Typhoon Cobra

Map plotting the storm's track and intensity, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale

Map key

Saffir–Simpson scale

  Tropical depression (≤38 mph, ≤62 km/h)
  Tropical storm (39–73 mph, 63–118 km/h)
  Category 1 (74–95 mph, 119–153 km/h)
  Category 2 (96–110 mph, 154–177 km/h)
  Category 3 (111–129 mph, 178–208 km/h)
  Category 4 (130–156 mph, 209–251 km/h)
  Category 5 (≥157 mph, ≥252 km/h)
  Unknown

Storm type

Tropical cyclone

Subtropical cyclone

Extratropical cyclone, remnant low, tropical disturbance, or monsoon depression

On December 17, 1944, the typhoon was first observed when United States Third Fleet was refueling.[4][5] U.S. Army Air Force forecast center on Saipan sent a reconnaissance flight and found the storm heading towards the fleet, with the estimated winds of 140 kn (160 mph; 72 m/s; 260 km/h).[4][5] As it was headed towards the fleet, barometric pressures as low as 27.3 inHg (924 mbar) were reported by USS Dewey.[2] The storm dissipated on December 19.

TF 38 consisted of 7 fleet carriers, 6 light carriers, 8 battleships, 15 cruisers, and about 50 destroyers. The carriers had been conducting raids against Japanese airfields in the Philippines, and ships were being refueled, especially many destroyers, which were running low on fuel. When the storm hit, the procedure had to be aborted.

Damage to the fleet was severe. Some ships rolled more than 70 degrees. Three destroyers, Spence, Hickox, and Maddox, had nearly empty fuel stores (10–15% of capacity) and so lacked the stabilizing effect of the extra weight, making them relatively unstable. Additionally, several other destroyers, including Hull and Monaghan, were of the older Farragut-class and had been refitted with over 500 long tons (510 t) of extra equipment and armament, which made them top-heavy.

Spence, Hull, and Monaghan either capsized or were sunk after water flooded down their smokestacks and disabled their engines. Without power, they were unable to control their heading and were at the mercy of the wind and seas. Hickox and Maddox pumped seawater into their empty fuel tanks, adding enough stability to ride out the storm with relatively minor damage.

Many other ships of TF 38 suffered various degrees of damage, especially to radar and radio equipment, which crippled communications within the fleet. Several carriers suffered fires in their hangars, and 146 aircraft were wrecked or blown overboard. Nine ships—including one light cruiser, three light carriers, and two escort carriers—suffered enough damage to be sent for repairs.

The carrier Monterey was nearly taken down in flames by its own airplanes as they crashed into bulkheads and exploded during violent rolls. One of those fighting the fires aboard Monterey was Lieutenant Gerald Ford, later President of the United States. Ford later recalled nearly going overboard when 20° and greater rolling caused aircraft below decks to careen into each other, igniting a fire. Ford, serving as General Quarters Officer of the Deck, was ordered to go below to assess the raging fire. He did so safely and reported his findings back to the ship's commanding officer, Captain Stuart Ingersoll. The ship's crew was able to contain the fire, and the ship got underway again.[6]

Planes went adrift, collided, and burst into flames. Monterey caught fire at 0911 (18 December) and lost steerageway a few minutes later. The fire was brought under control at 0945 and the C.O., Captain Stuart H. Ingersoll, decided to let his ship lie dead in the water until temporary repairs could be effected. She lost 18 aircraft burned in the hangar deck or blown overboard and 16 seriously damaged, together with three 20-mm guns, and suffered extensive rupturing of her ventilation system. Cowpens lost 7 planes overboard and caught fire from one that broke loose at 1051, but the fire was brought under control promptly; Langley rolled through 70 degrees; San Jacinto reported a fighter plane adrift on the hangar deck which wrecked seven other aircraft. She also suffered damage from salt water that entered through punctures in the ventilating ducts. Captain [Jasper T.] Acuff's replenishment escort carriers did pretty well. Flames broke out on the flight deck of Cape Esperance at 1228 but were overcome; Kwajalein made a maximum roll of 39 degrees to port when hove-to with wind abeam. Her port catwalks scooped up green water, but she lost only three planes which were jettisoned from the flight deck; it took one hour to get them over the side. Three other escort carriers lost in all 86 aircraft but came through without much material damage."[7]

In the words of Admiral Chester Nimitz, the typhoon's impact "...represented a more crippling blow to the Third Fleet than it might be expected to suffer in anything less than a major action." The events surrounding Typhoon Cobra were similar to those the Japanese navy faced some nine years earlier in what they termed the "Fourth Fleet Incident".

Ships damaged

USS Cowpens during Typhoon Cobra, 18 December 1944.

USS Langley (CVL-27) rolling heavily during Typhoon Cobra, 18 December 1944.

