Pacific Ocean Areas

Pacific Ocean Areas was a major Allied military command in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. It was one of four major Allied commands during the Pacific War, and one of three United States commands in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz of the U.S. Navy, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, headed the command throughout its existence.
The vast majority of Allied forces in the theatre were from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. However units and/or personnel from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Fiji and other countries also saw active service.
Formation and composition.
On 24 March 1942, the newly formed British and US Combined Chiefs of Staff issued a directive designating the Pacific theater an area of American strategic responsibility. On 30 March the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) divided the Pacific theater into three areas: the Pacific Ocean Areas (POA), the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), and the Southeast Pacific Area. Details and transition, including whether Nimitz "appointed" or "nominated" the commander of the South Pacific Area, were worked out between 3 April and formal assumption of the overall Commander-in-Chief Pacific Ocean Areas by Nimitz on 8 May 1942.
The JCS designated Admiral Chester W. Nimitz as Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA), with operational control over all units (air, land, and sea) in that area. The theater included most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, but mainland Asia was excluded from the POA, as were the Philippines, Australia, the Netherlands East Indies, the Territory of New Guinea (including the Bismarck Archipelago) and the western part of the Solomon Islands. US strategic bomber forces in the theatre were under the direct control of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. All land forces in Alaska and Canada remained under the control of the US Army's Western Defense Command (see Aleutian Islands Campaign).
In the separate South West Pacific Area, General Douglas MacArthur assumed command. The result of this split was the creation of two separate commands in the Pacific: POA and SWPA, each reporting separately to the Joint Chiefs, each competing for scarce resources in an economy-of-force theater, and each headed by a commander in chief from a different service. In particular, the division of the Solomons caused problems, since the battles of the Solomon Islands campaign in 1942–1943 ranged over the whole region, with the main Japanese bases in SWPA and the main Allied bases in SOPAC. However, MacArthur's Operation Cartwheel, which gave full operational command of naval and amphibious forces to SOPAC's Admiral William Halsey in the Solomons while MacArthur strategically directed the whole operation, was a resounding success due to the rapport and great personal relationship between MacArthur and Halsey. When Halsey operated in the Solomon Islands that was west of 159° east longitude he reported to MacArthur. When he operated east of 159° east longitude he reported to Nimitz. The middle of Santa Isabel Island is where 159° east longitude runs through.
Sub-components.
The Joint Chiefs further divided the Pacific Ocean Areas into the North, Central and South Pacific Areas. Nimitz designated subordinate commanders for the North and South Pacific Areas (NORPAC and SOPAC) but retained the Central Pacific Area (CENPAC), including the Army's Hawaiian Department, under his direct command.
From 1942-1943, three Army infantry divisions (23rd/"Americal", 25th, 27th) and two Marine divisions (1st, 2nd) fought in the POA (the 1st and 3rd Marine Divisions also fought in the SWPA in 1943). From 1944-1945, five Army infantry divisions (7th, 27th, 77th, 81st, 96th) and six Marine divisions (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th) served in the POA. An additional 15 Army divisions fought in the SWPA during this time. Among allied land force formations was the 3rd New Zealand Division, which fought in the Solomon Islands campaign during 1943-44.
U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) operated in the POA under the Seventh, Thirteenth, and Twentieth Air Forces at various times. On 10 March 1944, the Department of War approved the activation of an additional AAF headquarters for the Pacific Ocean Areas. To head this new command the Air Staff in Washington DC had decided as early as 16 April upon Lt. Gen. Millard F. Harmon, who, as commander of U.S. Army Forces, South Pacific Area (USAFISPA) had had long experience in the Pacific. By May the War Department proposed that Lt. Gen. Robert C. Richardson Jr., commanding U.S. Army Forces Central Pacific Area, be named Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas (USAFPOA), a command to incorporate both USAFICPA and USAFISPA, with Harmon under Richardson as Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas (AAFPOA). Harmon was finally made responsible to Nimitz for all matters regarding 'plans, operations, training, and dispositions' of his forces. In addition, as deputy commander of the Twentieth Air Force, Harmon was made responsible directly to Arnold in all matters affecting elements of the Twentieth Air Force in POA.
Activation of Headquarters, Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas at Hickam Field followed on 1 August 1944. The Seventh Air Force, formerly the senior command, was made "mobile and tactichi" on 15 August by the reassignment of 112 units of various types to AAFPOA. The VII Air Force Service Command, its former administrative functions having been assumed by Breene as AAFPOA deputy commander for administration, was transferred to ASC/AAFPOA, where it lost its identity as an operating agency. The Seventh Air Force was left only VII Bomber Command and VII Fighter Command. The other AAFPOA operating forces were XXI Bomber Command and the Hawaiian Air Defense Wing. In preparation for the support of VHB units, the Hawaiian Air Depot was expanded and assigned directly to AAFPOA. For the forward or combat area, plans were laid for a Guam Air Depot (later, Harmon Air Force Base), which was established in November.
Allied air forces included units of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.


Battle off Horaniu

The Battle off Horaniu (Japanese: 第一次ベララベラ海戦) was a minor naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought near Vella Lavella, in the Solomon Islands. On the night of 17–18 August 1943, four U.S. Navy destroyers intercepted an Imperial Japanese Navy convoy carrying troops to Horaniu, on the northern coast of Vella Lavella, where they were to establish a barge base to support the movement of troops through the region.
The Japanese convoy was escorted by four destroyers, and both sides exchanged torpedoes and gunfire from long range. After two Japanese destroyers were slightly damaged, the escort withdrew, allowing the U.S. force to sink five small ships from the convoy. However, the majority of the troop carrying barges escaped by hiding along the Vella Lavella coast, and subsequently completed their mission on 19 August. In October, the Japanese used the base to support the mass withdrawal of troops from Kolombangara.
Background.
In mid-1943, in the wake of the Guadalcanal campaign, the Allies launched their next offensive in the Solomon Islands, focused upon seizing the major Japanese airstrip at Munda on New Georgia Island. After the fall of Munda on 4–5 August, and defeat in the Battle of Vella Gulf on 6–7 August, the Japanese decided to evacuate their garrisons in the central Solomons, firstly moving to Baanga Island while planning to bring forces south from Rabaul for a potential counterattack.
On 15 August, the Allies landed on Vella Lavella, bypassing the main Japanese troop concentration on Kolombangara. To maintain contact with these troops, and ensure their later withdrawal, the Japanese planned to establish a staging base at Horaniu, on the northern tip of Vella Lavella.
Commanded by Rear Admiral Matsuji Ijuin, the destroyers , , , and left Rabaul on 17 August to rendezvous with a troop convoy from Buin, on Bougainville. This convoy included 13 barges, four motor torpedo boats, the subchasers "Cha-12" and "Cha-5", and a "Soukoutei-class" armored boat. The troops embarked consisted of two Imperial Japanese Army companies and an Imperial Japanese Navy platoon.
Battle.
After the Japanese force was located by Allied reconnaissance aircraft, Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson, commander of the Third Amphibious Force, dispatched a division of four destroyers from Purvis Bay on Florida Island to intercept them. This force consisted of , , , and , under Captain Thomas J. Ryan. They departed their anchorage at 15:27 on 17 August and began a fast run up the New Georgia Sound, also known as "The Slot". When Ryan's destroyers were off the north coast of Kolombangara, lookouts on watch saw a burst of anti-aircraft fire in the distance, giving away the position of the Japanese convoy.
Despite a full moon, visibility was limited to due to low lying clouds and intermittent rain showers. However, at about 23:30, the Japanese convoy was attacked by eight AirSols Avenger torpedo bombers, and forced to scatter, although no ships were damaged. Two of the escorts, "Isokaze" and "Shigure", sailing abreast, began herding the smaller craft back into formation, while "Sazanami" and "Hamakaze" continued on a northwesterly course. Ryan was advised by the Avengers the Japanese ships were still heading for Vella Lavella, although his destroyers were detected shortly afterwards by a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft, which began circling in preparation for an attack. The convoy was still reforming, when at 00:29 on 18 August, Ryan's radar detected the Japanese destroyers to the northwest, at a range of , then the Japanese barges; at 00:32, Japanese lookouts spotted the U.S. destroyers, which had closed to .
The Japanese convoy was still short of its destination, and Ijuin was under orders to avoid decisive engagement. He dispatched two of his destroyers to turn to the north in an effort to lure the U.S. force away from the troop carrying vessels. To conceal his position, Ryan decided not to use his deck guns, and began maneuvering for a torpedo attack on the Japanese destroyers, rather than attacking the barges. This surprised Ijuin who had expected the opposite. Around 00:40, the Japanese aircraft dropped several flares over the U.S. ships, giving away their location, and Ryan turned back to engage the convoy to his east. Ijuin ordered his ships to begin firing torpedoes six minutes later, loosing 31 between 00:50 and 00:54 at a range of . By making a series of turns to avoid the Japanese barges, the American destroyers unintentionally avoided all 31 torpedoes, and around 00:56, the Japanese gunners opened fire. However, to avoid revealing their position, their searchlights were turned off, and no damage was inflicted on Ryan's destroyers.
After a series of turns, the U.S. destroyers opened fire with radar controlled 5-inch guns at 00:58, which damaged "Hamakaze", while "Chevalier" loosed a salvo of four torpedoes towards "Shigure" from a distance of . This attack was unsuccessful. The Japanese ships laid down a smokescreen and began to zigzag to throw off the U.S. gunners' aim. Torpedo attacks by both "Shigure" and "Isokaze" were also unsuccessful, and was followed by an inaccurate radar report that another U.S. naval force was advancing from the south. Ijuin could not afford to lose any of his destroyers, and after an ineffective long-range exchange of torpedoes and gunfire, he ordered them to withdraw at about 01:00. Ryan's ships kept firing until the Japanese were out of range, then pursued them, moving onto a parallel course, while undertaking evasive maneuvers until 01:11 to avoid any torpedoes that might have been fired. At this time, "Isokaze" fired a torpedo salvo from , which failed to score a hit, but in return was damaged by an American 5-inch shell, wounding several sailors.
Due to a mechanical fault on "Chevalier", the Americans were unable to catch the fast-moving Japanese destroyers, who were withdrawing at . Ryan turned back to locate the troop convoy, but the small craft had taken advantage of the destroyer contest to disperse; although the Americans managed to sink five, the majority subsequently escaped. Harassed by the Japanese reconnaissance aircraft, Ryan's destroyers returned to Tulagi.
Aftermath.
As a result of the battle, a total of five Japanese auxiliary ships were sunk. This included two subchasers, two motor torpedo boats, and one powered barge with an unknown number of personnel killed or injured. In addition, two destroyers, "Hamakaze" and "Isokaze", were slightly damaged, although this was not significant and both took part in further actions three days later. Despite these losses, the Japanese saved the majority of their barges which spent 18 August quietly lying in hiding along the northern coast of Vella Lavella and were subsequently able to land 390 troops on 19 August. These personnel established a barge base at Horaniu, while Ijuin's force returned to Rabaul believing that they had sunk one U.S. destroyer.
The Japanese withdrawal in the central Solomons continued throughout August and September. After Baanga Island was evacuated on 22 August, the Japanese garrison withdrew to Arundel Island, and over the course of a month they fought a series of delaying actions there until late September. Meanwhile, on Vella Lavella, Horaniu fell to Allied forces on 14 September, while the base's 600 personnel were pushed into a small perimeter on the northwestern part of the island. They were withdrawn on the night of 6–7 October, along with almost 10,000 troops that were evacuated from Kolombangara to Choisel and Bougainville.


