I just watched a documentary the other day that knocked Halsey pretty bad. I got to thinking.
It's easy to knock him after you see the results of his actions in the battle of Leyte Gulf. But.......
1. US intel on Japanese strength was non existent throughout the entire war. Kinda hard to get agents in and out of Japan at the time.
2. Air power, both naval and land based had completely changed the face or warfare in a very few short years. The biggest naval threat throughout the war to that date was air attack in the Pacific.
3. Being the man on the scene at the time. It's easy to arm chair any officer or combat operation. Being the man, there on the spot, making decisions based on intel and threat can and often does look very different that what it will look like after the fact.
In the case mentioned take notice that most if not all text involving Leyte Gulf someplace toward the front of it always mentions what the Japanese true strength was. Information available to the reader that wasn't available to ANYONE in the US military while the battle was going on and certainly not Halsey. We read/see that the carriers that Jap sent out had few aircraft of any type. That it was a ruse. Halsey had no way of knowing that. We read that after initial contact the northern Japanese force withdrew, then turned around to renew the attack. Halsey had know way of knowing that. So we come down to Halsey leaving his station to go after the carrier fleet. Go take a look at all standard naval orders of the day. They read something like "you are to screen the invasion force" and so on, then add in that if the opportunity arises where you can without screwing up the first part "destroy the enemy" at every opportunity.
So IMO the only thing Halsey did wrong was a judgement call. He thought the northern attack was in retreat, a surface force, and the real threat was the carriers. Given the intel available to him at the time? Really a reasonable call.
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