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Typhoon!

PRB

PRB

Administrator
Staff member
TYPHOON: The Other Enemy, by C. Raymond Calhoun.

This book has been around for 30 years (!) but I just got around to reading it! It's a fascinating peek into the world of destroyer operations in the Pacific in WW-II. Written by C. Raymond Calhoun, the CO of the USS Dewey (DD-349), it's basically about the December 1944 typhoon in which three destroyers (two of them, like Dewey, were Farragut class ships) capsized and sank. At the time, Dewey was part of Task Force 30, the logistics support force for Task Force 38. When the storm hit, they were trying to coordinate a refueling exercise for TF-38.

Calhoun spends a lot of words about the subsequent court of inquiry after the storm, and about his years long effort to get documents about the court's findings after the war.

One thing I didn't know was that one of the DDs sunk in that storm was a Fletcher class ship, the USS Spence (DD-512). That ship was down to 15% fuel, but, as far as we can tell now, she didn't ballast with sea water, as her skipper was advised to do. The two Farragut class DDs were, in addition to being low on fuel, top heavy and unstable, as all the ships in that class were by 1944, as were the Mahan class ships.

Just a fascinating read.
 
Yes, well written book. Another I just finished reading on that subject is ""Down to the Sea" by Bruce Henderson 2007. The book follows the DDs that sank, through crew members from Pearl Harbor to the fateful day of the storm. The Tabberer, DE that rescued the most survivors, is also included.

Sad that Halsey suspended search for survivors, but the skipper of the Taberer continued.:medals:
 
Amazingly the skipper of the Spence (and some other watch standers on the bridge) survived the sinking. The book "Halsey's Typhoon" is interesting indeed. The Spence CO was brand new to the ship, and command and seemed to be stuck to keeping the base course and refused to ballast due orders to be ready for fueling. Some think that Herman Wouk's Captain Queeg typhoon incident was taken from this event. Actually amazing that as many survived the sinkings as did. At this point in the war there were many new to command and did not in some cases have the experience or confidence to rise to a very difficult situation.

T
 
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