Typhoon Cobra
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| Unknown strength typhoon (SSHS) | ||
|---|---|---|
 Eye structure captured on radar |
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| Formed | December 17, 1944 | |
| Dissipated | December 18, 1944 | |
| Highest winds |
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| Lowest pressure | ≤ 907 hPa (mbar) | |
| Fatalities | 790 U.S., unknown elsewhere | |
| Damage | Unknown | |
| Areas affected |
Philippine Sea | |
| Part of the 1940-1944 Pacific typhoon seasons |
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Typhoon Cobra, also known as the Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey), was the United States Navy designation for a tropical cyclone which struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944, during World War II.
On December 17, it struck Task Force 38 (TF 38), which was operating about 300 miles (480 km) east of Luzon in the Philippine Sea. Three destroyers were sunk, and a total of 790 lives were lost. Nine other warships were damaged, and over one hundred aircraft were wrecked or washed overboard; the aircraft carrier Monterey was forced to battle a heavy fire caused by a plane hitting a bulkhead. Search efforts eventually rescued 93 men.
In the words of Admiral Chester Nimitz, the typhoon's impact "represented a more crippling blow to the 3rd Fleet than it might be expected to suffer in anything less than a major action".
The typhoon plays an important role in the novel The Caine Mutiny.
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[edit] Storm history
On December 17, the typhoon was first observed, surprising a fleet of ships in the open western Pacific Ocean. Barometric pressures as low as 26.8 inHg (907 mbar) and wind speeds up to 120 knots (220 km/h) in gusts were reported by some ships. The storm was last seen on the 18th.
[edit] Task Force 38
TF 38 consisted of seven fleet carriers, six light carriers, eight battleships, 15 cruisers, and about 50 destroyers. The carriers had been conducting raids against Japanese airfields in the Philippines and ships were being refueled, especially many destroyers running low on fuel. When the storm hit, the procedure had to be aborted.
Some ships experienced rolls up to 70 degrees and damage suffered by the fleet was severe. Three destroyers, Spence, Hull and Monaghan had empty fuel stores, lacked the stabilizing effect of the extra weight and thus they were relatively unstable. Additionally, two of the destroyers, Hull and Monaghan, were of the older Farragut-class and had been refitted with over 500 tons of extra equipment and armament which made them top-heavy. They were all sunk either by capsizing or as a result of water downflooded through their smokestacks and disabling their engines, leaving them at the mercy of the wind and seas.
Many other ships of Task Force 38 suffered various degrees of damage, especially on radar and radio equipment which severely compromised communications within the fleet. Several carriers suffered fires on their hangars and 146 aircraft were wrecked or blown overboard. Nine ships — including one light cruiser, three light carriers, and two escort carriers — suffered severe damage and had to be sent for repairs.
In particular the carrier Monterey whose own airplanes nearly took the ship down in flames as they crashed into bulkheads and exploded during violent rolls. Of those fighting the fires aboard the Monterey was then-Lt. Gerald Ford, later President of the United States. Ford later recalled nearly going overboard; When 20+ degree rolls caused aircraft below decks to careen into each other, igniting a fire, he volunteered to take a fire team below decks and fought fires all night, saving his ship from sure destruction at sea. [1]
[edit] Rescue efforts
After the storm passed, the fleet was scattered. One ship, the destroyer escort Tabberer, ran across a survivor from the Hull while itself desperately fighting Typhoon Cobra. This was the first survivor from any of the capsized destroyers to be picked up. Shortly thereafter many more survivors were picked up, in groups or in isolation. The Tabberer's skipper, Lieutenant Commander Henry Lee Plage, directed that the ship, despite its own dire condition, begin boxed searches to look for more survivors. Eventually, the Tabberer rescued 55 survivors in a 51-hour search, despite repeated orders from Admiral Halsey to return all ships to port in Ulithi. She picked up 41 men from the Hull and 14 from the Spence before finally returning to Ulithi after being directly relieved from the search by two destroyer escorts.
After the fleet had regrouped (without the Tabberer), ships and aircraft conducted search and rescue missions. The destroyer Brown had the distinction of rescuing the only survivors from the Monaghan, seven in total. She additionally rescued 13 sailors from the Hull. Eighteen other survivors from the Hull and the Spence were rescued over the three days following Typhoon Cobra by other ships of the Third Fleet. In all, 93 men were rescued of the over 800 men lost in the three ships, and one other who had been swept overboard from the escort carrier Anzio and had by good fortune floated upon another group of survivors.
Despite disobeying fleet orders, Plage was awarded the Legion of Merit by Admiral Halsey, and the Tabberer's crew each were awarded Navy Unit Commendation ribbons (the first ever awarded).
[edit] See also
- List of Pacific typhoon seasons
- Typhoon Louise, which hit the U.S. fleet off Okinawa in 1945.
[edit] References
[edit] Printed Media
- "How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship", New York Times Op-Ed about Typhoon Cobra in December 1944, by Robert Drury and Tom Clavin, authors of Halsey's Typhoon, December 28, 2006.
- Calhoun, C. Raymond. Typhoon, The Other Enemy: The Third Fleet and the Pacific Storm of December, 1944. ©1981.
- Adamson, Hans Christian., and George Francis Kosco. Halsey's Typhoons: A Firsthand Account of How Two Typhoons, More Powerful than the Japanese, Dealt Death and Destruction to Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet. New York: Crown Publishers, 1967.
- Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. The Typhoon that Stopped a War. New York: D. McKay Co., 1968.
- Drury, Bob and Tom Clavin. Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue. Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 2007. (ISBN 0871139480; ISBN 978-0871139481).
- Henderson, Bruce (2007). Down to the Sea: An Epic Story of Naval Disaster and Heroism in World War II. Collins. ISBN 0061173169.
[edit] Notes
- ^ U.S. Department of the Navy. Frequently Asked Questions: Lieutenant Commander Gerald Ford, USNR. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
