PRB
October 14th, 2011, 16:11
TYPHOON: The Other Enemy, by C. Raymond Calhoun.
This book has been around for 30 years (!) but I just got around to reading it! It's a fascinating peek into the world of destroyer operations in the Pacific in WW-II. Written by C. Raymond Calhoun, the CO of the USS Dewey (DD-349), it's basically about the December 1944 typhoon in which three destroyers (two of them, like Dewey, were Farragut class ships) capsized and sank. At the time, Dewey was part of Task Force 30, the logistics support force for Task Force 38. When the storm hit, they were trying to coordinate a refueling exercise for TF-38.
Calhoun spends a lot of words about the subsequent court of inquiry after the storm, and about his years long effort to get documents about the court's findings after the war.
One thing I didn't know was that one of the DDs sunk in that storm was a Fletcher class ship, the USS Spence (DD-512). That ship was down to 15% fuel, but, as far as we can tell now, she didn't ballast with sea water, as her skipper was advised to do. The two Farragut class DDs were, in addition to being low on fuel, top heavy and unstable, as all the ships in that class were by 1944, as were the Mahan class ships.
Just a fascinating read.
This book has been around for 30 years (!) but I just got around to reading it! It's a fascinating peek into the world of destroyer operations in the Pacific in WW-II. Written by C. Raymond Calhoun, the CO of the USS Dewey (DD-349), it's basically about the December 1944 typhoon in which three destroyers (two of them, like Dewey, were Farragut class ships) capsized and sank. At the time, Dewey was part of Task Force 30, the logistics support force for Task Force 38. When the storm hit, they were trying to coordinate a refueling exercise for TF-38.
Calhoun spends a lot of words about the subsequent court of inquiry after the storm, and about his years long effort to get documents about the court's findings after the war.
One thing I didn't know was that one of the DDs sunk in that storm was a Fletcher class ship, the USS Spence (DD-512). That ship was down to 15% fuel, but, as far as we can tell now, she didn't ballast with sea water, as her skipper was advised to do. The two Farragut class DDs were, in addition to being low on fuel, top heavy and unstable, as all the ships in that class were by 1944, as were the Mahan class ships.
Just a fascinating read.