#Hurricane #USNavy #OTD: December 18, 1944, Admiral Halsey catastrophically orders the US Navy’s vaunted TF38 into #TyphoonCobra. TF38 has seven fleet carriers, eight battleships, ~60 light carriers, cruisers, and destroyers. In all, USA loses three... 1/
2/ destroyers on Dec. 18 killing 790 sailors. USS Iowa @ussiowa, CL Miami, etc., damaged. Light carriers Langley and Cowpens (above tweet) roll through 70 degrees, sending airplanes overboard or into each other, starting big fires. 146 aircraft lost!!!
3/ In contrast, USA lost 123 aircraft in June 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea. Destroyers Hull↖️, Monaghan ↗️ and Spence ↙️ sink. Maddox ↘️ and others are pounded but survive. 30 US Navy warships sunk or damaged total! #disasters #WW2 #Pacific #Weather
4/
↖️Hull (capsized; sunk: 202 men drowned; 62 survived)
↗️Monaghan (capsized; sunk: 256; 6)
↙️Spence (capsized; sunk: 317; 23)
↘️Maddox (survived)!
+Cowpens: 1 dead; Monterey; 3 dead. Rarely after Pearl Harbor did #USN lose so many in a day...
5/ ↖The mighty Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey @BattleshipNJ and Essex-class USS Hancock in the storm. USS Iowa @ussiowa herself required floating drydock repairs↗️, and further repairs in San Francisco↘️, where she also underwent modernization.
@BattleshipNJ @ussiowa 6/ USS Maddox (DD-731) was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer. There were 58! To give you an idea what life was like aboard her, here is her sister USS Laffey, the only ship I know of remaining of her once extensive class.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.