2018

      Look Before You Leap
      2 min read

    • Article

      Lightning Strikes

      Feb 20, 2024

      Lightning Strikes
      2 min read

    • Article

      Delayed Honor

      Jun 1, 2021

      Delayed Honor
      5 min read

    • Article

      Lone Star Stories: The 10 Best Books About Texas

      Nov 13, 2020

      a great book about Texas should not only contain historical fact, it should give readers an impression of the Lone Star state—its scents, sights, and sensations—as well as what it feels like to be a human being of fragile flesh and blood in that imme

      3 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Nov 18, 2022

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      Showdown On Lake Erie

      Jan 4, 2022

      Showdown On Lake Erie
      8 min read

    • Article

      Into The Storm

      Feb 5, 2019

      Into The Storm
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Battle of Valcour

      Jun 24, 2021

      The Battle of Valcour
      9 min read

    • Article

      This Month In… 1709

      Jan 19, 2023

      This Month In… 1709
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Monarch Of All I Survey

      Nov 22, 2019

      The Monarch Of All I Survey
      6 min read

    • Article

      In The Wake Of Dreadnoughts…

      Feb 22, 2020

      In The Wake Of Dreadnoughts…
      6 min read

    • Article

      Combat Yacht

      Jan 12, 2021

      Combat Yacht
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Halsey's Typhoon

    4/5

    68 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Excellent writing. Gripping tale well told. Shows the vaunted Halseys feet of clay in this incident
    • 4/5
      Dramatic true story of a maritime military operation interrupted by an enormous typhoon. Admiral Halsey’s fleet was preparing to support MacArthur’s invasion of Luzon in the Philippines in 1944, when they steered directly into the course of Typhoon Cobra with its 90-foot waves and over 100 knot gusting winds. This book tells an inspiring story of sailors confronting life-or-death situations. Though much of the story is tragic, the highlight is a valiant rescue effort by a relatively inexperienced captain and crew of a small Destroyer Escort.

      The first part of the book sets up the military objectives and participants. The second part tells of the gathering storm, leadership decisions, and the ships’ maneuvers. The rescue effort is riveting, and it is worth reading the book just for this portion. The travails of the sailors contending with the elements, wounds, sharks, madness induced from drinking saltwater, and numerous miseries are heart-wrenching. Though the authors do not dwell on the carnage, the graphic descriptions are not for the faint-hearted.

      The authors are journalists, trying to determine if the sinking of ships and loss of life was preventable. The transcripts of the U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry had been recently declassified and formed much of the basis of their analysis, along with survivors’ stories and in-depth research. These stories jump around a bit, and it is sometimes difficult to keep track of which ship is being referenced. The personal anecdotes are particularly effective in showing what the sailors encountered as their ships were battered by the storm.

      Two examples of these personal accounts include:
      “Clinging to the top of the Cape Esperance’s center mast with every muscle in his body, Paul Schlener was not sure what to do as the storm increased in intensity. His watch was technically over, but whether through oversight or intention, no crewmate had relieved him and no officer had signaled for him to climb down. In fact, the scud was so thick that he could barely make out the deck sixty feet below. He was petrified.”
      and
      “Kosco sat upright in his bunk. He was overwhelmed “with a feeling of great, leaden weights pressing on [my] shoulders.” He threw on his heavy weather gear and scrambled up the iron skipper’s ladder to the navigation deck. Leaning into the wind and listening to the pounding surf, he surveyed the otherworldly tableau; giant, mottled whitecaps stretched endless in every direction under a black, starless dome. If the dark side of the moon were covered by sea, he thought, this is what it would look like.”

