Okinawa Typhoon “Louise” – World War II.

With the recent natural disaster in Japan still very much on everyone’s heart, a monster World War II storm came to mind.  In October 1945, a typhoon hit off the coast of Okinawa.  It became known as “Typhoon Louise.”

Seaman Dalles King was out to sea, aboard LST 133.  “We had 80-foot swells—mountains of water!” he said.  “We were in a convoy, but had to pull out because the ship was cracking in two.  It (the crack) started down under the water line and just kept getting bigger as it went up, maybe an inch or two wide at the top.  We was doing a lot of rocking, but rocking was OK.  It was when the waves lifted us up into the air, then dropped us straight down.  That was the problem.  Oh, she’d really shake and vibrate then.  That’s when it started to break apart.

“We kept welding half-inch steel plates over the crack.  But then, the plates would crack.  After awhile, we had three half-inch steel plates welded on top of each other.” The patchwork finally held.  LST 133 would live another day.

Soldier Bill Weeks was aboard a troop ship when the storm hit.  “It really got bad,” he said.  “It was tossing that ship around like a cork.  …The waves were so big, it would heave the bow of the ship out of the water and slap it down again, minute after minute, hour after hour.”  Like King, Weeks survived.

In early October 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, Okinawa, Japan’s Typhoon Louise sank 12 U.S. ships, damaged 32 vessels beyond repair and grounded 222 others.  Thirty-six Navy personnel lost their lives.

2 Responses to “Okinawa Typhoon “Louise” – World War II”

1. Bill Wynne says:

   November 9, 2013 at 10:32 pm

   Hi,
   My 26th Photo Recon SQ. had moved to Korea< I Was with an 8 man Rear eschelon in the middle of Okinawa oppisite Ie shima. We were there at the dropping of the A bombs. ready to invade Japan. All of us had dogs or monkeys. We were going to fly up to Korea rather than take a ship. The Typoon blew away our tents and everything except the tropical mess hall left up. It was brought up from New Guinea over a two year operiod. It had fly screen side walls and burlap cloth siding. The wind just blew in one side and out the other. Tin roof had 100 pound sand bags on all corners of sheet metal. It held together. We we drenched for three days. The navy lost 290 ships hundreds of guys and only 20 were salvaged..
   check my world FAmous war dog at Smoky war dog wikipedia. Bill

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2. Duncan Alexander S 1/c says:

   October 7, 2016 at 8:03 pm

   The QSAGE lost 2 LCVP, an our 20mm guns on bow were bent backward toward the flying bridge, all lifelines on topside were washed away. Captain HH Keith was our skipper (GREAT NAVY MAN). We went in to Buckner Bay,Okinawa after 2 days to find the FLEET PO was blown away. an some LST’S were up on dry land several hundred feet.10/09/1945

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