Battle of Marston Moor

The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the Marquess of Newcastle.
During the summer of 1644, the Covenanters and Parliamentarians had been besieging York, which was defended by the Marquess of Newcastle. Rupert had gathered an army which marched through the northwest of England, gathering reinforcements and fresh recruits on the way, and across the Pennines to relieve the city. The convergence of these forces made the ensuing battle the largest of the civil wars.
On 1 July, Rupert outmanoeuvred the Covenanters and Parliamentarians to relieve the city. The next day, he sought battle with them even though he was outnumbered. He was dissuaded from attacking immediately and during the day both sides gathered their full strength on Marston Moor, an expanse of wild meadow west of York. Towards evening, the Covenanters and Parliamentarians themselves launched a surprise attack. After a confused fight lasting two hours, Parliamentarian cavalry under Oliver Cromwell routed the Royalist cavalry from the field and, with Leven's infantry, annihilated the remaining Royalist infantry.
After their defeat the Royalists effectively abandoned Northern England, losing much of the manpower from the northern counties of England (which were strongly Royalist in sympathy) and also losing access to the European continent through the ports on the North Sea coast. Although they partially retrieved their fortunes with victories later in the year in Southern England, the loss of the north was to prove a fatal handicap the next year, when they tried unsuccessfully to link up with the Scottish Royalists under the Marquess of Montrose.
Background.
Civil war in the north.
In Northern England the Royalists had the advantage in numbers and local support, except in parts of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, where the Parliamentarians had support from the clothing-manufacturing towns which "naturally maligned the gentry". On 30 June 1643, the Royalists commanded by the Marquess of Newcastle defeated the Parliamentarian army of Lord Fairfax at the Battle of Adwalton Moor near Bradford. Fairfax and his son, Sir Thomas Fairfax, fled with their remaining forces to the port of Hull, which was held for Parliament.
Newcastle sent some of his army south into Lincolnshire, as part of a planned "three-pronged" advance on London, but was forced to besiege Hull with most of his forces. The siege failed, as the Parliamentarian navy could supply and reinforce the port and the garrison flooded wide areas around the city, while the Royalist detachments sent into Lincolnshire were defeated at the battles of Gainsborough and Winceby.
In late 1643, the English Civil War widened. King Charles I negotiated a "cessation" in Ireland, which allowed him to reinforce his armies with English regiments (one of horse and twelve of foot) which had been sent to Ireland following the Irish Rebellion of 1641, but Parliament took an even greater step by signing the Solemn League and Covenant, sealing an alliance with the Scottish Covenanters.
Early in 1644, a Covenanter army under the Earl of Leven entered the north of England on behalf of the English Parliament. The Marquess of Newcastle was forced to divide his army, leaving a detachment under Sir John Belasyse to watch the Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax in Hull, while he led his main body north to confront Leven.
Siege of York.
During March and early April, the Marquess of Newcastle fought several delaying actions as he tried to prevent the Scots from crossing the River Tyne and surrounding the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Meanwhile, a Parliamentarian cavalry force under Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had been campaigning in Cheshire and Lancashire during the winter, crossed the Pennines and entered the West Riding of Yorkshire. To prevent Sir Thomas rejoining Lord Fairfax in Hull, Belasyse occupied the town of Selby which lay between them. On 11 April, Sir Thomas Fairfax's force, reinforced by infantry under Sir John Meldrum, stormed Selby, capturing Belasyse and most of his force.
Hearing the news, Newcastle realised that the city of York was in danger. York was the principal city and bastion of Royalist power in the north of England, and its loss would be a serious blow to the Royalist cause. He hastily retreated there to forestall the Fairfaxes. Leven left a detachment under the Earl of Callendar to mask the Royalist garrison of Newcastle upon Tyne, and followed the Marquess of Newcastle's army with his main body. On 22 April, Leven and the Fairfaxes joined forces at Wetherby, about west of York. Together, they began the Siege of York.
