Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

The court’s formal report, issued in early January 1945, placed a “preponderance of responsibility” on Halsey for failing to dodge the storm, and faulted him for “errors of judgment under stress of war operations.” Although the court did not recommend any specific sanction, its ruling was sufficiently critical that it might have justified relieving Halsey of his command. Spruance was due to return as commander in chief of the Fifth Fleet later that month; he could simply have been recalled a few weeks early. But after conferring privately, Nimitz and King decided not to do it. Truman Hedding believed, as did many others, that Halsey’s popularity with the press and public saved his command, “because Admiral Halsey was a national hero, and in time of war you don’t do that.”