Convoys SG-6/LN-6

Convoy SG-6 was a supply convoy of merchant and troop ships during the Second World War. It was one of the numbered SG Convoys from Sydney to Greenland. The convoy was split into two groups with "Chatham" being escorted by USCG "Mojave" in a formation coded SG-6F, while the remainder were with SG-6S. SG-6F was found and attacked on 27 September 1942 by , sinking "Chatham", while contacted SG-6S, sinking 1 ship and damaging another. Convoy LN-6, which was a supply convoy from Quebec City to Goose Bay, was nearby and its escort broke off to conduct rescue operations.


Operation Calendar

Operation Calendar in 1942 was an Anglo-American operation in World War II to deliver Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft to Malta. The aircraft were desperately needed to bolster the island's defence against strong Axis air raids.
Background.
"Club Run" deliveries required the short-range fighters to be loaded onto an aircraft carrier in Britain or at Gibraltar and taken to within flying range of Malta where they would be "flown off" and make their own way to Malta. There had been several earlier "Club Runs" but by this time, no suitable British carriers were available. The situation was urgent, so, after a personal request from the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill to the American President Franklin D Roosevelt, the American aircraft carrier was loaned for a "Club Run".
Operation.
"Wasp" collected 52 aircraft from Shieldhall on the River Clyde, from No. 601 Squadron RAF and No. 603 Squadron RAF, with pilots. The aircraft to be conveyed were Spitfire VBs fitted with external fuel tanks to extend their range. They were, however, inadequately prepared. The external tanks leaked badly, a fault that recurred on "Club Runs"; in addition, many of the aircraft's guns were faulty and most of their radios did not work.
"Wasp" sailed from Glasgow on 14 April 1942 with her escort, destroyers and , and was joined by the British battlecruiser and her escort. When this squadron, codenamed Force W, passed Gibraltar overnight on 18–19 April, they were joined by cruisers and and destroyers , , , and . During final preparations, the faults mentioned above were detected, but too late to be rectified.
On 20 April, with "Wasp"s Grumman F4F Wildcats providing air cover, 48 Spitfires flew off.
Aftermath.
This addition to Malta's defences was in vain. The "Luftwaffe" anticipated the Spitfires arrival and bombed Ta'Qali airfield within minutes of their arrival. Most were caught on the ground and within 48 hours all were destroyed. Those that did fly were hampered by the faults with which they had arrived.
The island's Governor, Lieutenant General Sir William Dobbie, reported that the local condition was critical. He was soon replaced; the view was that he should have ensured adequate protection for the Spitfires and for an earlier convoy which had been sunk in harbour. Lord Gort was his replacement. The loss of the Spitfires made the subsequent Operation Bowery even more essential.


Strother Army Airfield

Strother Army Airfield was a World War II training base of the United States Army Air Forces Central Flying Training Command (CFTC), and later II Fighter Command. It is currently the city-owned Strother Field.
History.
Strother Army Air Field was a joint enterprise of the proximate cities of Winfield and Arkansas City to build a municipal airport which evolved, by the force of events, into construction of an Army airfield dedicated to basic flying training.
At a joint meeting on 6 February 1941 the two city commissions approved construction of an airport comprising some 240 acres with a 100 x 100-foot hangar. Authority to issue bonds had already been granted by the Kansas legislature. During the course of 1941 the Federal government's interest in this site for the establishment of an Army flying school became known. A site selection board of officers met at Arkansas City, 11 April 1942, and inspected the proposed airport site. In its report three days later, the board approved the proposed site. On the same day of the board meeting, 11 April, the two cities passed a resolution committing the municipalities to obtain approximately 1,400 acres of land to be leased to the Federal government at the rate of one dollar per year, and renewable yearly for 25 years.
Construction.
The airfield is located midway between Arkansas City and Winfield, in Cowley county on U. S. Highway 77. The entire field comprised some 1,386 acres. Construction of the airfield began on 16 May 1942. Four asphalt runways, 5,500, 4,000, and two of 5,840 feet in length and all 150 feet wide, were built. Permanent type run-
way lights were installed. Connecting these were four taxiways, three of asphalt and one of concrete, two of which were 700 feet in length, another 3,500 feet, and the fourth 1,600 feet. Three were 50 feet wide, one 100 feet.
In addition, there were four auxiliary fields, which building operations began at the same time.
Storage facilities included three AAF and four Quartermaster buildings. All were of wood frame construction, with cement floors. Two instructional buildings, totaling 15,550 square feet with a total student capacity of 550, were erected. In addition, six Link Trainer buildings were provided, with a total capacity of 34. Under the general category of recreational and welfare facilities, day rooms, an officers' club and a service club, theater, chapel, post exchange, bowling alley, gymnasium, swimming pool, and a library were built. Housing was built to accommodate a total of 4,404 officers and men, while the hospital was designed for a normal bed
capacity of 141. Although fuel was readily available locally, a gasoline capacity of 210,216 gallons was provided, and an oil storage capacity of 36,000 gallons.
Basic Flying School.
The airfield was named Strother Field, named after Capt.Donald Root Strother, who was killed over Java on 13 February 1942 while serving with the 7th Bombardment Group in the Dutch East Indies Campaign commanding a squadron of B-17 Flying Fortresses. He was the first Army Air Force pilot from Cowley County to be killed in World War II. Captain Strother was born October 26, 1911, in Winfield. He attended the Winfield schools and Southwestern College, and in 1934 became a cadet in the army air corps. Later he served two years as a civilian air line pilot. In 1938 Strother re-entered the Air Corps. The field was dedicated January 1943 by Kansas Governor Schoppel, local officials and the Strother Field Commander. During the ceremony which included a military and aerial review, The Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart were presented to Captain Strother's three-year-old son, Colbert
The Basic Flying School at Strother Field was officially activated on 14 November 1942 under the jurisdiction of the 32d Flying Training Wing (Basic), Perrin Army Airfield, Texas as part of Central Flying Training Command (CFTC). Units activated at the airfield were the 108th Guard Squadron; 448th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron; 332d Aviation Squadron; 1082d, 1083d, and 1084th Basic Training Flying Squadrons.
The voracious demand for fighter pilots necessitated a very early inauguration of training on 14 or 15 December 1942 with the arrival of the first class of cadets from Fort Sumner Army Airfield, New Mexico and Majors Army Airfield, Texas. At that time, the runways had not been completed and planes were forced to operate from the parking ramp only.
A most hazardous situation. Training consisted principally of 70 hours pilot training. Like most new training bases in this period, the greatest initial problem was a scarcity of training aircraft. Training was inaugurated with a ratio of one plane to six students. The Vultee BT-13 Valiant was the principal aircraft used for basic flight training. The 14 months between 1 January 1943 and 1 March 1944 were to bring to Strother Field, including those who arrived in the middle of December 1942 and those who remained after 1 March 1944, 14 classes of students. With the graduation of Class 44-G on 23 May, Strother Field had accomplished its mission as a basic pilot school of the Central Flying Training Command. This was the 16th class to take basic training at Strother.
Tactical Fighter Training.
On 1 June 1944 the basic flying training function at Strother ceased, and the field was taken over by the II Fighter Command, Second Air Force. Most of the permanent personnel of the old basic flying school were transferred within the Training Command, and the Second Air Force brought in its own personnel to man the base. Ground personnel were assigned to the 269th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Fighter Pilot Training Station). The chief problem facing the new command was transition from a basic flying training station to a tactical training station. For a full year Strother Field functioned as a fighter pilot combat crew training school flying principally P-47 Thunderbolt single-engine fighters. At the peak of operation there were approximately 3,400 Air Force personnel and 400 civilian employees at the field.
Inactivation.
With the end of the war in sight, official orders were received on 27 July 1945 providing for the inactivation
of the base by 15 August. Consequently, on 30 July a total reduction of force, both military and civilian, was begun. One by one the various units of operation were closed during the first 15 days of August. Flying training ended officially on 8 August, although in fact it had ceased four days before. By 15 August orders had been complied with in full, save for such minor modifications as were authorized by higher headquarters to meet existing needs.
Strother Field was placed on a standby status and assigned to Pratt Army Airfield as an auxiliary field. It served as a satellite for only a few months, for Pratt itself was inactivated in December 1945, and Strother was placed in an unmanned, inactive, standby status.
Strother Air Force Base.
With the establishment of the United States Air Force in September 1947, the name of Strother was changed on 13 January 1948 to Strother Air Force Base. However, no further activity took place at Strother until about July 1948. At that time it assumed a housing function for a reserve composite squadron, Tenth Air Force, Continental Air Command. Sometime during 1949 or the first half of 1950 it ceased to perform even this function. By March 1952 it was housing the 9721st Volunteer Air Reserve Training Squadron. But between November 1953 and September 1954 this activity was removed, and up to March 1958 Strother Field was not used in any Air Force capacity.
A transfer agreement was drawn up between representatives of Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area, the District Engineer, Seventh Service Command at Omaha, Nebraska who assumed jurisdiction over the base, pending disposition. Excess buildings and demilitarized equipment were sold or transferred to other bases.
Current status.
The General Services Administration eventually turned the air base over to local government officials. Since then the installation has been operated jointly by the cities of Arkansas City and Winfield, Kansas as their municipal airport.
The N/S runway remains in use for the civil airport, the other two either being removed or inactive along with the supporting taxiways. About half of the parking apron remains, some of it being used by the Strother Field Airport, the remainder in an abandoned and deteriorated state; much of it having vegetation growing in the concrete expansion joints. Two, possibly three wartime hangars remain in use, albeit for non-aviation purposes.
The station has been redeveloped into "Strother Field Industrial Park", It has many light industrial and commercial businesses and uses the wartime street grid.