Initially, the siege was a rather loose blockade as the Covenanters and Parliamentarians concentrated on capturing smaller Royalist garrisons which threatened their communications with Hull. On 3 June, they were reinforced by the Parliamentarian army of the Eastern Association under the Earl of Manchester. York was now completely encircled and siege operations began in earnest. Leven was accepted as commander in chief of the three combined allied armies before York (referred to by Parliament as the "Army of Both Kingdoms"). It was politic to make the Scottish Covenanters pre-eminent in the north as they were the largest single contingent in the army, but Leven was also a respected veteran of the Thirty Years' War.
Relief moves.
News of the siege soon reached Oxford, where the King had his wartime capital. From 24 April to 5 May, he held a council of war attended by his nephew and most renowned field commander, Prince Rupert. It was settled that while the King attempted to play for time in Oxford, Rupert would relieve York.
Rupert set out from Shrewsbury with a small force on 16 May. His first moves were intended to gather reinforcements along the way to bolster his army, and secure Lancashire for the troops heading over from Ireland for the Royalist cause. He assumed the direction of a small Royalist army, based on Chester and commanded by Lord John Byron, raising his force to 2,000 horse and 6,000-foot. Having forced a crossing of the River Mersey at Stockport, he stormed Bolton, allegedly killing 1,600 of the Parliamentarian defenders and citizens. Resting at Bury nearby, Rupert was joined by the Marquess of Newcastle's cavalry under Lord George Goring, which had broken out of York early in the siege, with a small contingent from Derbyshire, and several regiments which were being freshly raised in Lancashire by the Earl of Derby. Bypassing the Parliamentarian stronghold of Manchester, Rupert approached Liverpool on 6 June and wrested control of the city from Parliament after a five-day siege.
Rupert now hesitated, unsure whether to proceed to the relief of York or remain to consolidate the Royalist hold on Lancashire, securing more reinforcements in the process. He also distrusted some of the members of the King's council of war and was wary of being so far from the King's side. On 16 June, he received a dispatch from the King which contained troubling news. The King's advisors on the council of war had overturned Rupert's defensive policies, sending the garrisons of Reading and Abingdon on an offensive in the West Country. This had left Oxford exposed to a sudden threat from the Parliamentarian armies commanded by the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller and forced the King to leave the city in haste and head to Worcester, where he was still in danger. The letter also contained some ambiguous orders regarding Rupert's northern offensive and future plans:
Rupert understood the letter to be an order both to relieve York and defeat the allied army before heading south once more to aid the King. By this time Rupert's army numbered nearly 14,000. He set out from Liverpool to Preston, which surrendered without a fight. From there he proceeded via Clitheroe and crossed the Pennines to Skipton, where he paused for three days from 26 to 28 June to "fix arms" and await some final reinforcements from Cumberland and Westmoreland. He arrived at the Royalist garrison at Knaresborough Castle northwest of York on 30 June.
Relief of York.
The allies were aware of Rupert's approach and had been hoping that reinforcements from the Midlands under Sir John Meldrum and the Earl of Denbigh could ward off this threat, but they learned that these forces could not intervene in time. The allied armies around York were separated from each other by rivers, and if Rupert attacked them in their siege lines he could destroy any one army before the other two could come to its aid. Therefore, they abandoned the siege on the night of 30 June, and concentrated their forces near the village of Hessay before taking position on Marston Moor, where they blocked Rupert's expected direct march to York (along the old Roman road named Ermine Street, the modern A59), and could easily move to their left to prevent Rupert making any move to the south via Wetherby.
Early on 1 July, some Royalist cavalry advanced from Knaresborough and appeared on the Moor, and the allies prepared for battle. However, Rupert had made a flank march to the northeast with his main body, crossing the River Ure at Boroughbridge and the River Swale at Thornton Bridge. These two rivers merge to form the River Ouse, which Rupert had successfully put between himself and the allied armies. Later that day, his forces defeated the Earl of Manchester's dragoons, who had been left to guard a bridge of boats across the Ouse at the village of Poppleton a few miles north of York. This had been the only crossing available to the allies above another bridge of boats at Acaster Malbis south of York, and its capture prevented the allies crossing the Ouse to engage Rupert.
More of Rupert's cavalry arrived at York to gain touch with the garrison. With York definitely relieved, Newcastle sent Rupert a fulsome letter of welcome and congratulations. Rupert replied, not in person but through Goring, with a peremptory demand for Newcastle to march his forces to Rupert's assistance on the following morning.
