Halsey would have lost his job had he not been protected due to his status as a war hero to the public,
K.C.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;96984]Halsey would have lost his job had he not been protected due to his status as a war hero to the public,
K.C.[/QUOTE]
First of all…“HE’S DEAD JIM”
of course, you’re right that he fell for the Japanese bait and stoopidly left the San Bernadino Strait wide open for the Kurita’s BB’s to emerge and came withing minutes of achieving spectacular success of their SHO plan. I know he should have left the 5th Fleet BB’s there to guard the Strait and if he had we might have had history today of the NEW JERSEY fighting a raging gun duel with the YAMATO.
He also fucked up bigtime with the December typhoon
Never said the man was perfect…but I can’t help but admire the admiral! He was most adept with the use of a pointy stick!
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Here’s a question…who would have been better than Halsey as 5th fleet commander? Had to be a carrier admiral so who does that give you? Fletcher but he was taken out of the SW Pacific after the Battle of the Eastern Solomons which basically was blamed on him but was that fair? Should he have come back after R&R? Why didn’t Kincaid get a shot? Even Spruance is criticized for not going after the Jap fleet after the Marianas Turkey Shoot. All the fleet admirals had their flaws.
If Halsey had been sacked over San Bernadino who was there for Nimitz to replace him with that was truly ready?
[QUOTE=c.captain;97001]Here’s a question…who would have been better than Halsey as 5th fleet commander? Had to be a carrier admiral so who does that give you? Fletcher but he was taken out of the SW Pacific after the Battle of the Eastern Solomons which basically was blamed on him but was that fair? Should he have come back after R&R? Why didn’t Kincaid get a shot? Even Spruance is criticized for not going after the Jap fleet after the Marianas Turkey Shoot. All the fleet admirals had their flaws.
If Halsey had been sacked over San Bernadino who was there for Nimitz to replace him with that was truly ready?[/QUOTE]
Don’t know, who relieved McCain when he got sacked?
King didn’t blame Halsey for Leyte Gulf as much as the two typhoons, second one in June 1945.
K.C.
BTW - If you haven’t read Shattered Sword - The Untold Story of The Battle of Midwayit’s very good. It was written in 2005 and uses Japanese sources not used before. It’s a real page turner, highly recommended.
Where is Halsey? H’mmm, good question, last time I saw him he was sailing pumpman on a Keystone tanker.