Red Sea Patrol


Operation Bowery

Operation Bowery was an Anglo-American operation in World War II to deliver Spitfire fighter aircraft to Malta ("Club Runs"). The aircraft were desperately needed to bolster the island's defence against strong Axis air raids.
Background.
The operation was substantially a repeat of the earlier Operation Calendar, in which the American aircraft carrier had flown off 48 British Spitfire fighter reinforcements to Malta. Aircraft, support personnel and airfields had inadequately prepared to receive the Spitfires and the Axis air forces were forewarned of the arrival of the new fighters. Many of the Spitfires had been destroyed on the ground by air attacks after their arrival on Malta. A repeat delivery (Operation Bowery) had been planned and its success had become even more important to the Allies.
"Bowery".
USS "Wasp" returned to Glasgow on 29 April 1942, where she loaded 47 Spitfires Mk Vc at King George V dock at Shieldhall. The condition of the aircraft was no better than it had been for "Calendar"; the essential long-range fuel tanks still fitted badly and, consequently, leaked. "Wasp"s captain, Reeves, refused to continue loading until the fault had been fixed on some tanks and then agreed to perform the remaining work with his own personnel. This fault had been notified to the British authorities as it had affected "Calendar" and its recurrence was a serious embarrassment.
"Wasp" and her escorting force (Force W) sailed from Scapa Flow on 3 May. A further 17 Spitfires, delayed from previous "Club Runs", were transported by , which joined Force W on 7/8 May from Gibraltar. On 9 May 1942, 64 Spitfires were flown off USS "Wasp" and HMS "Eagle" (61 arrived). One aircraft and its pilot was lost on takeoff.
 had been risked on a high speed run to Malta, carrying, apart from food and general stores, 100 spare Merlin aircraft engines and RAF ground crews trained on Spitfires. She was disguised as a French destroyer ("Léopard") and travelled independently of the main "Bowery" force. "Welshman" was intercepted and inspected twice by German aircraft but maintained a peaceful appearance and was accepted as non-belligerent; a Vichy seaplane and shore station were less easily convinced but she continued to Cape Bon and Pantelleria, finally reaching Malta at sunrise on 10 May. She unloaded amidst the mayhem of the 10 May air raid (see below) and was damaged by falling debris. Despite this, she left Valletta on the same evening, arriving back at Gibraltar on 12 May.
Aftermath.
On Malta, lessons had been learnt from the disaster of Operation Calendar and detailed preparations had been made to get the Spitfires airborne before they could become targets. On arrival, aircraft were dispersed into protected areas and rapidly refuelled and rearmed - one within six minutes of landing - and the newly arrived fighters were airborne, with fresh, experienced pilots, over Malta awaiting the air raid intended to destroy them. In the mêlée, the Italian formation (CANT Z.1007 bombers escorted by MC.202 fighters) was seen off and 47 German aircraft were destroyed or damaged, for the loss of three British. This air battle (sometimes dubbed the "Battle of Malta") abruptly ended daytime bombing of Malta.
The defenders, further reinforced by more aircraft deliveries during May and June and aided by the transfer of "Luftwaffe" aircraft to Russia, retained their initiative thereafter.


Raymond E. S. Williamson

Raymond Eccleston Serveira Williamson (September 1, 1894 – September 27, 1957) was a highly decorated officer in the United States Army with the rank of Brigadier General. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he is most noted for his service as Commanding General, Service Command, South Pacific Theater of Operations and as Assistant Commanding General, 91st Infantry Division during Italian campaign during World War II.
Williamson remained in the Army following the War, and held several important assignment including Military Attaché to Canada or Great Britain and Commanding general, 3rd Armored Division.
Early years.
Raymond E. S. Williamson was born on September 1, 1894 in Brooklyn, New York as the son of Sidney and Alice Williamson. Following a high school, he studied one year at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, before received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in May 1913. During his time at the Academy, he was active in the boxing team and reached the rank of Cadet Captain.
He was a member of the class, which produced more than 55 future general officers including two Army Chiefs of Staff (Joseph L. Collins and Matthew B. Ridgway). Among his classmates were: Clare H. Armstrong, Rex W. Beasley, Robert M. Bathurst, Henry A. Barber Jr., William O. Butler, Theodore E. Buechler, Homer C. Brown, Aaron Bradshaw Jr., John T. Bissell, Mark W. Clark, John T. Cole, Miles A. Cowles, Gerald A. Counts, Norman D. Cota, Joseph L. Collins, John W. Coffey, James A. Code Jr., John M. Devine, William F. Daugherty, William W. Eagles, Charles H. Gerhardt, Theodore L. Futch, Robert W. Hasbrouck, William K. Harrison Jr., Arthur M. Harper, Ernest N. Harmon, Horace Harding, Milton B. Halsey, Augustus M. Gurney, Edwin J. House, Joel G. House, Charles S. Kilburn, Laurence B. Keiser, Harris Jones, Harold R. Jackson, Frederick A. Irving, Harris M. Melasky, William C. McMahon, John T. Murray, Charles L. Mullins Jr., Bryant E. Moore, Daniel Noce, Harold A. Nisley, Matthew B. Ridgway, William O. Reeder, Onslow S. Rolfe, Thomas D. Stamps, Willis R. Slaughter, Stephen H. Sherrill, Herbert N. Schwarzkopf, Albert C. Smith, Joseph P. Sullivan, Edward W. Timberlake, George D. Wahl, George F. Wooley Jr., Sterling A. Wood, Robert A. Willard and George H. Weems.
Williamson graduated in August 1917 with Bachelor of Science degree shortly following the United States' entry into World War I and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Field Artillery Branch. He completed his basic training at Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Logan, Kansas and embarked for France as a member of 157th Field Artillery Brigade. He participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and was decorated with Legion of Honour by the Government of France and also received Belgian Croix de Guerre.
Interwar period.
Following the Armistice, Williamson was attached to the 1st Infantry Division under Major general James B. Erwin and took part in the Allied occupation of the Rhineland. He returned to the United States in mid-1919 and served as a troop commander at Fort Myer, Virginia with additional duty as Junior Aide to the White House during the tenure of President Warren G. Harding.
In August 1922, he was ordered to the Harvard University, preparatory to detail at West Point in the newly established Department of Economics and Government, where he subsequently served as an Instructor. During this assignment, Williamson met his future wife Anne Bryan, a daughter of Rear admiral Benjamin C. Bryan.
He was ordered back to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in summer 1924 and served as First lieutenant and Instructor in the Department of Economics and Government, and Political History until late 1926. Williamson returned to West Point in July 1932 and served as Captain and Assistant Instructor in the Department of Tactics and Personnel Officer of the Academy during the tenure of lieutenant colonel Robert C. Richardson. Upon an appointment of new Commandant, Simon B. Buckner Jr. in June 1933, he was appointed his Assistant.
Williamson entered the Command and General Staff School in June 1935 and following the graduation one year later, he served as a squadron commander until August 1938, when he was detailed to the Army War College. He graduated in July 1939 and joined the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for logistics (G-4), War Department General Staff. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on August 30, 1940.
World War II.
Following the United States entry into World War II, Williamson was promoted to the temporary rank of Colonel and appointed Chief of Rail Transportation Section in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for logistics (G-4). However War demanded skilled officers and Williamson was ordered to Nouméa, New Caledonia, where he joined the headquarters of newly activated 23rd Infantry Division under Major general Alexander Patch and assumed duty as Divisional Personnel officer (G-1).
He was promoted to the temporary rank of Brigadier general on August 5, 1942 and assumed duty as Commanding General, Service Command, South Pacific Theater of Operations. In this capacity, he was responsible for the supply, salvage, evacuation, construction, personnel management, quartering and sanitation needs of all units during Guadalcanal and New Georgia campaigns. Williamson distinguished himself and received Legion of Merit.
Williamson remained in South Pacific until the end of November 1943 and returned to the United States. Following a brief leave at home, he received orders to joined the headquarters of 91st Infantry Division under Major general William G. Livesay at Camp White, Oregon as Assistant Commanding General. After several months of training, 91st Division departed for the European Theater of Operations in April 1944.
The 91st Division was scheduled for the Italian front as the part of U.S. Fifth Army under lieutenant general Mark W. Clark (West Point Classmate of Williamson). Brigadier general Williamson commanded a Task Force of his division during the liberation of the cities of Livorno and Pisa and received Bronze Star Medal for his leadership. He remained in that assignment during the combats on the Gothic Line and received another two Bronze Star Medals.
During the Spring offensive in April 1945, Williamson distinguished himself in the vicinity of Vedelago, when an enemy strong point held up forward Infantry elements of his Division, Williamson went forward through machine gun and small arms fire to determine the best method of meeting the situation. He called for tanks and personally directed mortar fire and promptly routed the enemy force. For this heroic action, he was decorated with Silver Star for gallantry in action.
Following the surrender of German forces in Italy at the beginning of May 1945, the 91st Infantry Division remained stationed in that country until late September, when the elements began returning to the United States. Williamson's effort during the Italian campaign was recognized by the Allies and he was decorated with the Order of the British Empire and Italian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.
Postwar career.
Williamson returned to the United States and was ordered to Chicago, Illinois, where he joined the headquarters, Second United States Army under lieutenant general Lloyd Fredendall as his Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations (G-3). He remained in that capacity until February 1946, when he was reverted to the peacetime rank of Colonel and appointed Military Attaché to Canada with seat at the Embassy in Ottawa. Williamson served in that capacity until the end of May 1949, when he returned to the United States for brief service as Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations (G-3) at Armored Center, Fort Knox, Kentucky.
On July 17, 1949, he was promoted again to the rank of Brigadier general and ordered to the headquarters, 3rd Armored Division as Assistant Division Commander under Major general Roderick R. Allen. The 3rd Armored Division was tasked with the training of replacements units during Korean War and following the departure of general Allen in June 1950, Williamson assumed interim command of the division. He held that command until February 1951, when he resumed his duties as Assistant division upon the arrival of Major general Ira P. Swift. Williamson once again appointed commanding general of the division in October 1951 and remained in that capacity until November 1952, when he was relieved by his West Point classmate, John T. Cole.
For his service with 3rd Armored Division, Williamson received a letter of appreciation by the Secretary of the Army, Frank Pace, which states: "During my entire service as Secretary of the Army, I have never been privileged to hear a more meaningful and effective message concerning the American soldier than the one delivered by you to your men."
Williamson was subsequently ordered to London, England and assumed duty as Military Attaché to Great Britain. He served in this capacity until his retirement on July 31, 1954, after 37 years of active service.
Retirement.
Following his retirement from the Army, Williamson settled with his wife in Monterey, California. In June 1957, he was diagnosed with cancer of the lungs and liver in an advanced stage. Brigadier general Raymond E. S. Williamson died on September 27, 1957 at his home, aged 63, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. His wife, Anne Bryan Williamson (1894–1969) is buried beside him. They had together his three daughters: Marianne, Alice and Louise.
Decorations.
Here is Brigadier general Williamson's ribbon bar:


Skorpa prisoner of war camp

Skorpa prisoner of war camp () was a facility built by the Norwegian 6th Division to hold German prisoners of war during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. Skorpa was the main PoW camp in Northern Norway and held around 500 civilian and military prisoners when it was shut down at the end of the Norwegian Campaign.
Background.
With the outbreak of war between Norway and Nazi Germany following the German invasion of Norway increasing numbers of German prisoners fell into Norwegian hands in the fighting that followed. While many of these were soon liberated by the advancing German forces, the situation for those captured in Northern Norway was different. The Germans fighting at Narvik were on the defensive against superior Norwegian and Allied forces. Prisoners taken during the fighting were sent behind Allied lines, outside the reach of the "Wehrmacht". After having first interned the German prisoners at various locations around the region the decision was made by the Norwegian 6th Division command to establish a central prisoner of war camp at the small and isolated island of Skorpa in Kvænangen in Troms county. Access to the island was by boat. The nearest Norwegian armed forces other than the guard force were 10 to 12 hours away from the camp.
Construction.
When the first prisoners were sent to the camp they had to live in tents designed for 16 occupants each. By May the construction of wooden barracks had begun, with the prisoners providing the labour force under the guidance of civilian Norwegian craftsmen. Around 100 prisoners were at any time taking part in construction work, much of this outside the barbed wire. The construction was overseen by a second lieutenant of the Norwegian Army engineers. The barracks were meant to provide proper accommodation for the prisoners in the next winter.
Camp population.
All Germans captured in Northern Norway were supposed to be gathered at Skorpa, the main Norwegian PoW camp in the region. Amongst the inmates at the camp were military personnel belonging to all three services of the German "Wehrmacht"; the "Heer", the "Kriegsmarine" and the "Luftwaffe". In addition to the military prisoners there were also civilians from trawlers and merchant vessels sunk or captured off the Northern Norwegian coast. In all some 500 Germans were imprisoned at Skorpa. Because of the lack of an internment camp for civilian Germans the sailors were placed as an interim measure in the same camp as the military captives.
The senior German prisoner held at the camp was "Fregattenkapitän" Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, who had been captured after his destroyer, the "Erich Koellner", was sunk on 13 April during the naval battles off Narvik. Along with 154 other prisoners he had first been sent to an internment camp at Vardøhus Fortress in Finnmark on the 1,382 ton Norwegian steamship "Nova". After having been held at Vardøhus from 24 April to 13 May, the 155 Germans were shipped to Skorpa, again on the "Nova". On the way to Skorpa another 25 prisoners were picked up at the western Finnmark port of Hammerfest. The prisoner transport from Finnmark to Skorpa was escorted by the patrol boat "Ingrid" – a captured German trawler operated by the Royal Norwegian Navy. Prisoners kept arriving at the camp until early June 1940; Germans that had been captured at the front-line near Narvik, shot-down pilots, and prisoners taken by the remaining pockets of Norwegian resistance on the coast of southern Helgeland and smuggled past German lines to Skorpa. Eight of the German airmen at the camp had been captured when two German Heinkel He 115s ran out of fuel on the return from an aborted mission to Narvik on 13 April 1940, landing at Ørnes and Brønnøysund respectively. The crews, led by "Leutnant zur See" Joachim Vogler and "Oberleutnant zur See" Bärner, were captured by local Norwegian militia forces and the aircraft transferred intact to the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service.
The prisoners were guarded by 80 Norwegian soldiers, 45 of whom belonged to the Varanger Battalion from eastern Finnmark while the remaining 35 were troops that had escaped the collapse of the fighting in the southern parts of Norway and made their way to Northern Norway by way of neutral Sweden. Command of the camp had been transferred to Captain Rei Sandberg by the commander of the Norwegian armed forces in Finnmark, Edvard Os, after disturbances had broken out in the inmate population. During the camp's existence two prisoners died. One merchant navy sailor was killed by a stray warning shot during a disturbance in the camp, and Oberleutnant Hans Hattenbach (the pilot of Oberleutnant zur See Bärner's He 115) was shot on 6 June by a Finnish volunteer soldier when he approached the camp fence and failed to heed orders from a guard to stop. Hattenbach was buried with full military honours in the presence of 30 prisoners and a 14-strong Norwegian military honour guard.
Dissolution.
On 5 June 1940, Captain Rei Sandberg, the commander of Skorpa prisoner of war camp from early May 1940, received a call from the district military command asking how many airmen were held at the camp. At that time the number was 40, however later that day another 51 prisoners arrived at the camp, 19 of whom were airmen. Thus, when the order came in the late evening to transfer the 40 airmen to Harstad for interrogation at the British headquarters in Norway there were 59 Luftwaffe personnel at Skorpa. District Command concluded that it was best to send the requested 40 prisoners, rather than to send all 59. The 40 sent from Skorpa were the highest ranking of the 59, including all the pilots. None of these prisoners ever reached Harstad, instead being embarked on Allied ships and taken to the United Kingdom as the Allies evacuated Northern Norway only days later. Shortly after the departure of the Luftwaffe prisoners orders came through for the southern Norwegian soldiers guarding the camp to be transferred for front service against the Germans. Before any of the soldiers could leave Skorpa, however, word reached the camp at 0130hrs on 8 June of the forthcoming capitulation of the Norwegian mainland.
Many of the Norwegian guards left Skorpa prisoner of war camp on 10 June 1940, being sent to Altagård army camp in Alta on two fishing boats. The German prisoners were told of the capitulation, released and transported from the camp under the leadership of Schulze-Hinrichs in the late evening of 12 June, on the Norwegian steamships "Barøy" and "Tanahorn". The released prisoners were first sent to the port city of Tromsø for bathing and delousing. Tromsø was not occupied by German forces until two days later, on 14 June. The last guards, belonging to the Varanger Battalion, left the camp on 15 June, with the commander and administrative officers departing on 19 June.
Aftermath.
Following the release of the German prisoners from the camp many of the Norwegian guards made their way over the mountains to Sweden to escape the German occupation of Norway. Captain Sandberg was arrested by the Gestapo in Trondheim on 28 June 1940, accused of mistreating the prisoners while in charge of Skorpa, but was released on 5 August 1940.