Battle.
Prelude.
On learning that they had been outmanoeuvred, the allied commanders debated their options. They decided to march south to Tadcaster and Cawood, where they could both protect their own supply lines from Hull, and also block any move south by Rupert on either side of the Ouse. Their foot (infantry), ordnance and baggage set off early on 2 July, leaving the cavalry and dragoons, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax, as rearguard. At about 9 am, the allied generals learned that Rupert's army had crossed the captured bridge of boats at Poppleton, and was advancing onto Marston Moor. The Covenanter and Parliamentarian foot, some of whom had already reached Tadcaster, were hastily recalled.
However, Newcastle and his Lieutenant General, Lord Eythin, were opposed to any pitched battle and possibly offended by Rupert's high-handed attitude. Rather than join Rupert immediately they temporised, claiming that it would take time to clear the earth and rubble which had been used to block the city gates of York during the siege. Newcastle's soldiers in York then refused to fight unless given their delayed payment, a dispute which Eythin may have fomented. A number were also absent, pillaging the abandoned allied siege works and encampments outside the city, and had yet to return.
Around midday, Rupert was joined on Marston Moor by Newcastle, accompanied by a mounted troop of "gentleman volunteers" only. Rupert greeted him by saying, "My Lord, I wish you had come sooner with your forces, but I hope we shall yet have a glorious day." Newcastle counselled that the three allied armies, with separate garrisons, recruiting areas and lines of communication to protect, would eventually separate. He also suggested waiting for a force of 3,000 under Colonel Clavering and collected garrisons amounting to another 2,000 to join the Royalist army. Rupert was adamant that the King's letter (which he never showed to Newcastle) was a command to engage and defeat the enemy immediately. Furthermore, Rupert wished to compensate for the Royalists' numerical inferiority by catching the enemy unawares, and before further Parliamentarian reinforcements could increase their superiority in numbers.
However, without Newcastle's infantry, and with his own infantry exhausted from their long march on the previous day, Rupert was unable to attack, and the odds against him lengthened as the day wore on, and the Scots and Parliamentarian infantry and artillery returned from their aborted move south and took position.
At about 2:00 pm, the allied artillery, consisting of around thirty pieces of ordnance commanded by General Alexander Hamilton, began a cannonade, although according to a Royalist eyewitness:
At about 5:00 pm, the firing ceased. Meanwhile, at about 4:00 pm, the Royalist contingent from York belatedly arrived, led by Eythin. Rupert and Eythin already knew and disliked one another. Both had fought at the Battle of Vlotho in 1638, where Rupert had been captured and held prisoner for several years. Rupert blamed Eythin's caution for the defeat on that occasion, while Eythin blamed Rupert's rashness. On the Moor, Eythin criticised Rupert's dispositions as being drawn up too close to the enemy. His main concern was that a fold in the ground (referred to by some eyewitnesses as a "glen") between the ridge on which the allied forces were drawn up and the track between Long Marston and Tockwith concealed the front line of the allied infantry from both view and artillery fire, allowing them to attack suddenly from a comparatively close distance. When Rupert proposed to either attack or move his army back as Eythin suggested, Eythin then pontificated that it was too late in the day for such a move. The Royalist army prepared to settle down for the night, close to the allied armies.
Deployment.
Covenanters and Parliamentarians.
The Covenanters and Parliamentarians occupied Marston Hill, a low feature (actually part of a terminal moraine) less than above the surrounding countryside but nevertheless prominent in the flat Vale of York, between the villages of Long Marston and Tockwith. They had the advantage of the higher ground, but cornfields stretching between the two villages hampered their deployment.
