Standing Orders: Admiral William Halsey, Leyte, and the Effects of Naval Success

The interaction between success, training, and experience serve to shed a light into the actions of military commanders durings combat, coloring their conduct under combat conditions. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 during World War II, Admiral William Halsey, Commander of the Third Fleet made a controversial decision when he turned his fleet northwards to attack Japanese Admiral Ozawa and left his allies dangerously exposed. Using letters and papers by the Admiral, memoirs and histories of the battle as well as analytic literature focusing on the American military during the period, this project seeks to argue that Admiral Halsey's actions were not made in a vacuum but rather as a result of his own training and wartime experiences and influenced by the success the American Navy were experiencing in the leadup to the Battle of Leyte Gulf.