Battle of Inverkeithing

The Battle of Inverkeithing was fought on 20 July 1651 between an English army under John Lambert and a Scottish army led by James Holborne. It was a part of the English Invasion of Scotland during the Third English Civil War. The battle was fought near the isthmus of the Ferry Peninsula, to the south of Inverkeithing, after which it is named.
An English Parliamentary regime had tried and executed Charles I, who was king of both Scotland and England in a personal union, in January 1649. The Scots recognised his son, also Charles, as king of Britain and set about recruiting an army. An English army, under Oliver Cromwell, invaded Scotland in July 1650. The Scottish army, commanded by David Leslie, refused battle until 3 September when it was heavily defeated at the Battle of Dunbar. The English occupied Edinburgh and the Scots withdrew to the choke point of Stirling. For nearly a year all attempts to storm or bypass Stirling, or to draw the Scots out into another battle, failed. On 17 July 1651 1,600 English soldiers crossed the Firth of Forth at its narrowest point in specially constructed flat-bottomed boats and landed at North Queensferry on the Ferry Peninsula. The Scots sent forces to pen the English in and the English reinforced their landing. On 20 July the Scots moved against the English and in a short engagement were routed.
Lambert seized the deep-water port of Burntisland and Cromwell shipped over most of the English army. He then marched on and captured Perth, the temporary seat of the Scottish government. Charles and Leslie took the Scottish army south and invaded England. Cromwell left 6,000 men to mop up the remaining Scottish resistance and pursued. Charles and the Scots were decisively defeated on 3 September at the Battle of Worcester. On the same day the last major Scottish town holding out, Dundee, surrendered.
Background.
In 1639 and again in 1640 Charles I who was king of both Scotland and England in a personal union, went to war with his Scottish subjects in the Bishops' Wars. These had arisen from the Scots' refusal to accept Charles's attempts to reform the Church of Scotland, known as the Kirk, to bring it into line with English religious practices. Charles was not successful and the ensuing settlement established the hold of the Covenanters' on Scottish government; they required all civil office-holders, parliamentarians and clerics to sign the National Covenant and granted the Scottish Parliament the authority to approve all of the King's councillors in Scotland. After years of rising tensions, in part caused by Charles's defeat in the Bishops' Wars and his need to fund them, the relationship between Charles and his English Parliament also broke down in armed conflict, starting the First English Civil War in 1642.
In England, Charles's supporters, the Royalists, were opposed by the combined forces of the Parliamentarians and the Scots, who in 1643 had formed an alliance bound by the Solemn League and Covenant, in which the English Parliament agreed to reform the English church along similar lines to the Scottish Kirk in return for the Scots' military assistance. After four years of war the Royalists were defeated and Charles surrendered to the Scots. After several months of fruitless negotiations the Scots handed Charles over to the English parliamentary forces in exchange for a financial settlement and left England on 3 February 1647. The English army council pressed Charles to accept the Heads of Proposals, a less demanding set of terms which did not require a Presbyterian reformation of the church. Instead he signed an offer known as the Engagement, which had been thrashed out with the Scottish delegation. Charles agreed to confirm the Solemn League and Covenant by act of parliament in both kingdoms and to accept Presbyterianism in England, but only for a trial period of three years, in return for the Scots' assistance in regaining his throne in England.
After a protracted political struggle the supporters of the Engagement gained a majority in the Scottish Parliament, by which time war had again broken out in England between Royalists and Parliamentarians. The Scots sent an army under the command of the Duke of Hamilton into England to fight on behalf of the King in July, but it was heavily defeated at Preston by a force led by Oliver Cromwell. The rout of the Engager army led to further political upheaval in Scotland and the faction opposed to the Engagement was able to regain control of the government.
Exasperated by the prolonged bloodshed the Parliamentarian army purged the English Parliament and established the Rump Parliament, which had Charles tried for treason against the English people. He was executed on 30 January 1649, and the republican Commonwealth was created. The Scottish Parliament, which had not been consulted prior to the King's execution, declared his son, also Charles, king of Britain. Before they would permit him to return from exile in the Dutch Republic to take up his crown, they demanded he first sign both Covenants: recognising the authority of the Kirk in religious matters and that of parliament in civil affairs. Charles II was initially reluctant to accept these conditions, but after Cromwell's campaign in Ireland crushed his Royalist supporters there, he felt compelled to accept the Scottish terms and signed the Treaty of Breda on 1 May 1650. The Scottish Parliament set about rapidly recruiting an army to support the new king and Charles set sail for Scotland, landing on 23 June.
Opposing forces.
Infantry.
Infantry formations, equipment and tactics were similar in both armies. The regiment was the standard tactical unit, but their size was not standardised and varied greatly. An infantry regiment was composed of both musketeers and pikemen. The musketeers were armed with muskets possessing barrels and, mostly, a matchlock firing mechanism. These relied on the glowing end of a length of slow match, thin cord soaked in saltpetre, igniting the weapon's priming powder when the trigger was pulled. These were reliable and robust weapons. In 1650 musketeer tactics were in the middle of a transition from firing one rank at a time so as to maintain a steady fire, to the entire unit discharging a volley simultaneously for shock effect.
Pikemen were equipped with pikes: long wooden shafts tipped with steel points. Pikes as issued in both armies were , but on the march they were commonly cut down to a more wieldy or so. The pikemen carried basic swords and typically wore a steel helmet but no other armour. Military manuals of the time suggested a ratio of two musketeers for each pikeman, but in practice commanders usually attempted to maximise the number of musketeers and a higher ratio was the rule.
Both armies organised their infantry regiments into brigades of three regiments each, which were typically deployed with two regiments abreast and the third behind as a reserve. The men in each unit would form up four or five ranks deep and in a relatively loose formation, with about of frontage per file; so an infantry regiment of 600 might form up 120 men wide and 5 deep, giving it a frontage of and a depth of . The pikemen would be placed in the centre of a formation, in a "stand", with the musketeers divided on each side. The usual tactic against infantry was for the musketeers to fire on their opponents and once it was thought they had been sufficiently weakened or demoralised the stand of pikemen would advance, attempting to break through the enemy centre. This was known as a "push of the pike". The musketeers would also advance, engaging the enemy with their musket butts, which were steel plated for this purpose and attempting to envelop the opposing formation.
Against cavalry, doctrine called for infantry units to tighten the spacing between their files to approximately per man and to advance steadily. To be effective against infantry, cavalry needed to break into their formation and if the men were packed together this was not possible. It was accepted that so long as the morale of the infantry held, cavalry could do little against the front of such a formation. However, the flanks and rear were increasingly vulnerable as the infantry packed more closely together, as this made manoeuvring or turning the unit more difficult.
Cavalry.
Most of the English cavalry were mounted on large, for the time, horses. The cavalrymen wore metal lobster-tailed pot helmets which protected the head and, usually, the neck, cheeks and, to an extent, face. They wore jackets of thick uncured leather and thigh-length boots. Body armoura cuirass (metal chest and back plates) was unusual but not unknown. They were each armed with two pistols and a sword. The pistols were to long and had a very limited effective range. Most but not all cavalry pistols had flintlock firing mechanisms, which were more reliable in damp or windy weather than matchlock mechanisms. Flintlock mechanisms were more expensive than matchlock ones and were usually reserved for the cavalry, who found igniting and using the slow match while controlling a horse inconvenient. The swords were straight, and effective at both cutting and thrusting. Cavalry were usually positioned on each flank of the infantry.
The Scottish cavalry were similarly equipped, with helmets, pistols and swords, and no body armour, although many bore lances rather than pistols. The main difference was that the Scottish horses were smaller and lighter; this gave them more nimble but put them at a disadvantage in a face-to-face confrontation. Their tactics depended on manoeuvrability and a hit-and-run approach, their commanders recognising that they could not withstand the English in a face-to-face encounter. English cavalry tactics were intended to utilise their strengths. They would advance in a tight formation, their riders' legs interlocked, at no faster than a trotto maintain formation. They would discharge their pistols at very short range and upon coming into contact attempt to use the sheer weight of their mounts and the mass of their formation to force back their opponents and burst through their ranks.
Both armies contained dragoons. These had originated as mounted infantry, using horses to increase their operational mobility and dismounting to fight with pikes or muskets. By 1650 they had largely become specialist mounted troops; none carried pikes. The English dragoons had exchanged their muskets for carbines (shorter-barrelled versions of the infantry's muskets) or, occasionally, pistols and been formally recognised as a cavalry arm. Scottish dragoons were part way through this transformation and carried both matchlock muskets and cavalry swords. Dragoons usually acted as scouts, or formed their army's rearguard.
Prelude.
English invasion of Scotland.
Scotland was actively rearming and the leaders of the English Commonwealth felt threatened. They pressured Thomas Fairfax, lord general of the New Model Army, which at this point was synonymous with the Parliamentarian army, to launch a preemptive attack. Fairfax was unwilling to strike the first blow against his former allies, believing England and Scotland were still bound by the Solemn League and Covenant. Oliver Cromwell succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the New Model Army and led it across the Tweed into Scotland on 22 July 1650 and so starting the Third English Civil War.
Once the Treaty of Breda had been signed the Scottish Parliament started levying men to form a new army, under the command of the experienced general David Leslie. By the time Cromwell entered Scotland Leslie had some 8,000–9,500 infantry and 2,000–3,000 cavalry, although these numbers fluctuated during the course of the campaign. The government instituted a commission to purge the army of anyone suspected of having supported the Engagement, as well as men considered sinful or undesirable. This was opposed, unsuccessfully, by much of the Scottish nobility and the more experienced military leaders, including Leslie. The purge removed many experienced men and officers and the bulk of the army was composed of raw recruits with little training or experience.
Leslie prepared a defensive line of earthworks between the Scottish capital Edinburgh and Leith, employed a scorched earth policy from there to the Scottish border and allowed Cromwell to advance unopposed. Lack of supplies and the hostility of the local people towards the English invaders forced Cromwell to rely on intermittent seaborne supplies. Cromwell attempted to bring the Scots to battle at Edinburgh but he was not able to draw Leslie out. Cromwell's attack coincided with a visit by Charles II to the Scottish army, where he was warmly received. Members of the Covenanter government, concerned their godly war would be corrupted by feelings of personal loyalty to the King, ordered a new purge, which removed 80 officers and 4,000 of Leslie's men.
On 31 August Cromwell withdrew; the English army reached Dunbar on 1 September, having taken two days to march the final , harassed day and night by the pursuing Scots. The Scottish army outflanked the English and a detachment blocked the road to Berwick and England at the easily defended Cockburnspath Defile. The Scots' main force encamped on the all but invulnerable Doon Hill, south of Dunbar, where it overlooked the town and the coastal road running south west from the town. On 2 September Cromwell surveyed the situation and wrote to the governor of Newcastle warning him to prepare for a possible Scottish invasion.
Battle of Dunbar.
Believing the English army was in a hopeless situation and under pressure to finish it off rapidly, Leslie moved his army off the hill and into a position to attack Dunbar. On the night of 2/3 September Cromwell manoeuvred his army so as to be able to launch a concentrated pre-dawn attack against the Scottish right wing. The Scots were caught by surprise but put up a stout resistance. Their cavalry were pushed back by the English, while Leslie was unable to deploy most of his infantry into the battle because of the nature of the terrain. The battle was undecided when Cromwell personally led his cavalry reserve in a flank attack on the two Scottish infantry brigades which had managed to come to grips with the English and rolled up the Scottish line. Leslie executed a fighting withdrawal but some 6,000 Scots, from his army of 12,000, were taken prisoner and approximately 1,500 killed or wounded.
When news of the defeat reached Edinburgh, many people fled the city in panic, but Leslie sought to rally what remained of his army and build a new defensive line at Stirling. This was a narrow choke point which blocked access to north-east Scotland, the major source of supplies and recruits for the Scots. There he was joined by the bulk of the government, clergy and Edinburgh's mercantile elite. Cromwell captured Edinburgh and the port of Leith with little difficulty. Edinburgh Castle held out until December. The historian Austin Woolrych described the behaviour of the occupying troops as "exemplary" and observed that after a short time many fugitives returned to the city and its economic life returned to something akin to normality.
After the defeat at Dunbar Leslie attempted to resign as head of the army, but the Scottish government would not permit it, largely because of a lack of any plausible replacement. Several of his officers refused to take orders from him and left to join a new army which was being raised by the Western Association. In the Scottish government the more practical blamed the purges for Leslie's defeat and looked to bring the Engagers back into the fold; the more dogmatic thought God had deserted them because the purges had not gone far enough and argued that too much faith had been put in a worldly prince who was not sufficiently committed to the cause of the Covenant. These more radical elements issued the divisive Western Remonstrance, which castigated the government for its failure to properly purge the army and further widened the rifts among the Scots. The Remonstrants, as this group became known, took command of the Western Association army and attempted to negotiate with Cromwell, urging him to depart Scotland and leave them in control; Cromwell rejected their advances and destroyed their army at the Battle of Hieton (near the centre of modern Hamilton) on 1 December. On 1 January 1651 Charles was formally crowned at Scone.
Manoeuvres.
During December 1650 Charles and the Scottish government reconciled with the Engagers who had been purged and with Highland chiefs who had been excluded by their refusal to sign the Covenant. These competing factions were poorly coordinated and it was not until the late spring of 1651 that they were fully integrated into the Scottish army. In January 1651 the English attempted to outflank Stirling by shipping a force across the Firth of Forth, but this was unsuccessful. In early February the English army advanced against Stirling, then retreated in dreadful weather; Cromwell himself fell ill.
In late June the Scottish army advanced south. The English moved north from Edinburgh to meet them, but Leslie positioned his army north of Falkirk, behind the River Carron. This position was too strong for Cromwell to assault; Leslie resisted every provocation to fight another open battle and eventually withdrew. Cromwell followed and attempted to bypass Stirling, but was unable to. He then marched to Glasgow and sent raiding parties into Scottish-held territory. The Scottish army shadowed the English, moving south west to another strong position at Kilsyth on 13 July. The English moved back to the east and the Scots returned to the Carron. The English stormed and captured the outlying Scottish position of Callendar House, but Leslie still declined to be drawn out. Cromwell probably intended the action less as an attempt to provoke Leslie into battle and more to draw the Scots' attention away from activities taking place further east.
Crossing the Forth.
English landing.
Late in 1650 the Council of State, the executive authority of the English Commonwealth, had ordered the construction of 50 flat-bottomed boats, which arrived in Leith in June 1651. The Scots anticipated the possibility of another attempt to cross the Forth and established a garrison at Burntisland. Early on 17 July, an English force consisting of the garrison of Leith, Daniel's Regiment of Foot and four troops of Colonel Robert Overton's Regiment of Horse, boarded the flat-bottomed boats. They totalled 1,600 men, under the overall command of Overton, and they crossed at the Firth of Forth at its narrowest point, landing at North Queensferry on the Ferry Peninsula. The Scottish troops at Burntisland moved towards the English landing place, sent for reinforcements from Stirling and Dunfermline and dug in to await them. For the next four days the English shipped the balance of their force across the Forth and Major-general John Lambert took command.
Numbers.
By the morning of 20 July the English had assembled four infantry and three cavalry regiments on the north shore of the Forth. They were a mixture of experienced veteran units and freshly raised troops; one cavalry regiment may have consisted of militia. The historian Stuart Reid suggests the English were "very much a scratch force". They totalled approximately 4,000 men.
The Scots had three infantry regiments brigaded under Major-general James Holborne and 500 Highlanders led by Hector Maclean of Duart; and three cavalry regiments commanded by John Browne of Fordell with some smaller mounted units attached. Much of the garrison at Burntisland is believed to have also been present, but their number is not known. The historian Austin Woolrych states the Scots had more than 4,000 men.
Engagement.
The Ferry Peninsula is separated from the rest of Fife by a narrow isthmus, about half a mile (800 m) wide and is dominated by the Ferry Hills, rising above sea level. Immediately beyond the peninsula, to the north-west, the ground rises up again to Castland Hill, high. This commands both the coastal road, which ran through the village of Inverkeithing to its east, and the route north to Dunfermline and is a naturally strong defensive position. On 20 July the Scots advanced through these hills but then moved south west closer to the isthmus and the English entrenchments on the Ferry Hills. Holborne, believing the Scots outnumbered by the recently reinforced English force, ordered his men to pull back. Lambert, also of the opinion he had the numerically superior force, sent a cavalry regiment to harass the Scots' rearguard. Holborne promptly turned to face the English in battle order on the lower slopes of Castland Hill.
[[File:Memorial Cairn - geograph.org.uk - 107745.jpg|thumb|upright= |left| alt=a grassy area with a triangular stone cairn in it |
[[Category:1651 in Scotland]]
[[Category:Battles of the English Civil Wars]]
[[Category:Battles involving Scotland]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1651]]
[[Category:Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland]]
[[Category:Inverkeithing]]


