Customer Reviews

Sea Cobra: Admiral Halsey's Task Force and the Great Pacific Typhoon

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In 2007 two different publishers released two different books on the 1944-1945 typhoons that sank three ships in the U.S. Third Fleet. Under the command of Admiral William Halsey, the U.S. Navy lost more men due to these natural disasters than it did at the battle of Midway. Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's "Halsey's Typhoon" was the first one to make it to book stores and garnered more attention and sales than Buckner F. Melton Jr.'s "Sea Cobra." Given the timing and focus of these two books, this review will compare and contrast the two. In short, there is no question that Melton wrote the better book.

The illustrations of carriers, battleships, oilers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts compared to 30, 60, and 90 foot waves is the best feature of Drury and Clavin's account. It gives landlubbers a good idea of how rough seas are problems for some ships and not for others. The shortcomings of this book, however, are much more significant. First, the book ignores altogether the second typhoon Halsey sailed into. Melton discusses this one, but not at length. This brevity is understandable, the second typhoon did less damage and sank no ships. It does show, though, that the commander and staff of the Third Fleet learned little from their experiences with the first typhoon despite efforts to do so. The problem that Drury and Clavin have is that this second storm undermines their argument that Halsey was largely blameless for sailing into the typhoons.

The mechanics of publishing also favor Melton. Drury and Clavin have only one map. Melton has nine. He also provides an extensive bibliography and footnotes, whereas Drury and Clavin have a brief bibliography and make no effort to provide any sort of documentation on their sources. Drury and Clavin also make a number of basic mistakes when it comes to nautical matters and use maritime terms incorrectly. Examples include "helming" a ship; calling a battle jack a "battle guideon" (an Army term); referring to a ship's mess deck as its "mess hall." They also put generals in the Japanese Navy Ministry and refer to the Army Ministry as the "War Department" (an American term). Stylistically, Melton is the better wordsmith. Drury and Clavin use too many editorializing adverbs ("legendary" or "untold") to exaggerate the significance of their story.

Much more significant is the thesis of each book. Drury and Clavin make Lt. Cmdr. James Marks, captain of the USS HULL, out to be the main villain in this incident. The HULL was one of his ships lost in the first typhoon. This charge seems reasonable at first, but Marks' seamanship does not explain why the USS MONAGHAN and SPENCE sank, nor does it explain a number of close calls on other ships. It seems that the two authors allowed crewmen from the HULL that they interviewed for the book to use the opportunity to settle old scores with Marks. In fact, Drury and Clavin do not spend much time talking about ships other than the HULL while Melton does. Melton also gives much more attention to the post storm investigation. Since Marks was the subject of an official investigation, Drury and Clavin argue this was proof enough of his guilt. The fact that there was no court-martial or that the other captains died in the storm makes this observation rather weak. Melton gives a much more nuanced description of the investigation. Halsey rather than Marks was the main target of the investigation and the board placed primary blame for sailing into the storm on the Admiral. There were a number of mitigating circumstances, though, and Melton is good at describing them. This incident is no black and white morality play.

In short, Melton offers a much better book than Drury and Clavin.

A great story and a great story-teller! The most user friendly book I've read. There was no over blown technical term or military acronym that I couldn't understand. You didn't have to have 20 years service time in the Navy to know what was happining to the sailors and what the command leadership was doing right or wrong. You felt you right there with the sailors in their battle to survive! An amazing story of heroes and tragedy. The story of Commander Henry Lee Plage of the destroyer USS Tabber is awesome! He stands 3 times taller than John Wayne ever did! He was a 29 year old reservist with only one and a half years of sea time. He amazingly avoided direct orders and rescued over 50 sailors inside the fury of a killer typhoon (almost a thousand sailors died and many ships were sunk or nearly sunk). The other current book on this event "Halsey's Typhoon" doesn't even come close to the passion or power of "Sea Cobra".

During the autumn of 1944, Task force 38, commanded by Admiral William Halsey, had the task of supporting General Douglas MacArthur's drive through the Philippines. Halsey's task force was to provide air support by knocking out Japanese air power along with kamikaze staging areas. Halsey, having made a controversial decision during the battle of Leyte Gulf to attack the empty Japanese carriers rather than guarding the invasion beaches, was determined to atone for his mistake. After several strikes against the Japanese, Halsey moved his fleet to refuel and replenish. But, there was a menace even greater than the Japanese waiting for him; a monstrous typhoon packing 100-plus miles-per-hour winds and towering seas which sent waves over the tops of Halsey's fleet carriers.

In this powerful book, author Buckner F. Melton does a magnificent job of describing the struggle Halsey's ships faced during this ordeal. He even devotes a chapter to discussing how a typhoon forms, which I found very helpful while reading. The ships that suffered the most were the destroyers and destroyer escorts. With dwindling fuel supplies after the attacks on the Philippines, these ships were riding high in the water, which made them vulnerable to extreme rolls caused by the winds. Even the heavy battleships and carriers were not immune, and many planes (along with sailors) were swept overboard. Three ships and upwards of 800 men were lost as a result of the storm.

Buckner next describes the events of the court of inquiry, called immediately after the task force sailed into Ulithi. Again, Buckner does an excellent job of describing the testimony and ultimate outcome. Halsey was found to have made errors in judgment, due to the effects of battle. In June, 1945, Halsey once again sailed his fleet into a typhoon, this one called Viper. Although the damage was nowhere near the level caused by Cobra, the fact remains that Halsey did the exact same thing a second time.

I've read two other books on this subject, and neither of these did as good of a job covering the facts as "Sea Cobra". I was impressed with Buckner's inclusion of the chapter relating to typhoon formation, and his coverage of the struggles of men and ships against the sea was first-rate.

I give this book my highest recommendation. Well-written and well-researched, this book is a must-read for readers of World War II naval history.

I bought this book for my father. He was in the Navy in World War II and served on a destroyer. His small ship was tossed around for days in that typhoon, but didn't sink, though other destroyers went down. They even managed to rescue one survivor from the water.
Dad said this book was so well-written and full of details that he felt he was living through that typhoon all over again!

My father served on an aircraft carrier that survived the typhoon Cobra, and I found this book to be a thorough and compelling account of one of the most disastrous events of WW2.

excellent account of the storm and dealt with the review of navy top brass. Let you draw your own idea at who was at fault for the lost of three ships and about eight hundred sailors. The navy felt that no one person was to blame. Just a series of unfortunate events. Yeah right!

I'm not much of a literary reviewer, but this is a great book.
If you like ships, the sea and WW2 history this is for you. I have seen Admiral Halsey's cabin on the Battleship New Jersey. It's a moving experience.
Read this book!!
You won't be sorry

Fantastic. Extremely well written. I lost a family member to Typhoon Cobra USS Spence DD 512. Absolutely the best historical read of this tragic event!

Sea Cobra is an exceptionally well written book that is chock full of interesting facts about the typhoons that almost swamped Admiral Halsey's career. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about the effect of Mother Nature on even the most powerful armada ever assembled in the Pacific.

I haven't finished this one. It is very good as far as I have read.