      I am very glad that meteorology has progressed since WWII, and it is unlikely that a fleet would be unaware of the location of such a large storm today. There are definitely lessons in leadership to be gleaned from this book, primarily related crisis management. It definitely creates food for thought on how the reader would react in a similar situation. Part military analysis, part man vs. nature, part survival story, this book is filled with peril, catastrophe, and heroism. I read it in observance of Veterans’ Day and found it a powerful tribute to the Brotherhood of the Sea.
    • 5/5
      I would imagine the first question is why this crime fiction lover chose to read a book about a tragedy at sea during World War II. The answer is simple: my grandfather. My grandfather served in the US Navy aboard an LST in the South Pacific during World War II. He drove landing craft up on the beachheads and also served as an anti-aircraft gunner. He was very tight-lipped about his service, only mentioning three things. One of them was being caught in a typhoon and how everyone aboard was well beyond being merely seasick. When I read the synopsis of Halsey's Typhoon, I wondered if this could be the typhoon my grandfather mentioned. When I finished reading the book, I did a little research and compared some dates. This wasn't the typhoon my grandfather mentioned, and for that, I am eternally thankful. What I couldn't foresee was how emotionally involved I would be as I read Halsey's Typhoon. Of course, I learned things. What makes a typhoon in the Pacific deadlier than a hurricane in the Atlantic. How ships were refueled at sea. I learned about ship design and how retro-fitting some of the old destroyers in the Pacific Third Fleet sealed their doom during the typhoon. (Stay away from top-heavy ships.) I also gained respect for a future president who survived this tragedy. Authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin gave us readers Halsey's background, they set the scene, they let the typhoon bludgeon us then cast us adrift in rough seas with no water and no protection from the sharks before letting us be rescued. Reading this book was sometimes exhausting. I was completely emotionally invested in Halsey's Typhoon. I grew to know the men, to care about what happened to them. I was a nervous, seasick wreck during the horrendous typhoon. I cried as the ships sank and men-- most of them barely out of their teens-- desperately tried to save themselves. And my heart swelled when the commander of the badly damaged USS Tabberer defied orders in order to continue to search for and rescue survivors. As far as I'm concerned, there would never be enough medals to give Lieutenant Commander Henry Lee Plage. When all is said and done, what was at the heart of this hushed-up disaster? I think it can be summed up in one sentence from the book: "Meteorology was not high on the U.S. Navy's list of wartime priorities." That is not wise when you're responsible for thousands of men aboard hundreds of ships traveling vast expanses of water that are at the mercy of the weather. Halsey's Typhoon is a brilliantly written piece of wartime naval history that reads like the best fiction. I couldn't put it down.
    • 4/5
      The stories of the destroyers lost to the typhoon are compelling and intense. The book provides a lot of background that felt a little tedious, possibly for an unfamiliar reader this was less so. Once thru this part of the book it takes off and is hard to put down. The individual experiences are just horrible and the courage displayed unmatched. The failure of the Navy to censure the surviving captain, who was by all descriptions derelict as a commander is a shame, especially given the treatment of the skipper of the Indiana polis after the war. The fault overall seems to lay in a number of errors that were not individually disasterous, but combined were fatal. The most impactful seemed to be the weather report that was buried in the system on the flagship for 2 days and contained the best argument for the meteorologist to have persuaded Halsey to dodge. At the end of the day, perhaps nothing would have dissuaded Halsey, given the politics and personalities. Casualties twice the battle of Midway are nothing to sneeze at.
    • 5/5
      Excellent recounting of a series of mistakes that resulted in the loss of several ships and many hundreds of men. It was this typhoon that formed the basis for the famous [book:Caine Mutiny]
    • 4/5
      My feelings about the book overall would rate it a four out of five stars, however there were so many characters that it was work keeping people straight. I felt that the author could have made changes that would have the characters easier to follow.It is a very gripping story of the typhoon that destroyed three destroyers in the Third Fleet during WWII - the USS Hull, Monagham and Spence. Admiral Halsey was aboard his flagship the New Jersey. The typhoon Cobra, the first typhoon to be named, was a horrendous storm. When the ships were lost almost 800 men went into the ocean. Four days later the last survivor, the 93rd, was lifted out of the water.A heroic rescue operation was carried out, almost on its own, by the destroyer escort Tabberer, affectionately known by its crew as "Tabby", who rescued 55 of the 93 survivors.The description of the storm and the efforts of the men in the water to survive was spell-binding. However, my anger at Halsey grew to such bounds that I wanted to scream. Military minds call him a 'fighting admiral' and today people are inclined to feel that in the circumstances at the time, with the weather forecasting abilities that they had Halsey was not accountable. To me, the book showed that his incredible ego played a very large part in his decision making process and his directing the fleet directly into the path of the typhoon.Some justice comes at the end of the book, as the heroic, battered, little destroyer escort "Tabby" came to berth in Ulithi. She received a blinker message from the battleship New Jersey saying, "What type of ship are you?" With no hesitation the Tabby blinked back "Destroyer escort. What type are you?
    • 5/5
      Largely an known story, the US Third Fleet was hit by an emense typoon off the coast of the Phillipines in December 1944. Three ships were sunk by the waves and winds killling almost 900 seamen. This volume describes how these ships became caught up in this situation, how they tried to survive and what happened when they couldn't. The descriptions of the rescues of the men in the water by other ships are so amazing that they almost seem to be fiction. The disaster is called Halsey's Typoon because he was the commander of the Fleet at the time and because of inadequate weather analysis of the time and his desire to meet his committment to General McArthur, led his fleet into the path of the storm and was tardy in getting it out of danger. The authors interview many survivors and researched many printed sources to bring us a very comprehensive but very readable account of the disaster.
    • 5/5
      I'm landlocked, and have only ever sailed on the open sea once in my life (45+ years ago, at age 5, in the fog, from Alaska to California). So, I have no real knowledge of the sea apart from what I've see on TV and in movies, and from what I've read in books and magazines. The authors did such a wonderful job with this book that I was able to keep up with the events as they happened to each ship and its crew, as well as understand the technical challenges, and visualize the ever changing dynamics of the storm itself. It was 'un-put-downable.'
    • 5/5
      Rivetting, This is the first book in a while that I read cover to cover without stopping. I had not heard of this event in history, and the authors did an outstanding job of chronicling it.