Battle of Nantwich

The Battle of Nantwich was fought on 25 January 1644 in Cheshire during the First English Civil War. In the battle, Sir Thomas Fairfax in command of a Parliamentarian relief force defeated Lord Byron and the Royalists.
The Parliamentarian victory halted a series of Royalist successes in the area and was a major setback to King Charles' planned military campaign for 1644.
Campaign.
In 1643, King Charles had signed a "cessation" with the Irish Confederates. This allowed him to recall several English regiments which had been sent to Ireland after the Irish Rebellion of 1641, to reinforce his armies. In November 1643, several of these regiments were sent to Cheshire where a new field army was being formed, commanded at first by Lord Capell. Capell was replaced in December by Lord Byron, who had been a successful cavalry brigade commander in the King's main "Oxford Army".
Byron launched an offensive from the south with 5,000 men against the Parliamentarian garrisons in Cheshire, most of which were quickly captured. The troops recently returned from Ireland behaved with a degree of ruthlessness not previously displayed in the English Civil War. At Barthomley Church on 26 December, the Parliamentarian garrison surrendered after the Royalists lit a fire against the doors to smoke them out. At least twelve of the prisoners, mostly local militia, were executed with Byron's approval.
On 27 December, Sir William Brereton, the Parliamentarian commander in Cheshire and Lancashire, attempted to concentrate his forces to confront Byron, but was defeated by a sudden Royalist attack at the Second Battle of Middlewich. He retreated with the remnants of his force to Manchester in Lancashire.
Nantwich was the only town in Cheshire still held by the Parliamentarians. Its garrison numbered 2,000 men under Colonel George Booth and was well supplied. Byron besieged the town on 18 January 1644 and launched an attack but was defeated, suffering 500 casualties. Together with losses from sickness and desertions and casualties from the earlier fighting in Cheshire, Byron's forces shrunk to a total size of about 3,800 men. Byron nevertheless continued the siege of Nantwich.
Parliamentarian moves.
Sir Thomas Fairfax and his father Lord Fairfax had been besieged in Hull in the second half of 1643. As Thomas's cavalry were of little use in a siege, they were ferried across the River Humber to reinforce Parliamentarian cavalry from the Eastern Association of counties, commanded by Oliver Cromwell. Together, they had won several victories, culminating in the Battle of Winceby, which secured most of Lincolnshire for Parliament.
In response to Brereton's urgent appeal for reinforcements, the Committee of Both Kingdoms (the Parliamentarian body with Scottish Covenanter representation which was responsible for the conduct of the war) ordered Thomas Fairfax to proceed to Manchester. On 29 December 1643, Thomas set out to cross the Pennines in harsh winter weather with 1,800 cavalry. On arriving at Manchester, he found the infantry of the Parliamentarian garrison to be so ragged that he reportedly burst into tears. Nevertheless, Byron set out from Manchester on 21 January 1644 to relieve Nantwich. He was accompanied by Brereton, and their force eventually numbered 1,800 cavalry, 500 dragoons, 2,500 infantry and a few hundred poorly-equipped "cudgellers".
Battle.
At the time, Nantwich was little more than a large village which lay astride the River Weaver, which normally was a stream wide. The Parliamentarians held the Chester Road Bridge in the town, but the Beam Bridge about to the north was open and available to the Royalists. Byron's headquarters were at Acton, about to the west of Nantwich. His regiments were quartered in a circle around the town sheltering where they could in a countryside covered in snow.
On 24 January, Fairfax's force scattered a small Royalist force which attempted to bar the road to Nantwich at Delamere Forest. Byron decided to maintain the siege, but the next day there was a sudden thaw which caused the Weaver to rise in spate. Byron ordered his infantry and artillery to move to the west bank of the Weaver around Acton, where the ground was drier. The Beam Bridge and a ferry to its north, however, were then swept away by the floodwater while Byron and his cavalry force of 1,800 were still on the east bank. He was forced to march by means of another bridge at Minshull Vernon to support his infantry at Acton.
As Fairfax approached Acton, Colonel Richard Gibson (deputising for Byron's Sergeant-Major General, Sir Michael Erneley, who was ill) deployed four regiments of infantry (his own and those of Sir Michael Erneley, Colonel Henry Warren and Sir Robert Byron, younger brother of Lord Byron) to face Fairfax. Erneley's, Warren's and Gibson's regiments had recently returned from Ireland. Most of the Royalist artillery was amassed in Acton churchyard, on the left of Gibson's line. Sir Fulk Hunke's locally raised infantry regiment protected the rear against Booth's garrison in Nantwich.
Despite the heavy rain and the numerous ditches and hedges which broke up the ground in front of Gibson's position, Fairfax's force attacked at about 14:00. Fairfax was informed that Byron was approaching his left rear from the direction of Minshull Vernon, but he deployed only two regiments of infantry and his own troop of cavalry to face them, while his main body pushed forward against Gibson. Although Gibson's men repulsed the first Parliamentarian attack, the Parliamentarian cavalry commanded by Thomas Fairfax's cousin, William Fairfax, outflanked the Royalist right wing and forced it to retreat. In the Royalist centre, Warren's "Irish" regiment broke, and Erneley's own regiment retreated. Behind Gibson's position, Booth led a sortie from Nantwich with 600 musketeers which overcame Hunke's regiment and reached Acton churchyard, overrunning the Royalist artillery and wagon park.
By 16:30, only Gibson's and Byron's regiments were still fighting on the flanks of Gibson's position. As the Parliamentarians broke through the Royalist centre, these two regiments were overwhelmed. Many Royalist soldiers defected to the Parliamentarians, the remainder surrendered or fled. About 1,500 were taken prisoner. Many of the officers took refuge in Acton Church, and were also taken prisoner after surrendering on terms. Byron retreated to Chester with the Royalist cavalry, which had been unable to break through Fairfax's flanking detachment.
Aftermath.
The defeat at Nantwich thwarted King Charles's plan to create a field army in the northwest based on regiments returned from Ireland. The Parliamentarians mistakenly thought that the "Irish" regiments were Catholics, whom they loathed, and also feared their professionalism, but in fact the Royalist general Sir Ralph Hopton wrote of some "Irish" units which joined his army in the South of England at about the same time:
One Royalist officer taken prisoner at Nantwich was Colonel George Monck (in command of Michael Warren's regiment), who later changed sides and was to play a prominent part in the Commonwealth of England and the Restoration.
Re-enactments.
There is an annual re-enactment of the battle by The Sealed Knot on the nearest Saturday to 25 January. The commemorative day of the battle is celebrated by the local people as "Holly Holy Day".


