MacArthur, Kinkaid, and Halsey!

[paulrward]

Hello All :

Maybe the reason that nobody was blaming MacArthur was because
it wasn't MacArthur's fault.......

Respectfully :

Paul R. Ward

[Delta Tank]

Hello All :

Maybe the reason that nobody was blaming MacArthur was because
it wasn't MacArthur's fault.......

Respectfully :

Paul R. Ward

I believe the only commander that felt it necessary to defend his actions at Leyte Gulf was Halsey.

Mike

[Delta Tank]

To all,
From the book entitled, “Sea of Thunder, Four Commanders and The Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945” by Evan Thomas, page 245 footnote.

“Halsey was aware that communications were poor. On the eve of battle, he had tried to warn Admiral Nimitz in a private letter that “we are still having communications problems, and we will continue to have them until proper communications facilities are installed on Guam. Reception is freakish in this area, and the load is such that a mere ‘priority’ precedence is frequently several days reaching its destination. . . I can assure you that these difficulties are real and can also assure that time has come when heroic measures must be taken if fighting communications are to be maintained.” But time had run out; Halsey sent the letter on October 22.”

So, the US Navy was having communications problems, no mention that it was MacArthur’s fault. I have sent a message to the Nimitz Library?? to get the entire letter. If one of you have the letter please post. So, the solution was to move this retransmission station (Fox) from Manus (owned by Nimitz) to Guam (another island owned by Nimitz).

Mike

[LAstry2]

Halsey {fleet admiral] and Mitchner {Carrier admiral] both Air admirals...pity that these two had to be under someone Raymond Spruce.....Spruce did win battles but he was just too cautious too conservative to ever gamble his ships in battle...It would prehaos have been a little better if the US navy Pacific War US navy command
Nimitz....US Navy Theater Pacific Commander
Divided into three seperate section but in concert working together
Spruce....Surface ships Battle ships and Crusiers and Destroyers
Halsey and Mitchner Aircraft Carriers.....
Lockwood....Submarines.....

As conservative as Spruce was,,,he was better than Frank Fletcher who was so cautious...he was almost timid....example his slowsness on the 1941 Wake Island relief force because one tanker was very slow......

[Delta Tank]

Halsey {fleet admiral] and Mitchner {Carrier admiral] both Air admirals...pity that these two had to be under someone Raymond Spruce.....Spruce did win battles but he was just too cautious too conservative to ever gamble his ships in battle...It would prehaos have been a little better if the US navy Pacific War US navy command
Nimitz....US Navy Theater Pacific Commander
Divided into three seperate section but in concert working together
Spruce....Surface ships Battle ships and Crusiers and Destroyers
Halsey and Mitchner Aircraft Carriers.....
Lockwood....Submarines.....

As conservative as Spruce was,,,he was better than Frank Fletcher who was so cautious...he was almost timid....example his slowsness on the 1941 Wake Island relief force because one tanker was very slow......

LAstry2,

You are confused, Spruance and Halsey were equals. Spruance never commanded Halsey. In my opinion Spruance was a better fleet commander than Halsey. A tidbit of trivia information, Spruance’s son married Halsey’s daughter.

When Spruance commanded the fleet it was 5th Fleet, when Halsey commanded the same fleet it was 3d Fleet.

Mike

[Delta Tank]

To all,

I found The Battle Analysis of Leyte Gulf conducted by the US Naval War College, in 1957. I thumbed through this extremely large study, over 1,000 pages, and nowhere did I find that MacArthur forbade Kinkaid to talk to Halsey. The discussion on Communications starts on page 895.

https://archive.org/details/battleforle ... ew=theater

Mike.
PS for some reason the US Naval War College never completed this study/analysis? Why?