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

Great Read!

I was impressed with this book's readability. The story was told dramatically and with specificity, flowing seamlessly from descriptions of men, ships, winds, and sea, as if written by one rather than two historian-writers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A great Read!

Halsey's Typhoon was quite readable yet full of fascinating information. I appreciated the structure of the book, the quotations heading each section, and the way it handled the difficulties faced by those attempting to define the nature and power of the storm. The book takes a very balanced view of Halsey himself, letting readers make their own decisions as to his competency as a commander. I highly recommend the book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Halsey's Typhoon - Recommended Reading

This is a well-written book that keeps your interest throughout. Well-known sailors such as Bull Halsey and lesser-known sailors like future president of the United States, Gerald Ford are key players in this documentary. With wind speeds of 125 knots, barometric pressures as low as 26.30 and frequent knockdowns of sturdy US Navy ships, it was a true testament to the seamanship America has produced. Excellent reading.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

This Story Has Been Told Before

When I read that 'Halseys Typhoon' was 'an untold rescue,' I blanched. Havng read 'Halsey's Typhoons' by Hans Christan Adamsom, Co., USAF (Ret) and George Francois Kosco, Capt. USN (Ret), published i 1967, I was astonished at this claim. 'Halsey's Typhoons' (Yes, there were two of them) is a true first hand account of the rescue. Kosco was an eyewitness. Moreover, the original book contains dramatic photographs of the typhoons and their impact on the ships. Drury and Clavin in 'Halsey's Typhoon' deals with the first of the typhoons, Cobra, and not with the second, Viper. Their map of the the path of Cobra is virtualy the same as the map in the original, only slightly modified. That they have used virtually the same title is unconscionable. Moreover the hero of the rescue, Henry L. Plage is quoted at length in the orginal, so this is not an 'untold rescue' by any means. I do not think that the mere listing of 'Halsy's Typhoon' in the middle of the selected biograpy along with numerous other books, exonerates Drury and Calvin from their responsibility to disclose the extent of their reliance, including paraphrasing, on 'Halsey's Typhoon.' Their publishers should be made aware of this, if they were not aware of it from the outset. What the authors have done is irresponsible.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

an excellent book both extensive and intensive.

The good: this book cover most of the aspects regarding 'Typhoon Cobra', including the memories of the survivors. a very well written book that conveys the feelings of desperation and fear the tin can sailors must have felt. The bad: the text os no easy read as the author willing it or not creates that very feeling of chaos the fleet was in as the story jumps from one ship to the other. ys

Great, but Flawed

Halsey's Typhoon is one of a few recently published WWII books. The subtitle is not accurate. The story of Typhoon Cobra has been told many times, in fact, someone WHO WAS ACTUALLY THERE wrote a book titled Halsey's Typhoons (emphasizing plural and singular). Yes, there were two typhoons.

Other than this misleading title, there are many other errors throughout the book. The authors have overdone metaphors, as if in a competition to see who could speak the most figuratively. One of the metaphors compares Halsey's destroyers to "Mrs. O'Leary's cows". Really, what does that mean?

The authors do not know very much about the seamanship and the navy. I have read many WWII novels and histories and have found many conflicting statements. Firstly, Admiral King was not 'Navy Chief of Staff', the position does not exist. They must have been trying to implement different word choice that distract from the meaning of the story. The authors fail to explain ballasting effectively, probably because they do not understand the process. The two authors refer to the flags flown on the ships as "battle gidurons", which are used by land forces, not the navy. Destroyers are constantly referred to as DDs, and destroyer escorts as DEs. As far as I know, this book isn't a technical manual. It is as if the authors attempted to sound like they knew what they were taking about.

Other than the authors obvious lack of basic seamanship and understanding of the navy, the book is very entertaining. The experiences of the sailors and ensigns is quite astounding. They do a very good job at making the story imminent, and are very good at expressing emotion.

That is why this book earns three stars. There are many other books out there that accomplish all of the above criteria. I enjoyed reading it but think that anyone with a navy hunch will find the flaws distracting. This is why I recommend Down to the Sea by Bruce Henderson or Battle of the Leyte Gulf.

Great read you won't want to put down

For anybody interested in WWII in the pacific will want to read this. It shows how limited radar was to the pacific fleet in tracking storms and how impossibly long it took to inform the admiral that he was sailing into a disaster. A definite must read.

