World War II was over and the U.S. was still using the captured Japanese island of Okinawa as a major naval base. Hundreds of vessels dotted the numerous bays and inlets, and thousands of military personnel occupied the island.
In October 1945, Typhoon Louise tore into Okinawa, slamming ships together and tossing them onto reefs and beaches. Terrible winds tore up tent cities and disintegrated corrugated tin Quonset huts. One hundred people died and 383 ships of all sizes were sunk or damaged. This book tells the full story of the typhoon historian Samuel Eliot Morison called “the most furious and lethal storm ever encountered by the United States Navy.”

Gene Eric Salecker is a retired university police officer and middle school teacher living in River Grove, Illinois. He is currently the historian for the Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Arkansas.

Gene Eric Salecker
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 215
Bibliographic Info: 27 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2023
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9273-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5006-7
Imprint: McFarland

Military Abbreviations ix
Preface 1
Introduction 3
Chapter One. Storm Coming 5
Chapter Two. Typhoon Ida 13
Chapter Three. The Doughnut Hole 20
Chapter Four. Lost at Sea 24
Chapter Five. Typhoon Jean 29
Chapter Six. Louise 36
Chapter Seven. The Recurving 45
Chapter Eight. Typhoon Winds and Mountainous Waves 50
Chapter Nine. Rough Day and Night 56
Chapter Ten. The Bays 63
Chapter Eleven. The Center of Louise 69
Chapter Twelve. Ocelot and Nestor 77
Chapter Thirteen. Sinkings and Capsizings 85
Chapter Fourteen. The Death of ­PC-590 95
Chapter Fifteen. On Land 101
Chapter Sixteen. Caves, Tombs and Other Safe Places 112
Chapter Seventeen. Utter Devastation 120
Chapter Eighteen. Littered Shores 131
Chapter Nineteen. Sunk, Beached and Damaged 142
Chapter Twenty. Enough Is Enough 150
Appendix I. The Delayed Invasion of Japan 157
Appendix II. Ships Sunk, Grounded and/or Damaged by Typhoon Louise 159
Chapter Notes 175
Bibliography 196
Index 203