Halsey at Leyte Gulf 1944

Discussions on WW2 in the Pacific and the Sino-Japanese War.
User avatar
Takao
Member
Posts: 3776
Joined: 10 Mar 2002, 20:27
Location: Reading, Pa

Re: Halsey at Leyte Gulf 1944

#76

Post by Takao » 03 Sep 2016, 14:19

steverodgers801 wrote:the fleet changed name based on command, Halsey was third and Spruance was fifth, task groups were the ships assigned to commanders to fulfill a mission.
Yes, Steve.

One can only hope that Clifford has now come to understand this.

User avatar
R Leonard
Member
Posts: 471
Joined: 16 Oct 2003, 03:48
Location: The Old Dominion

Re: Halsey at Leyte Gulf 1944

#77

Post by R Leonard » 04 Sep 2016, 17:24

And one might note that there were no roman numerals in the names of the US carriers Yorktown, Hornet, Wasp, Lexington or Langley. Use of roman numeral tends to reveal one's lack of real familiarity with the subject. And if copied from someone's book . . . then that person is equally unfamiliar.


User avatar
Takao
Member
Posts: 3776
Joined: 10 Mar 2002, 20:27
Location: Reading, Pa

Re: Halsey at Leyte Gulf 1944

#78

Post by Takao » 05 Sep 2016, 00:54

R Leonard wrote:And one might note that there were no roman numerals in the names of the US carriers Yorktown, Hornet, Wasp, Lexington or Langley. Use of roman numeral tends to reveal one's lack of real familiarity with the subject. And if copied from someone's book . . . then that person is equally unfamiliar.
What do you expect from a Royal Navy officer...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ma ... y_officer)

The list in question is from his old Ballantine Battle book No. 11 "Leyte Gulf: Armada in the Pacific".

User avatar
R Leonard
Member
Posts: 471
Joined: 16 Oct 2003, 03:48
Location: The Old Dominion

Re: Halsey at Leyte Gulf 1944

#79

Post by R Leonard » 05 Sep 2016, 01:45

Now that I'm an old guy, I know that I should have expected better.

I recall having a copy when I was in high school, circa 1969 or so, I know it did not make the move to the first apartment after college, by then my father had gotten hold of it in my absence &, having retired in 1971 and having little to occupy himself, thoroughly marked it up with unkind editing . . . he was one of McCain's ops officers working for Jimmie Thach (something you probably know from our exchanges over the years, but, perhaps not known by all participating in this thread). . . corrections from on the scene as they were.

Good enough for me, it got tossed.

Took me well into my 20's to realize that when the old boy marked something up it should be retained so that when someone says, "well, so and so wrote in La La La . . ." that a check of the in-house copy might reveal an interesting on the scene commentary or rebuttal.

User avatar
Takao
Member
Posts: 3776
Joined: 10 Mar 2002, 20:27
Location: Reading, Pa

Re: Halsey at Leyte Gulf 1944

#80

Post by Takao » 05 Sep 2016, 02:34

Groan!

Books marked up by those who were there are very rare finds indeed.

I have a paperback copy of Hoyt's "Battle of Leyte Gulf" highlighted & marked up by a sailor who had been aboard the USS Mobile during the battle, that I picked up at a used book sale. At first I thought some student had used it to write a report...until I started reading the handwritten notes, and had one of those "holy crap!" moments. Keeper!

Delta Tank
Member
Posts: 2512
Joined: 16 Aug 2004, 02:51
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: Halsey at Leyte Gulf 1944

#81

Post by Delta Tank » 21 Jan 2022, 16:45

clifford13 wrote:
17 Jun 2016, 03:53
There is this minor problem with that theory. With a pair of battleships , Ozawa's "Decoy" force was anything but helpless against tg 30.8, the fleet tankers assigned to 3 rd. fleet, operating some 500 miles East by North of manila bay...which put them in a supposed safe place away from the Luzon Airfields, but right smack dab on a line of approach from the north. Formosa or Japan. Without the tankers, which refueled Tf 38 on the 19,23 and 26 of October, they'd have been forced back to Ulithi...and that would have been his objective in one go.

Personally, task groups .3 and .4 should have been set up as 5 fleet with all 9 Independence class CVL's 4 Bb's and escorts and left north of the beaches, [there's san bernardino covered, Tf 34 fans] as groups .1 and .2 did just what Halsey did...go after the carriers and protect the tankers.
While re-reading the book entitled, “The Fast Carriers, The Forging of an Air Navy” by Clark G. Reynolds. Reynolds states on page 251-252 the composition of Sea Logistics Service Group at Leyte Gulf: “34 Fleet oilers escorted by 11 escort carriers, 19 destroyers, and 26 destroyer escorts.. . .the “jeep carriers” would provide combat air patrols and would ferry replacement aircraft. Admiral Halsey set each fueling rendezvous at the extreme range of Japanese land based planes, which never succeeded in disrupting any refueling operations.”

Mike

Post Reply

Return to “WW2 in the Pacific & Asia”