Lost Battalion Publishing Dispatch #25

Aboard USS Monterey, a light carrier, aircraft stowed below deck broke loose, collided, and burst into flame. One of the sailors who fought the fire was Lt. Gerald Ford, who later became President of the United States.

Many of the “little boys,” destroyers and destroyer escorts, were low on fuel and thus had little ballast. Some flooded their fuel tanks with seawater in order to ride out the storm, but USS Hull, USS Monaghan, and USS Spence all rolled so heavily that seawater flooded down their stacks, knocking out their engines. All three destroyers subsequently capsized and sank. Only 93 men were rescued from those three ships. In total, 790 sailors were killed by the storm.

The storm is sometimes called “Halsey’s Typhoon” because Admiral William “Bull” Halsey ordered Third Fleet to remain on station rather than scattering and seeking shelter when the US Army Air Force forecast center detected the storm on December 17th. A Court of Inquiry determined that Halsey had committed an “error in judgment” but did not recommend sanctioning him. In the aftermath of the storm, the US Navy developed an official weather forecasting infrastructure which would later become the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Immediately upon arrival, the men were organized into crews to construct log cabins. The 14×16 foot structures were built with a door facing south to allow the sun to heat the cabin in the day and clay-lined wooden fireplaces for heating by night. About 1500 cabins were built, aligned in neat rows. Each one housed 12 enlisted men. Junior officers were six to a cabin. Senior officers had two roommates and generals had a cabin to themselves. The men also constructed two miles of defensive trenches, five redoubts, and a Roman-style bridge over the Schuylkill River.

Food shortages were not as bad as commonly assumed. Throughout January the men had half a pound of beef daily on average. Only during the month of February was there a serious food shortage where the men went without meat for several days at a time. Clothing and shoes posed more of a problem. At the worst point, in early March, around 3000 of the 12,000 men were listed unfit for duty due to lack of clothing or shoes. Those men were allowed to stay in their cabins while the men with proper clothing worked and guarded the camp.

Concentrating the army in a single location over the winter was crucial to its cohesion and allowed Washington to protect the surrounding countryside and resist any attacks. The downside was disease. Typhoid and influenza killed about 2000.

While Richard was held captive, his brother John attempted to usurp the throne. He went to Paris and forged an alliance with Phillip II. Fighting broke out in England between forces loyal to Richard and those assembled by John while Richard’s ransom was being raised. Phillip and John offered Henry VI a large sum to keep Richard detained but were refused. When Richard was released, Phillip threw his ally overboard sending John the message, “Look to yourself; the devil is loose.” John fled to Normandy where Richard hunted him down and forgave him, calling him “a child who has had evil councilors.”

This incident formed the backdrop for one of the world’s best-loved and most influential historical novels: Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. You can read it for free courtesy of Project Gutenberg by clicking this link.

Sherman’s “March to the Sea” after his capture of Atlanta is credited by many historians as the final straw that broke the back of the Confederacy. By cutting his army loose from traditional supply lines and “living off the land” he was able to march quickly across Georgia, destroying railroads, supply sources, and manufacturing facilities as he went. His march was an early example of “total war” where the civilian property of a belligerent is considered a legitimate military target.

James began a purge of all Crown officers who opposed him and planned to hold new elections in order to pack Parliament with his supporters. He ordered a Declaration of Indulgence, negating the Test Act and other laws aimed at punishing Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, to be read in all Anglican churches. The Archbishop of Canterbury and seven other bishops protested, and he had them arrested for seditious libel. When his wife gave birth to a Roman Catholic son, removing James’ two Protestant daughters from the line of succession, public alarm prompted Protestant nobles to invite William, Prince of Orange, to come to England with an army.

William was the son of Mary, daughter of English King Charles I. A staunch Protestant, he ruled a principality in what is now southern France but was then part of the Dutch Republic. He had fought in several wars against French Catholic King Louis XIV. On November 5, 1688, he landed in England with 40,000 men. Many Protestant officers and their English regiments defected to his cause. James, though still in command of a larger army than William, decided that resistance was futile. He threw the Great Seal of England into the River Thames and fled for France on December 11th. He was captured by a group of fishermen and brought back to London. On the 23rd, William allowed a second escape attempt to succeed.

On December 27th, the mission ended successfully with a splash-down in the Pacific Ocean. 1968 had been a tumultuous year for America. It was marred by the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and riots in the wake of the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination. After the mission, Borman received a telegram from a stranger that said, “Thank you Apollo 8. You saved 1968.”

Of the three astronauts, only Lovell would return to the Moon. He did so very briefly, making only one orbit as commander of the Apollo 13 mission before the stricken spacecraft limped back to earth after a fire caused one of the oxygen tanks to blow out.

Mort Künstler is renowned as “the premier historical artist in America.” From portraits of prehistoric American life to the odyssey of the space shuttle, he has painted America’s story. Check out his work here: Mort Künstler America’s Artist