The lethal strike of Typhoon Cobra

The storm that caused more damage than battle

Weather has always had a profound effect on war, especially on war at sea. In the 13th century, the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan launched two massive invasions against Japan, and both were wrecked by seasonal typhoons. These two storms were named kamikaze (“divine wind”) in Japanese, and were the inspiration for the eponymous suicide planes of World War II. Similarly, the Spanish Armada, poised to invade England in 1855, was wrecked for good by North Atlantic storms, leading to the emergence of England as a major naval power. And, back in the 5th century B.C., the weather at sea had a profound effect on the wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states. Today’s article, however, is about a much later storm: Typhoon Cobra, the last typhoon of the 1944 Pacific season, which ended up causing more damage to an American task force than the Japanese did.

Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, the commander of Task Force 38 (TF 38), also known as the Fast Carrier Task Force, was a feisty, aggressive officer popular with his sailors, and whose motto “Hit hard, hit fast, hit often” became closely associated with the entire U.S. Navy. In mid-December 1944, TF 38 comprised 7 Essex-class fleet carriers, 6 smaller Independence-class light carriers, 8 battleships, 4 heavy and 11 light cruisers, and about 50 destroyers. The battle of Leyte Gulf had recently concluded in late October, and the task force was now busy supporting landings in the Philippines. It had to stand in for the U.S. Army Air Forces, whose airfields on Leyte were rendered unusable by mud, and the carriers were busy launching patrols and air strikes against Japanese-held airfields. As December 17 approached, many of the vessels were running low on fuel due to the high tempo of operations. Destroyers are relatively small, and the ones low on fuel were light enough to ride high on the water, making them vulnerable to rough seas. Additionally, many of the destroyers were of the older Farragut-class, which were equipped with an extra 500 tons of armament and equipment, making them top-heavy.

The Third Fleet’s refueling group, coming to meet the task force, consisted of 12 feet oilers, 3 fleet tugs, 5 destroyers, 10 destroyer escorts, and 5 small escort carriers with replacement planes.
 
The weather forecast technology of the time gave little warning that Typhoon Cobra was forming. A part of the problem was that while it was very powerful, it was also compact and not very large, and was therefore underestimated until it was too late.

The typhoon proper arrived the next day, on December 18, with wind speeds that would eventually reach 110 knots (126 mph, 200 km/h). The unstable light carriers were rolling heavily, with USS Langley rolling 70° on one occasion. Seven planes on Cowpens were washed overboard, and another one broke loose and started a fire with a collision, but the fire was promptly extinguished. On the same ship, the wind also pulled a 20 mm gun emplacement off its mount.

A fighter on the hangar deck of San Jacinto smashed into seven other planes. The smaller escort carriers of the refueling group had hulls designed based on merchant ships, and were actually more stable than the light carriers, but they still lost some 90 fighters.

The light carrier Monterey fared the worst of all. A plane in the hangar broke loose and hit a bulkhead, starting a serious fire that killed three sailors and injured many more while another 38 planes were either destroyed or damaged by fire or washed overboard. One man involved in fighting the fire was Lieutenant Gerald R. Ford, the future President of the United States.

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