Guy's Books and Thoughts

I don't know if there is now a "Halsey boom" among history buffs. But
there are at least three books concerning William "Bull" Halsey: SEA
OF THUNDER by Evan Thomas;
SEA COBRA by Buckner Melton and HALSEY'S TYPHOON by Drury and Clavin.
I have only read the last book cover to cover and parts of Thomas'
book.

Evan Thomas focuses attention on the Battle of Leyte Gulf, while the
other two books devote their focus to the typhoon which cost the lives
of roughly 800 sailors. According to Drury and Clavin, that is roughly
the combined total of the American casualties at Coral Sea and Midway
combined.

My impression is that Halsey was someone who was both hot and cold. He
could gamble and successfully pull of operations. Or he could take
some potentially disastrous actions. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf,
Halsey took the bait and followed a decoy fleet leaving his army
partner, Douglas Mac Arthur vulnerable to an attack by the real
fleet. Fortunately the heroic actions by some American ships left
behind saved the day. But Halsey could also gamble and win as he did
at Guadalcanal. And Drury and Clavin point out how Halsey and his
associates worked to counter Japanese tactics. Some of Halsey and
company's tactics were quire creative. In one instance he used a
typhoon as cover to help in raid on Okinawa.

I think one lesson to be learned from HALSEY'S TYPHOON is that men and
weapons are not the only factor in war. There is also the weather. I
think this book should also cause one to question uniformitarian
geology which states that the present is the key to the past. This
book shows how harsh the forces of nature can be. And please note it
did not take millions of years for the results of Mt. St. Helens to
occur.

Drury and Clavin seem to concur with Samuel Eliot Morrison that there
was no way Halsey could have really foreseen the typhoon with the
technology of the day. But I wonder if that is correct? Perhaps the
technology could have of the day could have been used more
effectively. Maybe the weather reports could have been sent as general
radio traffic instead of being encoded and delivered with a pile of
other messages. Apparently one significant message which sat in a
pile of papers for over a day and a half. Maybe more priority could
have been given to the weather. . This is all just guessing on my
part. And as Billy Wilder would say "Hindsight is 20/20."

I don't know if any of the author's of these three books are
Christians. But one can in reading these books see the hand of God
working providentially The authors may not choose to give God
credit. But I must mention that John Costello in his book THE PACIFIC
WAR, (1981) does quote Admiral Spruance as giving credit to God for
the victory at Leyte Gulf on page 518. Well at least someone knew
about giving credit to where credit is due.