William F. Halsey

American aviator and naval officer

• Born: October 30, 1882
• Birthplace: Elizabeth, New Jersey
• Died: August 16, 1959
• Place of death: Fishers Island, New York

Halsey was a colorful and offensive-minded military fighter who went by the slogan “hit hard, hit fast, hit often.” A proponent of naval aviation and an avowed risk taker, he epitomized the aggressive spirit of the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Early Life

William F. Halsey (HAWL-zee) was the son of a former naval captain. Like his father, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and he graduated as a midshipman in 1904. He served on several ships before joining the battleship Kansas as part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, which steamed around the world from 1907 to 1909. Halsey rose steadily through the ranks and, during World War I, commanded the destroyers Shaw and Benham while on escort duty in Queenstown, Ireland. Fine seamanship garnered him the Navy Cross in 1918, and he spent the next twenty years holding down various assignments on ship and ashore.

Following several tours in Berlin, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Stockholm, Sweden, as a naval attaché, Halsey attended the Naval and Army War Colleges before turning his attention to naval aviation. The invention of the aircraft carrier held the potential for revolutionizing naval warfare, and Halsey envisioned opportunities for advancement in this new and untested field. Undeterred by advanced age and poor vision, he received flight training at the Naval Aviator’s School at Pensacola, Florida, in 1935 and won his wings at the age of fifty-two. Halsey then transferred to the carrier service by commanding the Saratoga and distinguished himself during various fleet training exercises up through 1937.

In terms of naval tactics, Halsey was no traditionalist and made a name for himself by demanding greater roles for naval aviation. This view was advocated at the expense of the “battleship admirals,” who saw airplanes as little more than scouts for the battle fleet. Furthermore, Halsey deliberately cultivated a “fighting sailor” image. When his promotion to vice admiral arrived in June, 1940, Halsey took charge of Carrier Division 2, consisting of the Enterprise and the Yorktown, and deployed them in the Pacific. War with Japan seemed imminent to Halsey, and on December 1, 1941, while ferrying fighter aircraft to Wake Island, he took the unprecedented measure of placing the ships on a war footing. His premonitions were justified six days later when Japanese carrier aircraft dealt a devastating blow to the U.S. battle fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Life’s Work

Halsey personified aggressive leadership, and he quickly emerged as one of the United States’ earliest wartime heroes. In January, 1942, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz ordered him to conduct the Navy’s first offensive of World War II by launching air strikes against the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. The following month Halsey also struck Wake and Marcus Islands before embarking on one of the most audacious raids in military history. That April, Halsey commanded a task force that escorted Captain Marc A. Mitscher’s carrier Hornet to within bombing distance of Japan. On board were sixteen Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell bombers under veteran aviator Colonel Jimmy Doolittle. Despite a stealthy, northern approach to within 620 miles of the enemy homeland, the Americans were discovered by a Japanese picket vessel the day before the launch was scheduled. With characteristic boldness, Halsey and Doolittle decided to move up the launch date by one day, anticipating that the Japanese now expected a raid by short-range naval aircraft. On April 18, 1942, the bombers were launched against Tokyo and other targets, which completely surprised the defenders. Little material damage was inflicted and all the aircraft subsequently crash-landed in China, but Doolittle’s raid provided tremendous lift to American morale.

In Halsey’s absence, elements of the U.S. carrier fleet fought a large Japanese task force to a draw at the Battle of Coral Sea in May, 1942. This was the first time in history that two opposing battle fleets traded shots without ever sighting each other. An impending Japanese invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, was thwarted, but Japan countered with an ambitious amphibious attack against Midway Island. The intention of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was to lure the three remaining U.S. carriers into battle at a numerical disadvantage and destroy them. It was a scenario tailor-made for Halsey’s daredevil leadership, but fate intervened when he was sidelined by a skin rash. While he recuperated in Hawaii, the Americans fought and won the decisive victory at Midway Island in June, 1942. Halsey missed the greatest carrier clash in history, but his efficiently trained staff was present and contributed greatly to the battle’s successful outcome.