SS Stolwijk

SS "Stolwijk", a Dutch cargo ship of 2,489 tons, was wrecked off the coast of Donegal on 6 December 1940. She was part of a Convoy SC 13 sailing from the Dominion of Newfoundland to Liverpool, England, when her rudder was damaged in a fierce storm. Attempts to rescue her by her destroyer escort failed and she went on the rocks off Tory Island, County Donegal, Ireland. Ten of her crew were lost but the remaining 18 were rescued the following day by Arranmore Lifeboat and landed safely in Burtonport. The rescue of the survivors was conducted in terrible weather conditions and both the RNLI and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands awarded medals to the Irish lifeboat crew.
Construction and History.
The steamship was launched on 30 October 1919 by Werf De Noord at Alblasserdam as "Kongsgaard" for the Norwegian shipowners A/S Vestlandske Lloyd, managed by Brødrene Olsen (A G & J C Olsen) of Stavanger, and completed in January 1920. She measured and , with a cargo capacity of 4,100 DWT. Her length was , beam and depth of hold . The ship was powered by a triple expansion steam engine of 1200 IHP, made by NV Machinefabriek 'Kinderdijk', driving a single propeller.
In 1921, in a shipping recession, "Kongsgaard"s owners were bankrupt and the ship was sold to the Rotterdam shipping company NV Maatschappij SS Rijswijk, managed by the firm Erhardt & Dekkers. She was transferred form Norwegian to Dutch flag and re-measured as 2,499 GRT and 1,533 NRT, and with a cargo capacity of 4,175 DWT. Erhardt & Dekkers' ships were all named after towns and villages that ended with "wijk", in this case Stolwijk in South Holland.
"Stolwijk" ran aground at Åhus, Skåne County, Sweden, on 25 April 1922. She was refloated on 29 April 1922. In 1930 ownership was transferred to NV Stoomvaart Maatschappij 'Wijklijn', still under Erhardt & Dekkers management.
"Stowijk" was at sea when the Netherlands fell to Germany in May 1940 during World War II. She could not return to her home base of Rotterdam, but continued to operate as part of the large Dutch merchant marine.
Other Convoy Activity.
"Stolwijk" was part of outbound Convoy OB 188 in July 1940, steaming from Liverpool to North America; German submarines sank four of the convoy's ships. She returned in August 1940 as part of Convoy SC 01; again, four ships were lost during the journey. In October 1940 "Stolwijk" went back to North America as part of Convoy OB 232. She was returning as part of Convoy SC 13 when she was wrecked.
Slow Convoy 13.
"Stolwijk" was one of 32 merchant ships in SC 13 escorted by six Royal Navy warships , , "Sabre", , "Shikari" and . Violent storms beset the convoy from the outset. On 3 December 1940, the convoy diverted northwest to try to escape the storm and in so doing avoided being intercepted by German submarines that had been attacking convoy HX 90
The stranding of "Stolwijk".
At 10:30am on 5 December 1940 "Stolwijk"′s rudder broke, and the many attempts at repair failed due to the weather. The anchor was dropped but the chain snapped and even going in full reverse did not halt the ship's steady drift toward the rocky Irish coastline. One of the escorting destroyers, , risked her own safety in trying to rescue the crew of "Stolwijk" and was herself nearly destroyed. "Stolwijk" lost one of her lifeboats at this stage suffered damage to the other. A massive wave washed her radio operator overboard and "Stolwijk" hit the rocks at 11:30 p.m. Nine sailors made an attempt to reach the lifeboat that had been washed overboard. According to the official court report, some made it to the lifeboat, but the storm capsized it and only three bodies were subsequently recovered. The remaining 18 survivors remained on board and radioed for help.
The rescue of the survivors.
Arranmore Lifeboat were notified late in the evening of 6 December 1940 of the ship in distress and given an approximate location. It was too late and stormy to depart immediately. The all-volunteer lifeboat crew departed Arranmore Island at 6:30am on 7 December in a hurricane-force gale. Witnesses claim the lifeboat "K.T.J.S." went over one wave and through the next on the outward journey. "Stowijk" had gone aground on rocks called Carraignacrubog ("The Rock of Crabs") just north of Inishdooey and south of Inisbeg. The National Archives in the Netherlands has this information of the rescue from the secretary of the RNLI (C.R. Satterthwaite) in April 1941:
The Immediate Aftermath.
The three bodies recovered following the tragedy were originally buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard in Killult (Donegal, Ireland). In October 2000 the bodies were exhumed and re-interred at the National Cemetery of Honours in Loenen (Netherlands).
"Sabre" put into Londonderry, also known as Derry, with sea damage on 7 December 1940. Her commander, Lieutenant Commander Brian Dean, suffered a fractured skull in the rescue attempt and was retired from the sea. "Sabre" sailed to Belfast for repairs and resumed activity on 18 January 1941 under the command of Peter Gretton.
The British ship SS "Ashcrest" 5,652 tons, was also part of SC 13 and also experienced a broken rudder during the storm. She radioed for help but the message was intercepted by a German submarine. She was torpedoed by "U-140" on 8 December 1940 with the loss of all 38 men.
75 Anniversary song: I'll Go.
On 7 December 2015, Arranmore publican and singer/songwriter Jerry Early [son of Andrew Early, the last eye witness on Arranmore to remember the day, who knew the lifeboat crew and story well] released a song on iTunes called "I'll Go" to commemorate the actions of the lifeboat crew. He co-wrote the song with his cousin John Gallagher. It has received considerable airplay in Donegal since the launch and all proceeds were being donated towards the creation of a permanent monument on Arranmore Island. In September 2020, the Irish duo "Ye Vagabond" released "The Ballad of Stolwijk Rescue", written and presented in a "radio ballad" format by musician Brían MacGloinn Recording can easily be found on platforms such as YouTube.
Permanent Monument.
On 6 August 2017 a new permanent Monument was officially revealed commemorating the rescue.


