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Typhoon Cobra, also known as the Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William Halsey Jr.), was the United States Navy designation for a powerful tropical cyclone that struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944, during World War II. The storm sank three destroyers, killed 790 sailors, damaged 9 other warships ...
Typhoon Cobra struck the United States Pacific Fleet and did severe damage to Task Force 38. Destroyers Hull, Monaghan and Spence all foundered in the storm. The typhoon was a significant plot element in Herman Wouk's novel "The Caine Mutiny". Douglas MacArthur was made a five-star general in the U.S. Army. [24]
The 1944 Pacific typhoon season has no official bounds; it ran year-round in 1944, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between June and December. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean .
Fueling operations with the fast, carrier strike-force in the Philippine Sea began on 17 December 1944, but increasingly heavy seas forced cancellation later that day. The fueling group became engulfed next day in an approaching typhoon, designated Cobra, with barometers falling to very low levels and winds increasing above 90 knots.
Spence, foundered in Typhoon Cobra, 18 December 1944; Halligan, lost to a mine off Okinawa, 26 March 1945; Bush, sunk by kamikazes off Okinawa, 6 April 1945; Colhoun, sunk by kamikazes off Okinawa, 6 April 1945; Pringle, sunk by kamikazes off Okinawa, 16 April 1945; Little, sunk by kamikazes off Okinawa, 3 May 1945; Luce, sunk by kamikazes off ...
Typhoon Cobra claimed 790 lives in the 3rd Fleet, and sank Spence, Hull, and Monaghan. Six men survived the Monaghan sinking, reportedly rescued by Brown and/or Tabberer . After drifting on a raft for three days, the men reported that Monaghan took roll after roll to starboard, finally going over.
Three of the class were lost in the war: Worden ran aground in Alaskan waters in January 1943 and became a total loss, while Hull and Monaghan were lost in Typhoon Cobra in December 1944. The remaining five ships survived World War II; they were broken up for scrap shortly after the end of the war.
A radar image of Typhoon Cobra, 18 December 1944. As the weather continued to deteriorate, Admiral William Halsey Jr. ordered fueling operations suspended at 13:10, just after noon. He ordered his fleet to move to the next morning's planned rendezvous spot, approximately 160 mi (260 km; 140 nmi) northwest, and comfortably safe from the typhoon ...