William Halsey
“Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.”
On October 30, 1882 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, William Frederick Halsey, Jr. was born the son of a US Navy officer. As he grew up he had a strong desire to follow his father into the Navy, and applied for an appointment to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, which he received after a two year wait, having spent time studying medicine at the University of Virginia in the interim. During his tenure at Annapolis he had great success as an athlete, even if his academic performance was rather average. In 1904 he graduated 42nd of his class of 62. In an interesting note, he was part of the same class as the future Admiral and US Pacific Fleet Commander Husband Kimmel.
Halsey as he appeared in the US Naval Academy yearbook in 1904
After his graduation Halsey would serve various postings aboard several US battleships, and after being commissioned as an Ensign in 1906 he was assigned to the battleship USS Kansas, where he participated in the Great White Fleet, the famous circumnavigation of the globe ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt. After a time aboard the USS Missouri Halsey was promoted to Lieutenant, notably skipping the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, and took command of the torpedo boat USS Du Pont. This would be the beginning of a long career commanding such craft as well as destroyers. By the time of the US entry into the Great War in 1917 he was a Lieutenant Commander and assigned to a shore posting at the US Naval Academy, but was recalled to sea duty and placed in command of the destroyer USS Benham. He would later command the USS Shaw before being sent back to the United States in August of 1918 to oversee the completion of the new destroyer USS Yarnell in August of 1918. He would be awarded the Navy Cross for his service in the conflict.
The torpedo boat USS Du Pont, Halsey’s first command, in drydock
After the war Halsey would continue to serve with the destroyer force until 1921, when he was sent back ashore to work in US Naval Intelligence, before taking an assignment as US Naval Attache in Berlin and subsequently in Norway, Denmark and Sweden before returning to the sea, again with destroyers. Promoted to Captain in 1927, he spent a year as Executive Officer of the battleship USS Wyoming before three years in command of the station ship at the Naval Academy. He returned to the destroyers again in 1930, commanding Destroyer Division Three before being sent to the Naval War College in 1932.
USS Saratoga in 1935
After his time at the Naval War College, Halsey was offered a place in a Navy program intended to train senior officers to fly, recognizing a need for expansion of the naval aviation force. He accepted, and despite a recommendation from Admiral Ernest King to undergo observer training Halsey underwent the full training as a pilot, earning his wings in mid May of 1935. At 52 years of age, he remains the oldest person to qualify as a pilot in the history of the US Navy. This would soon lead to a posting as commanding officer of the carrier USS Saratoga, a post he would hold for two years before taking command of Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1938, taking command of Carrier Division Two, with the USS Yorktown serving as his flagship.
The USS Hornet en route to Tokyo in April of 1942, as seen from Halsey’s flagship USS Enterprise
During this time Halsey had become a major advocate for the supremacy of naval air power in modern warfare, and by 1940 he was a Vice Admiral commanding the Aircraft Battle Force of the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, considered the premier command in the carrier forces at the time.
When the harbor was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941 Halsey and his carriers were at sea, returning from a mission to ferry airplanes to reinforce the US Marine garrison on Wake Island. In the chaos the followed the destruction of the Pacific Fleet, Halsey was temporarily placed in command of all ships at sea and ordered to attempt to locate the Japanese fleet, although this effort proved fruitless.
Following his return to Pearl Harbor, Halsey began to forge his reputation as the Navy’s most aggressive commander, leading his carriers on a strike against the Japanese in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands before commanding the task force sent to execute the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942.
Admiral Halsey dines with his crew aboard the USS New Jersey in late 1944
After his return from the Doolittle Raid, Halsey fell ill with severe psoriasis, and was hospitalized during the Battle of Midway, which proved to be the decisive naval battle of the Pacific War. Returning to command, Halsey continued to foster his reputation, solidifying his position as Admiral Chester Nimitz’ first choice for commanding difficult missions. By this time he had earned the nickname “Bull”. He was sent in late 1942 to take command of the South Pacific Area, leading the US Navy in the Guadalcanal Campaign. He quickly set about preparations to solidify the American foothold on the island, as well as to repell and Japanese counterattacks.
He received his fourth star with a promotion to full Admiral in October of 1942, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine the month after. After victory was acheived on Guadalcanal, Halsey’s forces commenced the famous island hopping campaign, pushing up the Solomon Island Chain and further out into the Pacific, slowly driving deeper into the Japanese Empire. By May of 1944 he was placed in command of the newly formed US Third Fleet, leading the campaign for the Palau Islands before the invasion of the Philippines later in the year. The ensuing Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval fleet engagement in history, and resulted in breaking the back of the Imperial Japanese Navy, even though Halsey had fallen for a Japanese trick that had drawn his main force out to sea. The Japanese Center Force thus attempted to slip into Leyte Gulf to destroy the US invasion fleet, but was stopped by the outnumbered and outgunned task force Taffy 3.
One of Taffy 3’s escort carriers is bracketed by Japanese shells off Samar, as viewed from the deck of another
The situation off Samar damaged Halsey’s reputation despite the Japanese withdrawal, and the Admiral had flown into a rage when he received a message from Nimitz: “Where is Task Force 34? The world wonders.” The second sentence was actually intended as padding to confuse Japanese cryptographers trying to decode the message, but was accidentally left in the message when it was delivered to Halsey on the bridge of the USS New Jersey. The Admiral reportedly through his cap into the sea, shouting expletives. His Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Robert Carney, was eventually able to calm him, but his response was still delayed. The situation was not improved on December 17, 1944, when his refueling operations were disrupted by the rapidly deteriorating weather. Halsey, acting in part on a bad weather report from Pearl Harbor, kept his fleet on station, and the storm worsened the next day. What would come to be known as “Halsey’s Typhoon” would lead to the loss of three destroyers and almost 800 sailors. An inquiry was launched, and Halsey was found to be at fault for the losses, although they conceded that he had been misinformed.
Admiral Nimitz signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri, with Halsey standing behind him alongside General Douglas MacArthur
In January of 1945 Halsey turned over command of the Third Fleet to Admiral Raymond Spruance, and it was redesignated the Fifth Fleet. This would only last until May, when Halsey returned to command, again sailing through a typhoon shortly afterward. Another inquiry recommended that Halsey be removed from command, but Nimitz stepped in to prevent this, possibly due to the fact that Halsey had a good working relationship with General Douglas MacArthur, thus being one of precious few senior officers to do so.
The again redesignated Third Fleet performed several operations against Japan itself in the summer of 1945, including airstrikes on the Kure Naval Base and naval bombardment of coastal cities in preparation for the upcoming Operation Downfall; the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.
This attack was not to be, as Japan surrendered on 15 August, 1945. Halsey commanded the fleet that sailed into Tokyo Bay on 2 September to take the formal Japanese surrender. The document was signed aboard his flagship, the USS Missouri, and he stood alongside MacArthur and Nimitz as the document was signed.
Following the end of the war Halsey was promoted to Fleet Admiral in October of 1945, and retired from the Navy in 1947 after a period of duty with the office of the Secretary of the Navy. He would hold an executive positions in the American Cable and Radio Corporation, a subsidiary of ITT Corporation, and would lead the efforts to preserve the USS Enterprise, his old flagship and the most decorated ship in the history of the US Navy, although these would prove unsuccessful. He would die of a heart attack in 1959, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery after lying in state at the Washington National Cathedral.