Halsey was a legend

The book was non-stop action. From the onset of the typhoon, to the rescues and on to the investigation, the drama never stops. The comraderie, compassion and devotion of these men to each other was remarkable. The sacrifices they made and the will to live will astound you. I developed such a connection with the characters that I actually contacted one who was in the book.

Thou shalt not defame Halsey

While efforts were made to keep the book unbiased and balanced, Halsey still is held up as some kind of faultless leader. The authors tend to excuse Halesy's errors because he got bad advice. They never explain why several junior officers were able to identified the approaching typhoon from their personal observations when the Admiral relying on his weather men was not. Could it have been that the Admiral safe on his stable battleship did not have the same concern and respect for the sea that the men on smaller ships had. I am happy that I read the book and got another view of the terrible loss of ships and men. For a different slant on the incident, I recommend Bruce Henderson's "Down To The Sea".

Good read

Enjoyed the book. Well written. I had a problem with the character assination of the Capt of the Hull. I really didn't think it was necessary but appearently the authors of the book had a score to settle. I was thinking about the family and relatives of this man and how they must have felt reading or hearing about this book. Totally unnecessary.

Hard to Follow

Although I enjoyed the book relatively well, my biggest complaint was how it jumped back and forth. The authors also continually used the same tired phrases over and over. More maps would have certainly been helpful and possibly some diagrams of the ships that they constantly referred to. Parts of the book were very difficult to visualize. I also found it disconcerting when they threw in references to vague terms and words. It was like they were trying to impress the reader with the breadth of their vocabulary. Rather, I found this technique distracting and confusing.

Not So

As others have pointed out this is hardly an untold story. Aside from the two typo mistakes by page 17 my complaint is with the authors continuely refering to 'Mae West' life preservers as old and replaced by 'Newer' kapot life preservers. The kapot was the standard Navy issue until sometime after WWII. I believe the Mae West was not only newer than the kapot life preserver but was issued to air crews not as standard surface ship issue. If the authors can't get this simle fact right (they keep repeating it), what else couldn't they get right?

A Cracking Good Read

Imagine the nightmare: You¿re on a small ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and a typhoon of biblical proportions has you locked in its embrace. Worse. As a member of the U.S. Navy¿serving in wartime¿you have orders to continue riding right into the teeth of that storm, and then hold course. Halsey¿s Typhoon, the new book by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, is for anyone who thinks they¿ve heard all they care to about ¿perfect storms,¿ the heroism of the ¿Greatest Generation¿ and what it¿s like to bob about in the sea as so much shark bait. Yes, at first glance, we¿ve been there before. Well, forget that, and go buy this book. You¿ll be captivated from the first page, and you¿ll find new definition for all of the above. With the driving narrative of a great novel¿think Melville, Conrad and yes, even Homer¿and a cast of finely etched characters who served both extraordinarily well, and in some cases, very badly, Halsey¿s Typhoon deserves a special place on the shelf of history, both military and human. Not only is this book about a storm that rivaled anything the Japanese could inflict on the American navy¿the men lost at sea eventually totaled nearly as many as the casualties at the Battle of Midway and the Coral Sea combined¿but it is also a never-before told tale about one of World War II¿s most tragic and fascinating episodes. The wind blew so hard, the authors tell us, that it sandblasted paint from ships, chipped off men¿s skin, and burst the capillaries in their eyes. Once in the water, sailors bodysurfed on 90-foot waves, or drowned in total darkness. Some swallowed seawater and became delusional. One man, diving from a life raft into a school of sharks, thought he was visiting an uncle¿s farm, while others heard the voices of mermaids. Towering over the chaos and death, were men like the ¿hatchet-browed Halsey,¿ an Admiral who inspired the sort of fervent loyalty once accorded to Drake or Nelson. But standing right alongside him in both courage and seamanship was the relatively inexperienced Henry Plage, a captain who disobeyed orders and swung his heavily-damaged, tiny destroyer escort back into the path of the storm, rescuing dozens of men. Some 60 years after the events depicted in this book, Halsey¿s Typhoon gives fresh insight into a unique moment in the last, great world conflict. Above the fury of the wind, Drury and Clavin provide sure hands on the helm, and finally give the men who both perished and survived this disaster their everlasting due.

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