• USS Hull: with 70% fuel aboard, capsized and sank with 202 men drowned (62 survivors)[2]
• USS Monaghan: capsized and sank with 256 men drowned (6 survivors)[2]
• USS Spence: rudder jammed hard to starboard, capsized, and sank with 317 men drowned (23 survivors) after hoses parted while attempting to refuel from New Jersey because they had also disobeyed orders directly from Admiral Halsey to ballast down.[2] The fuel tanks had to be deballasted (emptied of sea water) to accept needed fuel. The ship had insufficient fuel to weather the storm. This was the common problem shared by the destroyers and destroyer escorts.
• USS Cowpens: hangar door torn open and radar, 20mm gun sponson, whaleboat, jeeps, tractors, kerry crane, and eight aircraft lost overboard. One sailor (ship's air officer Robert Price) lost.[2]
• USS Monterey: hangar deck fire killed three men and caused evacuation of boiler rooms requiring repairs.[2][8]
• USS Langley: damaged[2]
• USS Cabot: damaged[9]
• USS San Jacinto: hangar deck planes broke loose and destroyed air intakes, vent ducts and sprinkling system causing widespread flooding.[2] Damage repaired by USS Hector[10]
• USS Altamaha: hangar deck crane and aircraft broke loose and broke fire mains[2]
• USS Anzio: required major repair[2]
• USS Nehenta Bay: damaged[9]
• USS Cape Esperance: flight deck fire required major repair[2]
• USS Kwajalein: lost steering control[2]
• USS Iowa: propeller shaft bent and lost a seaplane
• USS Baltimore: required major repair[2]
• USS Miami: required major repair[2]
• USS Dewey: lost steering control, radar, the forward stack, and all power when salt water shorted main electrical switchboard[2]
• USS Aylwin: required major repair. Two men drowned when they were swept overboard.[2]
• USS Buchanan: required major repair[2]
• USS Dyson: required major repair[2]
• USS Hickox: required major repair[2]
• USS Maddox: damaged[9]
• USS Benham: required major repair[2]
• USS Donaldson: required major repair[2]
• USS Melvin R. Nawman: required major repair[2]
• USS Tabberer: lost foremast[11]
• USS Waterman: damaged[9]
• USS Nantahala: damaged[9]
• USS Jicarilla: damaged[9]
• USS Shasta: damaged—"one deck collapsed, aircraft engines damaged, depth charges broke loose, damaged"

While conducting refueling operations off the Philippines, the Third Fleet remained on station rather than breaking up and seeking shelter from the storm. This led to a severe loss of men, ships, and aircraft. A Court of Inquiry was convened on board the USS Cascade at the naval base at Ulithi, with Admiral Nimitz, CINCPAC, in attendance at the court.[13] Captain Herbert K. Gates was the judge advocate for the court.[14] The court found that though Halsey had committed an "error of judgement" in sailing the Third Fleet into the heart of the typhoon, it stopped short of unambiguously recommending sanction. In January 1945, Halsey passed command of the Third Fleet to Admiral Raymond A. Spruance.

This typhoon led to the establishment of weather infrastructure of the U.S. Navy, which eventually became the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.[15][16][17]

An oiler struggles to maintain position, 17 December 1944

The typhoon is in central part in Herman Wouk's book The Caine Mutiny.

• List of Pacific typhoon seasons
• Typhoon Connie (1945), which hit the same fleet in June 1945, leading to immediate formation of Fleet Warning Center in Guam.
• Typhoon Louise (1945), which hit the U.S. fleet off Okinawa in October 1945.

• Adamson, Hans Christian, George Francis Kosco. 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
• Baldwin, Hanson W. Sea Fights and Shipwrecks; Hanover House; 1955
• Brown, David. Warship Losses of World War II; Naval Institute Press; 1990; ISBN 1-55750-914-X
• Calhoun, C. Raymond. Typhoon, the Other Enemy: The Third Fleet and the Pacific Storm of December 1944 ; Naval Institute Press; September 1981; ISBN 978-0870215100
• Cressman, Robert J. The Official Chronology of the U. S. Navy in World War II; Naval Institute Press; 2000; ISBN 1-55750-149-1
• Drury, Bob and Tom Clavin. "How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship", The New York Times, December 28, 2006
• Drury, Bob and Tom Clavin. Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue; Grove/Atlantic, Inc.; 2007; ISBN 0-87113-948-0; ISBN 978-0-87113-948-1
• Henderson, Bruce. Down to the Sea: An Epic Story of Naval Disaster and Heroism in World War II ; Collins; 2007; ISBN 0-06-117316-9
• Melton, Buckner F., Jr. Sea Cobra, Admiral Halsey's Task Force and the Great Pacific Typhoon; Lyons Press; 2007; ISBN 1592289789
• Pawlowski, Gareth L. Flat-Tops and Fledglings; Gazelle Book Services Ltd, March 20, 1972; ISBN 978-0498076411
• US Department of Commerce. "Northern Hemisphere Synoptic Weather Map index" for 1944
• US Naval Historical Foundation. "Lieutenant Gerald Ford and Typhoon Cobra Archived 2017-11-06 at the Wayback Machine", February 7, 2013

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Typhoon Cobra (1944).

• DESA webpage describing the disaster
• "World War II Pacific typhoons battered U.S. Navy", USA Today weather history, 2008
• Naval Historical Center FAQ