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Typhoons and Hurricanes: The Effects of Cyclonic Winds on U.S. Naval Operations
US Navy Ships lost in selected storm-related incidents
On 17 December 1944, the ships of Task Force 38, seven fleet and six light carriers, eight battleships, 15 cruisers, and about 50 destroyers were operating about 300 miles east of Luzon in the Philippine Sea. The carriers had just completed three days of heavy raids against Japanese airfields, suppressing enemy aircraft during the American amphibious operations against Mindoro in the Philippines. Although the sea had been becoming rougher all day, the nearby cyclonic disturbance gave relatively little warning of its approach. On 18 December, the small but violent typhoon overtook the Task Force while many of the ships were attempting to refuel. Many of the ships were caught near the center of the storm and buffeted by extreme seas and hurricane force winds. Three destroyers, USS Hull, USS
Spence, and USS Monaghan, capsized and went down
with practically all hands, while a cruiser, five aircraft carriers,
and three destroyers suffered serious damage. Approximately 790
officers and men were lost or killed, with another 80 injured.
Fires occurred in three carriers when planes broke loose in their
hangars and some 146 planes on various ships were lost or damaged
beyond economical repair by fires, impact damage, or by being
swept overboard. This storm inflicted more damage on the Navy
than any storm since the hurricane at Apia,
Samoa in 1889. In the aftermath of this deadly storm, the
Pacific Fleet established new weather stations in the Caroline
Islands and, as they were secured, Manila, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
In addition, new weather central offices (for coordinating data)
were established at Guam and Leyte.
Admiral Nimitz's Pacific Fleet Confidential
Letter, 13 February 1945
List of participating
commands and ships
Personnel Casualties,
17-18 December 1944
Plane Losses,
17-18 December 1944
President Ford
on USS Monterey during the storm
Extracts
on the typhoon from CINCPAC report, including ship reports
Oral
History of Chief Warrant Officer Yorden, USN (Ret.) who was on
USS Dewey
For More Information:
Books:
Adamson, Hans Christian. 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.
Calhoun, C. Raymond. Typhoon, the Other Enemy: The Third Fleet
and the Pacific Storm of December 1944. Annapolis MD: Naval
Institute Press, 1981. [Captain Charles Raymond Calhoun, USN (Ret.)
was the commanding officer of USS Dewey during the December
typhoon.]
Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. The Typhoon that Stopped a War. New
York: D. McKay Co., 1968.
Unpublished Sources:
Court of Inquiry into the Typhoon of 18 December 1944 by Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet. This document is available on microfilm, NRS 1978-43, from the Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center. See fee schedule and duplication ordering form.
10 April 2001