Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue

ISBN: 0802143377

Author: Drury, Bob

Condition: New

Halseys Typhoon is the story of World War IIs most unexpected disaster at sea. In the final days of 1944, Admiral William Bull Halsey is the Pacific theaters most popular and colorful naval hero. After a string of victories, the Fighting Admiral and his thirty-thousand-man Third Fleet are charged with protecting General MacArthurs flank during the invasion of the Philippine island of Mindoro. But in the midst of the landings, Halsey attempts a complicated refueling maneuver and unwittingly drives his 170 ships into the teeth of a massive typhoon. Halseys men find themselves battling 90-foot waves and 150 mph windsamid the chaos, three ships are sunk and nearly nine hundred sailors and officers are swept into the Philippine Sea. For three days, small bands of survivors battle dehydration, exhaustion, sharks, and the elements awaiting rescue at the hands of the courageous lieutenant commander Henry Lee Plage, who, defying orders, sails his tiny destroyer escort, the USS Tabberer, back into the storm to rescue drifting sailors. Halseys Typhoon is a gripping true tale of courage and survival against impossible oddsand one of the finest untold World War II sagas of our time.