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

by Ian W. Toll

By 1944, that portion of Seversky’s argument had been debunked by the exploits of Task Force 58, the main carrier striking force of the Pacific Fleet. Nothing like it had ever been seen on the high seas, nothing like it has existed since 1945, and it is unlikely that a fighting fleet will ever again be built on such a scale. The mighty armada typically comprised twelve to sixteen aircraft carriers with a screen of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. Its great size rendered it omnipotent in whatever part of the ocean it occupied. Task Force 58 could put more than a thousand warplanes into the air in thirty minutes, send them to attack an enemy 200 miles away, and recover them safely when they returned.

Nine out of ten vessels in this force had not even existed when the Japanese had taken the Philippines in 1942. Indeed, many had just recently arrived in the Pacific, manned by freshly trained crews who had never fought in combat.

The Johnston’s skipper, Commander Ernest E. Evans, had begun preparations for such an attack even before receiving the order. “Stand by for a torpedo attack,” he ordered: “Left full rudder.” The 2,700-ton Fletcher-class destroyer turned back and began a lone frontal charge against the pursuing battleships and cruisers.

He might have said publicly what he once admitted privately—that he wished Spruance had been in command at Leyte Gulf, and he (Halsey) in command at the Battle of the Philippine Sea.