Halsey had no sooner recovered in October, 1942, than he was dispatched to the Pacific on an extremely urgent mission. In the wake of Midway Island, the United States staged its first amphibious offensive of the war by landing marines on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in August, 1942. The Japanese responded with a ferocious land, sea, and air offensive intended to drive them out. Over the next few weeks, the U.S. Navy took heavy losses at the hands of the Japanese navy and was withdrawn from the area. This left the marines stranded on Guadalcanal without support and open to attack from the sea. The Navy Department, dissatisfied by the timid leadership of Admiral Robert L. Ghormley, replaced him with Halsey in an attempt to stave off disaster. As commander of the South Pacific Force, he infused all hands with an offensive spirit and issued one standing order: Attack! Halsey then sailed forth to engage the enemy, fighting the Japanese to a draw near the Santa Cruz Islands on October 26-28 and decisively defeating them off Guadalcanal on November 12-15. Victory proved costly in terms of men and ships, but the tide had turned. Within three months the Japanese had abandoned Guadalcanal and the Allies were free to expand their offensive strategy.

As a reward for his fighting leadership, Halsey received promotion to full admiral and was entrusted with clearing out the Solomon Islands. In this endeavor he was forced to cooperate with another leader of tremendous ability and ego, General Douglas MacArthur. Happily, the two headstrong, aggressive commanders agreed on a number of strategic and tactical priorities. They realized that any advance up the Solomons would eventually encounter the powerful Japanese stronghold on Rabaul at the northernmost end of the island chain. Rather than risk their few remaining carriers to aerial assault, Halsey and MacArthur decided to seize lightly defended areas around the bastion, construct airfields, and isolate it with air power. Thus a costly invasion of the island became unnecessary. As the U.S. steamroller continued westward and into the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, Halsey and MacArthur decided that the heavily fortified island of Truk could be bypassed in identical fashion. Consequently, many lives were spared and two sizable enemy garrisons were neutralized without a shot being fired. By March, 1944, the South Pacific region was firmly in Allied hands, and U.S. leaders turned their attention to the bigger objective of recapturing the Philippines.

In October, 1944, Halsey relieved Admiral Raymond A. Spruance as commander of the Third Fleet (Task Force 38) and made preliminary dispositions for cooperating with MacArthur’s army. Up to this point, he enjoyed a reputation as the Unites States’ leading naval fighter. However, the impending Philippine campaign was a huge, multifront endeavor combining the resources of many fleets and objectives. The sheer scope of operations, combined with a wily adversary, seems to have gotten the better of Halsey, and his reputation suffered. His initial operations against the original target, the southern island of Mindanao, revealed very weak Japanese air defenses, suggesting that it was also weakly held. Halsey then brilliantly suggested that it be bypassed altogether, an act that would move up the intended invasion of Luzon, the main island, by two months.

Subsequent operations, however, taxed Halsey’s abilities to the limit. He was entrusted with the dual responsibility of shielding MacArthur’s intricate landings at Leyte Gulf, while simultaneously seeking out the remaining Japanese carriers and destroying them. The October, 1944, landings succeeded, but the Japanese countered with a three-pronged naval offensive that confused the U.S. high command. Unaware of the larger picture, Halsey predictably pursued Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa’s ships and sank his last four carriers. In doing so, he ignored repeated suggestions from his staff that Ozawa was probably a decoy sent to lure Halsey away from Leyte. In fact, this is exactly what happened. In Halsey’s absence, two other Japanese strike forces penetrated the Surigao Strait unopposed and briefly menaced the landing zones. Fortunately, the enemy turned back after meeting heavy resistance from an inferior force of escort carriers and destroyers at Samar Island, and disaster was averted. Japanese losses during the Battle of Leyte Gulf were crippling and were achieved at relatively little cost to U.S. forces. Nonetheless, Halsey endured considerable criticism for charging after Ozawa and leaving the beachheads undefended.