At some point in the day, the Royalists attempted to seize a rabbit warren to the west of the cornfields from where they might enfilade the Parliamentarian position, but they were driven off and the Parliamentarian left wing of horse occupied the ground. The wing was under the command of Manchester's Lieutenant General, Oliver Cromwell. The first two lines consisted of over 3,000 cavalry from the Eastern Association, including Cromwell's own double-strength regiment of ironsides. They were deployed in eleven divisions of three or four troops of cavalry each, with 600 "commanded" musketeers deployed as platoons between them. The use of musketeers to disrupt attacking cavalry or dragoons was a common practice in the Swedish Army during the Thirty Years' War, and was adopted by both the Parliamentarians and Royalists at Marston Moor. Three regiments of Covenanter horse, numbering 1,000 and mounted on lighter "nags", formed a third line to Cromwell's rear under Sir David Leslie. Five hundred Scottish dragoons under Colonel Hugh Fraser were deployed on the extreme left.
The centre, under the direction of the Earl of Leven as nominated commander in chief, consisted of over 14,000-foot, with 30 to 40 pieces of artillery. Thomas Stockdale recorded the disposition of the troops and the role of Leven in drawing up the order of battle:
The Covenanter Sergeant Major General of Foot, James Lumsden, nevertheless noted (in a note on the map he made of the allied army's dispositions) that "... the Brigads drawen up heir as we "[illegible]" it is not so formal as it ought to be."
Most of Manchester's infantry under Sergeant Major General Lawrence Crawford were on the left of the front line. A brigade of Lord Fairfax's foot was in the centre. Two Covenanter brigades each of two regiments, the "vanguard" of the main battalia commanded by Lieutenant General William Baillie, made up the right of the front line. The second line consisted of four Covenanter brigades, their "main battle", commanded by Lumsden. There is confusion as to the disposition of the third line and of the infantry deployment on the right wing, as the only map (Lumsden's) is badly damaged. The usual interpretation, based on Peter Young's reconstruction, is that the third line contained two or three Covenanter brigades and the Earl of Manchester's own regiment of foot. Young placed the main body of Fairfax's foot on the left of the third line, although more recent interpretations of accounts put them on the right of the third line or even behind the cavalry of the right wing. An unbrigaded Covenanter regiment may have formed an incomplete fourth line. There were a total of nineteen Covenanter regiments of foot, some of them incomplete, present at the battle.
The right wing was commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax, with John Lambert as his second in command. He had at least 2,000 horse from Yorkshire and Lancashire, deployed in nine divisions, with 600 musketeers posted between them in the same manner as on the left wing. There were also perhaps 500 dragoons. One regiment of Covenanter horse commanded by the Earl of Eglinton was deployed with Fairfax's front line, two more (one of them composed of lancers commanded by the Earl of Balgonie, Leven's son) were deployed behind Fairfax's second line. The second and third lines of the right wing may also have included some units of foot, whose identity is uncertain.
Royalists.
The Royalists occupied the low-lying moor, behind a drainage ditch that Rupert noted as an effective obstacle to a cavalry charge. There is some dispute over the course of the ditch at the time of the battle. Some contemporary accounts support the contention by later historians that it was non-existent on the Royalists' right wing. On the other hand, a near-contemporary plan of the Royalist dispositions by Rupert's chief engineer, Bernard de Gomme, shows the ditch in its present-day alignment. It is generally accepted that the ditch was at least less of an obstacle on the Royalist right.
The Royalist left wing was commanded by Lord Goring. It consisted of 1,700 cavalry from the Marquess of Newcastle's cavalry (the "Northern Horse"), 400 cavalry from Derbyshire and 500 musketeers. The first line was commanded by Goring and the second by Sir Charles Lucas.
Their centre was commanded by Eythin. A brigade numbering 1,500 and consisting of Rupert's and Byron's regiments of foot under Colonel Robert Napier of Byron's regiment was deployed at the ditch, at the junction of the right wing and centre, possibly to protect some artillery which may have occupied a slight hummock near this point or where the ditch was an especially weak obstacle. To their left, a forlorn hope of musketeers lined the ditch. Behind them, the first line and the left wing of the second line were composed of the remaining infantry units of Rupert's army, numbering 5,500, under Rupert's Sergeant Major General, Henry Tillier. The 3,000 infantry from Newcastle's army under Sergeant Major General Francis Mackworth formed the right wing of the second line and an incomplete third line behind the right centre when they arrived, though some at least of them may not have taken up their assigned positions when the battle began, leaving the right of the Royalist centre understrength. A brigade of 600 "Northern Horse" under Sir William Blakiston was deployed behind the left centre. A total of 14 field guns were deployed in the centre.