German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee

Admiral Graf Spee was a "Panzerschiff" (armored ship), nicknamed a "pocket battleship" by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron who fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action, in World War I. She was laid down at the "Reichsmarinewerft" shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936. The ship was nominally under the limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of , she significantly exceeded it. Armed with six guns in two triple gun turrets, "Admiral Graf Spee" and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of left only the few battlecruisers in the Anglo-French navies fast enough and powerful enough to sink them.
The ship conducted five non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1938, and participated in the Coronation Review of King George VI in May 1937. "Admiral Graf Spee" was deployed to the South Atlantic in the weeks before the outbreak of World War II, to be positioned in merchant sea lanes once war was declared. Between September and December 1939, the warship sank nine vessels totaling , before being confronted by three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December. "Admiral Graf Spee" inflicted heavy damage on the British ships, but she too was damaged, and was forced to put into port at Montevideo, Uruguay. Convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship, Hans Langsdorff, the commander of the ship, ordered the vessel to be scuttled. The ship was partially broken up "in situ", though part of the ship remained visible above the surface of the water.
Design.
"Admiral Graf Spee" was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . The ship had a design displacement of and a full load displacement of , though the ship was officially stated to be within the limit of the Treaty of Versailles. "Admiral Graf Spee" was powered by four sets of MAN 9-cylinder double-acting two-stroke diesel engines. The ship's top speed was , at . At a cruising speed of , the ship had a range of . As designed, her standard complement consisted of 33 officers and 586 enlisted men, though after 1935 this was significantly increased to 30 officers and 921–1,040 sailors.
"Admiral Graf Spee"s primary armament was six SK C/28 guns mounted in two triple gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The ship carried a secondary battery of eight SK C/28 guns in single turrets grouped amidships. Her anti-aircraft battery originally consisted of three L/45 guns, though in 1935 these were replaced with six L/78 guns. In 1938, the 8.8 cm guns were removed, and six L/65 guns, four SK C/30 guns, and ten C/30 guns were installed in their place. The ship also carried a pair of quadruple deck-mounted torpedo tubes placed on her stern.
"Admiral Graf Spee"s armored belt was thick; her upper deck was thick while the main armored deck was thick. The main battery turrets had thick faces and 80 mm thick sides. The ship was equipped with two Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult. Radar consisted of a FMG G(gO) "Seetakt" set; "Admiral Graf Spee" was the first German warship to be equipped with radar equipment.
Service history.
"Admiral Graf Spee" was ordered by the Reichsmarine from the "Reichsmarinewerft" shipyard in Wilhelmshaven. Ordered as "Ersatz Braunschweig", "Admiral Graf Spee" replaced the old pre-dreadnought battleship . Her keel was laid on 1 October 1932, under construction number 125. The ship was launched on 30 June 1934; at her launching, she was christened by the daughter of Admiral Maximilian von Spee, the ship's namesake. She was completed slightly over a year and a half later on 6 January 1936, the day she was commissioned into the German fleet.
"Admiral Graf Spee" spent the first three months of her career conducting extensive sea trials to ready the ship for service. The ship's first commander was "Kapitän zur See" ("KzS") Conrad Patzig; he was replaced in 1937 by "KzS" Walter Warzecha. After joining the fleet, "Admiral Graf Spee" became the flagship of the German Navy. In the summer of 1936, following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she deployed to the Atlantic to participate in non-intervention patrols off the Republican-held coast of Spain. Between August 1936 and May 1937, the ship conducted three patrols off Spain. On the return voyage from Spain, "Admiral Graf Spee" stopped in Great Britain to represent Germany in the Coronation Review at Spithead for King George VI on 20 May.
After the conclusion of the Review, "Admiral Graf Spee" returned to Spain for a fourth non-intervention patrol. Following fleet maneuvers and a brief visit to Sweden, the ship conducted a fifth and final patrol in February 1938. In 1938, "KzS" Hans Langsdorff took command of the vessel; she conducted a series of goodwill visits to various foreign ports throughout the year. These included cruises into the Atlantic, where she stopped in Tangier and Vigo. She also participated in extensive fleet maneuvers in German waters. She was part of the celebrations for the reintegration of the port of Memel into Germany, and a fleet review in honor of Admiral Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary. Between 18 April and 17 May 1939, she conducted another cruise into the Atlantic, stopping in the ports of Ceuta and Lisbon. On 21 August 1939, "Admiral Graf Spee" departed Wilhelmshaven, bound for the South Atlantic.
World War II.
Following the outbreak of war between Germany and the Allies in September 1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the German Navy to begin commerce raiding against Allied merchant traffic. Hitler nevertheless delayed issuing the order until it became clear that Britain would not countenance a peace treaty following the conquest of Poland. The "Admiral Graf Spee" was instructed to strictly adhere to prize rules, which required raiders to stop and search ships for contraband before sinking them, and to ensure that their crews are safely evacuated. Langsdorff was ordered to avoid combat, even with inferior opponents, and to frequently change position. On 1 September, the cruiser rendezvoused with her supply ship southwest of the Canary Islands. While replenishing his fuel supplies, Langsdorff ordered superfluous equipment transferred to the "Altmark"; this included several of the ship's boats, flammable paint, and two of her ten 2 cm anti-aircraft guns, which were installed on the tanker.
On 11 September, while still transferring supplies from "Altmark", "Admiral Graf Spee"s Arado floatplane spotted the British heavy cruiser approaching the two German ships. Langsdorff ordered both vessels to depart at high speed, successfully evading the British cruiser. On 26 September, the ship finally received orders authorizing attacks on Allied merchant shipping. Four days later "Admiral Graf Spee"s Arado located Booth Steam Ship Co's cargo ship "Clement" off the coast of Brazil. The cargo ship transmitted an "RRR" signal ("I am under attack by a raider") before the cruiser ordered her to stop. "Admiral Graf Spee" took "Clement"s captain and chief engineer prisoner but left the rest of her crew to abandon ship in the lifeboats. The cruiser then fired 30 rounds from her 28 cm and 15 cm guns and two torpedoes at the cargo ship, which broke up and sank. Langsdorff ordered a distress signal sent to the naval station in Pernambuco to ensure the rescue of the ship's crew. The British Admiralty immediately issued a warning to merchant shipping that a German surface raider was in the area. The British crew later reached the Brazilian coast in their lifeboats.
On 5 October, the British and French navies formed eight groups to hunt down "Admiral Graf Spee" in the South Atlantic. The British aircraft carriers , , and , the , the British battlecruiser , and French battleships and , and 16 cruisers were committed to the hunt. Force G, commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood and assigned to the east coast of South America, comprised the cruisers "Cumberland" and . Force G was reinforced by the light cruisers and ; Harwood detached "Cumberland" to patrol the area off the Falkland Islands while his other three cruisers patrolled off the River Plate.
On the same day as the formation of the Anglo-French hunter groups, "Admiral Graf Spee" captured the steamer "Newton Beech". Two days later, she encountered and sank the merchant ship "Ashlea". On 8 October, the following day, she sank "Newton Beech", which Langsdorff had been using to house prisoners. "Newton Beech" was too slow to keep up with "Admiral Graf Spee", and so the prisoners were transferred to the cruiser. On 10 October, she captured the steamer "Huntsman", the captain of which had not sent a distress signal until the last minute, as he had mistakenly identified "Admiral Graf Spee" as a French warship. Unable to accommodate the crew from "Huntsman", "Admiral Graf Spee" sent the ship to a rendezvous location with a prize crew. On 15 October, "Admiral Graf Spee" rendezvoused with "Altmark" to refuel and transfer prisoners; the following morning, the prize "Huntsman" joined the two ships. The prisoners aboard "Huntsman" were transferred to "Altmark" and Langsdorff then sank "Huntsman" on the night of 17 October.
On 22 October, "Admiral Graf Spee" encountered and sank the steamer "Trevanion". At the end of October, Langsdorff sailed his ship into the Indian Ocean south of Madagascar. The purpose of that foray was to divert Allied warships away from the South Atlantic, and to confuse the Allies about his intentions. By this time, "Admiral Graf Spee" had cruised for almost and needed an engine overhaul. On 15 November, the ship sank the tanker "MV Africa Shell", and the following day, she stopped an unidentified Dutch steamer, though did not sink her. "Admiral Graf Spee" returned to the Atlantic between 17 and 26 November to refuel from "Altmark". While replenishing supplies, the crew of "Admiral Graf Spee" built a dummy gun turret on her bridge and erected a dummy second funnel behind the aircraft catapult to alter her silhouette significantly in a bid to confuse allied shipping as to her true identity.
"Admiral Graf Spee"s Arado floatplane located the merchant ship "Doric Star": Langsdorff fired a shot across her bow to stop the ship. "Doric Star" was able to send out a distress signal before she was sunk, which prompted Harwood to take his three cruisers to the mouth of the River Plate, which he suspected might be Langsdorff's next target. On the night of 5 December, "Admiral Graf Spee" sank the steamer "Tairoa". The next day, she met with "Altmark" and transferred 140 prisoners from "Doric Star" and "Tairoa". "Admiral Graf Spee" encountered her last victim on the evening of 7 December: the freighter "Streonshalh". The prize crew recovered secret documents containing shipping route information. Based on that information, Langsdorff decided to head for the seas off Montevideo. On 12 December, the ship's Arado 196 broke down and could not be repaired, depriving "Graf Spee" of her aerial reconnaissance. The ship's disguise was removed, so it would not hinder the ship in battle.
Battle of the River Plate.
At 05:30 on the morning of 13 December 1939, lookouts spotted a pair of masts off the ship's starboard bow. Langsdorff assumed this to be the escort for a convoy mentioned in the documents recovered from "Tairoa". At 05:52, however, the ship was identified as "HMS Exeter"; she was accompanied by a pair of smaller warships, initially thought to be destroyers but quickly identified as s. Langsdorff decided not to flee from the British ships, and ordered his ship to battle stations and to close at maximum speed. At 06:08, the British spotted "Admiral Graf Spee"; Harwood divided his ships to split the gunfire of "Admiral Graf Spee"s 28 cm guns. The German ship opened fire with her main battery at "Exeter" and her secondary guns at the flagship "Ajax" at 06:17. At 06:20, "Exeter" returned fire, followed by "Ajax" at 06:21 and "Achilles" at 06:24. In the span of thirty minutes, "Admiral Graf Spee" had hit "Exeter" three times, disabling her two forward turrets, destroying her bridge and her aircraft catapult, and starting major fires. "Ajax" and "Achilles" moved closer to "Admiral Graf Spee" to relieve the pressure on "Exeter".
Langsdorff thought the two light cruisers were making a torpedo attack, and turned away under a smokescreen. The respite allowed "Exeter" to withdraw from the action; by now, only one of her gun turrets was still in action, and she had suffered 61 dead and 23 wounded crew members. At around 07:00, "Exeter" returned to the engagement, firing from her stern turret. "Admiral Graf Spee" fired on her again, scored more hits, and forced "Exeter" to withdraw again, this time with a list to port. At 07:25, "Admiral Graf Spee" scored a hit on "Ajax" that disabled her aft turrets. Both sides broke off the action, "Admiral Graf Spee" retreating into the River Plate estuary, while Harwood's battered cruisers remained outside to observe any possible breakout attempts. In the course of the engagement, "Admiral Graf Spee" had been hit approximately 70 times; 36 men were killed and 60 more were wounded, including Langsdorff, who had been wounded twice by splinters while standing on the open bridge.
Scuttling.
As a result of battle damage and casualties, Langsdorff decided to put into Montevideo, where repairs could be effected and the wounded men could be evacuated from the ship. Most of the hits scored by the British cruisers caused only minor structural and superficial damage but the oil purification plant, which was required to prepare the diesel fuel for the engines, was destroyed. Her desalination plant and galley were also destroyed, which would have increased the difficulty of a return to Germany. A hit in the bow would also have negatively affected her seaworthiness in the heavy seas of the North Atlantic. "Admiral Graf Spee" had fired much of her ammunition in the engagement with Harwood's cruisers.
After arriving in port, the wounded crewmen were taken to local hospitals and the dead were buried with full military honors. Captive Allied seamen still aboard the ship were released. Repairs necessary to make the ship seaworthy were expected to take up to two weeks. British naval intelligence worked to convince Langsdorff that vastly superior forces were concentrating to destroy his ship, if he attempted to break out of the harbor. The Admiralty broadcast a series of signals, on frequencies known to be intercepted by German intelligence. The closest heavy units—the carrier "Ark Royal" and battlecruiser "Renown"—were some away, much too far to intervene in the situation. Believing the British reports, Langsdorff discussed his options with commanders in Berlin. These were either to break out and seek refuge in Buenos Aires, where the Argentine government would intern the ship, or to scuttle the ship in the Plate estuary.
Langsdorff was unwilling to risk the lives of his crew, so he decided to scuttle the ship. He knew that although Uruguay was neutral, the government was on friendly terms with Britain and if he allowed his ship to be interned, the Uruguayan Navy would allow British intelligence officers access to the ship. Under Article 17 of the Hague Convention of 1907, neutrality restrictions limited "Admiral Graf Spee" to a period of 72 hours for repairs in Montevideo, before she would be interned for the duration of the war. On 17 December 1939, Langsdorff ordered the destruction of all important equipment aboard the ship. The ship's remaining ammunition supply was dispersed throughout the ship, in preparation for scuttling. On 18 December, the ship, with only Langsdorff and 40 other men aboard, moved into the outer roadstead to be scuttled. A crowd of 20,000 watched as the scuttling charges were set; the crew was taken off by an Argentine tug and the ship was scuttled at 20:55. The multiple explosions from the munitions sent jets of flame high into the air and created a large cloud of smoke that obscured the ship which burned in the shallow water for the next two days.
On 20 December, in his room in a Buenos Aires hotel, Langsdorff shot himself in full dress uniform while lying on the ship's battle ensign. In late January 1940, the neutral American cruiser arrived in Montevideo and the crew was permitted to visit the wreck of "Admiral Graf Spee". The Americans met the German crewmen, who were still in Montevideo. In the aftermath of the scuttling, the ship's crew were taken to Argentina, where they were interned for the remainder of the war.
Wreck.
The wreck was partially broken up in situ in 1942–1943, though parts of the ship were visible for some time after; the wreck lies at a depth of only . The salvage rights were purchased from the German Government by the British, for £14,000, using a Montevideo engineering company as a front. The British had been surprised by the accuracy of the gunnery and expected to find a radar range finder, which they did. They used the knowledge thus acquired to try to develop countermeasures, under the leadership of Fred Hoyle at the British radar project. The Admiralty complained about the large sum paid for the salvage rights.
In February 2004, a salvage team began work raising the wreck of "Admiral Graf Spee". The operation was in part being funded by the government of Uruguay, in part by the private sector as the wreck was a hazard to navigation. The first major section—a gunnery rangefinding telemeter—was raised on 25 February. On 10 February 2006, the , eagle and swastika crest of "Admiral Graf Spee" was recovered from the stern of the ship; it was stored in a Uruguayan naval warehouse following German complaints about exhibiting "Nazi paraphernalia".