In December, 1944, Halsey made another controversial decision by riding out a typhoon that sank three destroyer escorts and damaged his fleet far more than the enemy had. The final months of the war saw Task Force 38 making wide sweeps through the China Sea, Formosa, Okinawa, and the Chinese coast, decimating the remnants of enemy sea and air power. That June he elected to ride out another typhoon, again with appreciable damage to the fleet. By July, 1945, Halsey’s aircraft were ranging the Japanese home islands at will, while his ships bombarded installations on shore. Following Japan’s capitulation in August, 1945, the official surrender ceremony was concluded aboard Halsey’s former flagship, the battleship Missouri. In three and one-half years of combat, the old admiral was responsible for sinking more enemy warships than any other naval commander. After the war, Halsey turned over the Third Fleet to Admiral Howard Kingman and returned home to become a five-star fleet admiral. He then performed several months of special duty with the secretary of the Navy before formally retiring in April, 1947. Halsey, one of the most popular sailors in U.S. history, died at the Fishers Island Country Club in New York on August 16, 1959.

Significance

Halsey, dubbed “Bull” by the press for his aggressive swagger, was a proven fighter and a brilliant naval tactician. Given a short-term objective, no matter how daunting, he invariably assembled the means for attacking and proceeded relentlessly until victorious. In this sense, his approach to war reflected the eighteenth century British school epitomized by Lord Horatio Nelson: a single-minded determination to seek out, engage, and destroy the enemy fleet through decisive action. However, his highly individualistic leadership style was more appropriate to this earlier setting and was anachronistic given the mounting complexities of modern naval warfare in which teamwork, analysis, and managerial skills proved paramount.

In truth, Halsey stumbled badly at Leyte and, had the Japanese displayed more aggressive leadership, the ensuing disaster might have compromised MacArthur’s invasion. Furthermore, his decision to twice expose the Third Fleet to the ravages of typhoons cost seven hundred lives, several ships, and scores of aircraft, and it called into question his competency as a sailor. Throughout the war, detractors raised legitimate points about his limitations, but Halsey’s public popularity and combat record shielded him from recriminations. No other admiral could have made his mistakes and survived. Nevertheless, he enjoyed a lengthy, controversial, and ultimately successful career and is rightly credited with turning the tide of battle in the Pacific. Halsey’s efficacy as one of naval warfare’s most determined and colorful practitioners is secure and unmatched by any admiral of the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Adamson, Has C., and George F. Kosco. Halsey’s Typhoons: A Firsthand Account of How Two Typhoons, More Powerful Than the Japanese, Dealt Death and Destruction to Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet. New York: Crown, 1967. As the title implies, the book provides an eyewitness treatment of the Third Fleet’s terrible beating at the hands of nature. The admiral is highly criticized.

Cutler, Thomas J. The Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 23-26, 1944. New York: Harper & Row, 1994. Cutler’s analysis of the controversial victory credits Halsey with winning the battle. An extensively researched book.

Drury, Bob, and Tom Chavin. Halsey’s Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007. Describes how the U.S. Third Fleet, under Halsey’s command, was struck by a devastating typhoon off the coast of the Philippines in the autumn of 1944.

Halsey, William F., and J. Bryan III. Admiral Halsey’s Story. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947. This book contains a journalistic and anecdotal account of high command that suffers from an unabashed lack of objectivity.

Merrill, James M. A Sailor’s Admiral: A Biography of William F. Halsey. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1976. An exciting and popular account that focuses almost entirely on the war years.

Potter, E. B. Bull Halsey. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1985. This well-researched, engagingly written account is somewhat limited by the author’s refusal to criticize Halsey’s more questionable decisions.

Thomas, Evan. Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign, 1941-1945. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Recounts the naval battle in the Leyte Gulf from the perspective of four officers, including Halsey and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Kurita.