Bull Halsey

Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1988. Third printing [stated]. The 1988 second printing was with corrections]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 27 cm. xiii, [3], 421, [1] pages. Endpaper map. Illustrations. Maps. Sources. Notes. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr., (October 30, 1882 - August 16, 1959), known as "Bull" Halsey, was an American admiral during World War II. He is one of the four individuals to have attained the rank of fleet admiral of the United States Navy. Halsey graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1904. He served in the Great White Fleet and, during World War I, commanded the USS Shaw. He took command of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga in 1935 and was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in 1938. At the start of the War in the Pacific, Halsey commanded the task force centered on the carrier USS Enterprise. Halsey led the Allied forces over the course of the Battle for Guadalcanal and the fighting up the Solomon chain. In 1943 he was made commander of the Third Fleet. He took part in the Battle for Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of the Second World War and, by some criteria, the largest naval battle in history. He was promoted to fleet admiral in December 1945 and retired from active service in March 1947. Derived from a Kirkus review: A blunt appraisal of the fighting admiral whose risky tactics made him one of WW II's great heroes. Potter, sometime chairman of the naval history department at Annapolis, had access to Halsey's private papers, which include an evident wealth of material not in his 1947 autobiography. He also had the cooperation of Halsey family members. The author is able to provide details on Halsey's youth, his scholarship and gridiron heroics as a Naval Academy midshipman (Class of 1904), and Halsey's upwardly mobile service in the pre-Pearl Harbor Navy. Halsey was a pioneering advocate of naval air power who earned his wings at age 51 and won promotion to rear admiral in 1938. Potter devotes the bulk of his text to a balanced account of the leading role played by Halsey in the defeat of the Japanese. In the spring of 1942, he commanded Task Force 16 from which the Air Force's Jimmie Doolittle launched his daring raid on Tokyo. Potter's diligent research has allowed him to offer a coherent, revelatory narrative which addresses Halsey's shortcomings as well as his valorous achievements.