his excellent and perceptive biography of the Field-Mar-
shal, John Terraine drew a comparison between Haig in
the Somme battle and Ulysses Grant in the Virginian
campaign of 1864. This comparison is of wider appli-
cation, for Grant and Haig, although so dissimilar in
background and upbringing, were by nature very akin.
Both men were of shy and withdrawn character, but es-
sentially kindly and humane; they also shared the qual-
ity of inflexible determination to reach their appointed
goal. Both have been stigmatized as ‘bloody butchers.’ ”
References: De Groot, Gerard J., Douglas Haig: 1861–
1928 (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988); Cooper, Duff,
Viscount Norwich, Haig, 2 vols. (London: Faber and
Faber, 1935–36); Charteris, John, Field Marshal Earl Haig
(London: Cassell, 1929); Marshall-Cornwall, General Sir
James, Haig as Military Commander (London: B. T. Bats-
ford Limited, 1973); Haig, Douglas, Sir Douglas Haig’s
Despatches (December 1915–April 1919), edited by John
Herbert Boraston (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.,
1919); Winter, Denis, Haig’s Command: A Reassessment
(New York: Viking, 1991).
Halsey, William Frederick, Jr. (“Bull” Halsey)
(1882–1959) American admiral
William “Bull” Halsey was born in Elizabeth, New
Jersey, on 30 October 1882, and graduated from the
U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1904.
In 1907–09, he served on the USS Kansas, part of the
“Great White Fleet,” which was sent around the world
by President Theodore Roosevelt in a peaceful and suc-
cessful demonstration of American naval power. In
1914, during the American invasion and occupation of
Veracruz in Mexico, Halsey served on a torpedo boat,
and he commanded a destroyer in the Atlantic Ocean
during the First World War. He subsequently trained as
a pilot, becoming an aviator in the U.S. Navy in 1935.
Promoted rapidly, he reached the rank of vice admiral
by 1940.
On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attack on the
U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor brought the United
States into the Second World War. The assault left
Halsey as the commander of the only operational group
of American warships in the Pacific Ocean. Under the
command of Admiral Chester nimitz, Halsey took con-
trol of Task Force Sixteen to stage a series of hit-and-run
attacks on the Japanese, including the heroic Doolittle
Raid of Tokyo in April 1942. As commander of the air-
craft carrier force, he also directed a series of attacks on
Japanese targets in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and
planned the critical battle of Midway (4–7 June 1942).
As new ships were constructed and added to the fleet,
Halsey’s command grew, and he used this growing array
of ships to attack Japanese targets across the expanse of
the Pacific Theater of Operations. He used his ships to
attack the Japanese in battles at the Santa Cruz Islands
and the battle of Guadalcanal (12–15 November 1942),
victories that gave new spirit on the American side. In
recognition of his success, Halsey was promoted to the
rank of admiral in late 1942.
Through 1943 and into 1944, Halsey was in charge
of carrier-borne airforce offensives on the Solomon Is-
lands. On 15 June 1944, he was named as commander
of the U.S. Third Fleet. He also directed the American
assault on the Philippine islands, a strategic base for
hit-and-run attacks against the Japanese homeland. On
20–25 October 1944, with Admiral Thomas Kincaid,
commanding the Seventh Fleet, Halsey destroyed the
Japanese carrier force in Leyte Gulf so thoroughly that it
played little part in the remainder of the war. However,
he was not immune from criticism in this victory. His-
torians Anthony Bruce and William Cogar write: “Con-
troversy surrounds Halsey’s role in the battle of Leyte
Gulf and specifically as commander of Task Force 38 at
the battle of Cape Engaño [25 October 1944]. While he
succeeded in sinking all four Japanese carriers, his action
nevertheless weakened American naval forces operat-
ing against the main Japanese force in the Leyte Gulf.
Controversy also surrounded his action in leading his
fleet into a typhoon in December 1944, in which three
destroyers were lost.”
In the final months of the war, Halsey commanded
American forces in the fight at Okinawa, near the Japa-
nese islands, from 28 May 1945 until the Japanese
surrendered on 2 September 1945. The surrender cer-
emony was held on the USS Missouri, Halsey’s flagship.
Following the war, he was promoted to the rank of Fleet
Admiral on 11 December 1945.
On 1 March 1947, Halsey retired from active ser-
vice. Thereafter, he became involved in private business,
serving as president of International Telecommunica-
tions Laboratories from 1951 to 1957. He died on Fish-
ers Island, New York, on 16 August 1959, age 76. His
value to the United States during the Second World War
is inestimable. General Douglas macarthur calledhAlSey, williAm FReDeRick, JR.