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Admiral Bill Halsey

A Naval Life

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Admiral Bill Halsey

By: Thomas Alexander Hughes
Narrated by: David Drummond
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About this listen

William Halsey was the most famous naval officer of World War II. His fearlessness in carrier raids against Japan, his steely resolve at Guadalcanal, and his impulsive blunder at the Battle of Leyte Gulf made him the "Patton of the Pacific" and solidified his reputation as a decisive, aggressive fighter prone to impetuous errors of judgment in the heat of battle. In this definitive biography, Thomas Hughes punctures the popular caricature of the "fighting admiral" to reveal the truth of Halsey's personal and professional life as it was lived in times of war and peace.

Halsey, the son of a Navy officer whose alcoholism scuttled a promising career, committed himself wholeheartedly to naval life at an early age. An audacious and inspiring commander to his men, he met the operational challenges of the battle at sea against Japan with dramatically effective carrier strikes early in the war. Yet his greatest contribution to the Allied victory was as commander of the combined sea, air, and land forces in the South Pacific. Skillfully mediating the constant strategy disputes between the Army and the Navy, Halsey was the linchpin of America's Pacific war effort when its outcome was far from certain.

©2016 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2016 Tantor Americas Armed Forces Military Military & War Naval Forces World War II War US Air Force Imperial Japan Submarine Air Force

Critic Reviews

"Smartly written... [It] deserves to supplant E. B. Potter's 21-year-old Bull Halsey as the standard life of its subject... Hughes is an entertaining writer and an incisive observer." ( Wall Street Journal)

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Great listen

This is a very well researched biography, and the writer does something which most authors don't do, he provides a genuine critical analysis of the person he is writing about. In my experience, most biographers are too biased in favor of who they are writing about, but within this story there is a genuine attempt to discuss both the successes and mistakes of Halsey. As a result, the listener is able to get a deeper understanding of one of the great figures of World War 2.

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