"Rate Halsey" Topic

One of the more popular admirals of WWII, William F. Halsey Jr. has been scorned by some historians for his performance at Leyte Gulf, and for twice running foul of typhoons.

On a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (awesome), how you would rate him?

7 or 8. He had the personality and image we needed at a critical time.

6-7 as a fleet commander. He was markedly inferior to Spruance, Mitscher, McCain, Lee and Bogan.

8-9 as a theater commander. His work in the Solomon's as a replacement for Ghormley was excellent.

8

Abstain. While I agree that his was a personality and
presence which we needed at the time, his 'almost'
courts-martial put me in an 'uncertain' status.

5.
"Not as good as he thought he was."
…Said the landlubber who only knows what he reads in books.
Which never stopped me from pontificating before.

I agree with McKinstry.

1

He didn't detach Task Force 34 to cover a possible return by Kurita and thereby denied us the biggest battleship engagement since Jutland.

5 over rated It may have been a good thing that he was not at Midway where his proclivity to gamble may have caused trouble.

Well, he won.
-Kle.

8

Exactly Klebert, you don't need excuses for that.

I also agree with McKinstry. He had some good luck and some bad. He acted boldly but still worried over the moves he made. His psoriasis/eczema was caused mostly by stress.

He didn't detach Task Force 34 to cover a possible return by Kurita and thereby denied us the biggest battleship engagement since Jutland.

Could TF34 have handled Kurita's return?

I'm reminded of Lincoln's comment on Grant: "I can't spare this man; he fights." Halsey was above average, say a 7 overall? – his falling wholesale for a pretty obvious decoy force at Leyte Gulf would seem to deny him a top spot.

OTOH, Spruance was savaged for being too cautious at Philippine Sea, wasn't he? Darned if you do, etc. . .

"Could TF34 have handled Kurita's return?"

With 6 9x16" modern BBs, 2 9x8" CAs, 5 12x6" CLs and 18 DDs, I'd say they could've handled Kurita.

More than handled him, with the older BBs there as well. Might even have sunk the lot, with help from returning CVs and the inevitable engineering casualties.

Halsey's rated thus:

Capability: 6

Morale effect/Leadership: 9

Initiative: 10 (i.e., rash)

Halsey was overaggressive and probably would have been a disaster at Midway.

His taking command at Guadalcanal was the moral(e) turning point in that campaign: the Marines knew the Navy wouldn't again let them down and allow another (14") Bombardment under *his* command, and Halsey gambled EVERYTHING to stop one and save them and win this Pacific turning point Stalingrad/battle of attrition. However, his "Attack! Repeat, Attack!" command may have sent Kinkaid too far north and contributed to vital Hornet's loss, it should be noted.

He might have done better than Spruance in the Marianas, depending on what recon assets the commander on the scene had.

If he had even left a couple destroyers to picket San Bernardino Strait – which isn't very wide, according to a Navy vet who has sailed through it – that probably would have averted the near catastrophe in Leyte Gulf.

But Samar was ultimately Nimitz's fault. Nimitz well knew Halsey's rashness, yet chose to exercise overall command from back in Guam. Spruance would have been preferable, with hindsight. Note that MacArthur forgave and covered for Halsey in this, and MacArthur knew Halsey would be needed if Japan had to be invaded.

Another Halsey sin was the dismissal/scapegoating of Helena's captain Gil Hoover, for abandoning the 110 Juneau blowup survivors in the water. After the sharks and days in the water, only 10 were finally saved. (The hard-fighting, effective Helena was lost under its new captain.) But getting a task force – let alone having ships as badly damaged as San Francisco – out of sub-infested water after an attack was standard operational procedure, and the responsibility for rescue was theater command's: Halsey's. And Halsey was very cowardly *afraid* of taking/getting the blame.

In balance, he fully deserved his 5 stars, even if Taffy 3 veterans/survivors and Gil Hoover hated and never forgave him.

Regarding Midway and Leyte Gulf, remember that the Japanese had created their complex Midway plan around the expectation that Halsey *would* be in command and that he would rashly charge off up to the Aleutians to deal with the diversionary raid up there, while they invaded Midway to use its airstrip in the destruction of our ships when they returned. They have been critized for that.

But their Leyte Gulf plan was equally complex and also built around the expectation that Halsey would take the bait and run north to "Get the Carriers." AND IT WORKED … because of its confusing complexity and Halsey being in command. See my FREE relatively fast, simple Leyte Gulf Naval Chess Game (boardgame) and its historical commentary at LCoat.tripod.com/leytpage.htm In one of our playtest games, my older son Robert – now an aerospace engineer in the Pacific Northwest – was chasing my fast carrier groups WEST through the Sibuyan Sea after having mutually annihilated our battlelines. (LGNCG was subsequently re-published in Japanese under my license in The Game Journal No. 11 link )

Also, check out this incredible Japanese animation of the Battle of Santa Cruz on YouTube at YouTube link