The right wing was commanded by Byron, with 2,600 horse (including a regiment, 200 strong, of Northern Horse) and 500 musketeers. The second line, which included Rupert's Regiment of Horse but also some comparatively inexperienced regiments, was commanded by Lord Molyneux, although the experienced but unprincipled Sir John Urry (or "Hurry") was Sergeant Major General of Rupert's horse and therefore Byron's second in command.
Unlike the Covenanters and Parliamentarians, Rupert retained a reserve of 600 cavalry, including his elite Lifeguard of Horse, under his personal command. This reserve was situated behind the centre.
Main action.
Delayed by the late arrival of the York garrison, it was late evening before the Royalists were fully deployed. A flurry of rain showers and the discouragement of Newcastle and Eythin persuaded Rupert to delay his attack until the next day. From the ranks of the allied army he could hear the singing of psalms. As the Royalist troops broke ranks for their supper, Leven noted the lack of preparation among his opponents and ordered his men to attack at or shortly after 7:30 pm, just as a thunderstorm broke out over the moor.
On the allied left, Crawford's infantry outflanked and drove back Napier's brigade while Cromwell's horse quickly defeated Byron's wing. Though Byron had been ordered to stand his ground and rely on the ditch and musket fire to slow and disorganize an enemy attack, he instead ordered a hasty counter-charge which disordered his own troops and prevented his musketeers and four "drakes" (field guns) attached to Napier's brigade from firing for fear of hitting their own cavalry. In the clashes which followed, Byron's front line regiments were put to flight. Cromwell was slightly wounded in the neck, by a pistol ball in most accounts, and briefly left the field to have the wound dressed.
Noting the setback on this flank, Rupert led his reserve towards the right, rallying his own fleeing regiment of horse and leading them in a counter-attack. A Parliamentarian officer wrote:
Leslie's Covenanter regiments eventually swung the balance for Cromwell, outflanking and defeating the Royalist cavalry. Rupert's right wing and reserve were routed and he himself narrowly avoided capture by hiding in a nearby bean field.
On the allied right centre, the brigade of Fairfax's infantry and Baillie's "vanguard" initially succeeded in crossing the ditch, capturing at least three pieces of artillery. On the allied right, Sir Thomas Fairfax's wing fared worse. He later wrote:
Fairfax wrote that his second-in-command, Major-General Lambert, could not get up to him, and so charged in another place. A lane, the present-day Atterwith Lane, crossed the ditch on this flank, and some accounts suggest that several units were easy targets for the Royalist musketeers as they advanced along the lane only four abreast. When a small embankment alongside the ditch at this point was removed in the 1960s, several hundred musket balls were recovered.
When Goring launched a counter-charge, the disorganised Parliamentarians were routed, although some of the Covenanter cavalry regiments with Sir Thomas Fairfax's wing, especially the Earl of Eglinton's regiment, resisted stoutly for some time. As an eyewitness observed:
Most of Goring's victorious wing then either scattered in pursuit, or fell out to loot the allied baggage train, but some of them under Lucas wheeled to attack the right flank of the allied infantry. Meanwhile, some of Newcastle's foot counter-attacked the brigade of Fairfax's foot in the centre of the allied front line and threw them into confusion. Following up this advantage, Blakiston's brigade of horse, probably reinforced by the troop of "gentleman volunteers" under Newcastle himself, charged the allied centre. Under Lucas's and Blakiston's assaults in the confusion and the gathering darkness, six of the Covenanter infantry regiments and all of Fairfax's infantry fled the field. The Scottish sergeant major general, Lumsden, on the right of the allied second line, stated that:
One isolated Covenanter brigade of foot that stood its ground was at the right of their front line and consisted of the regiments of the Earl of Crawford-Lindsay and Viscount Maitland. Lucas launched three cavalry charges against them. In the third charge, Lucas's horse was killed, and he was taken prisoner. Behind them, Lumsden reformed the reserve of the allied centre, pushing four regiments (those of the Earl of Cassilis, William Douglas of Kilhead, Lord Coupar and the Earl of Dunfermline) and part of the Clydesdale Regiment forward into the breach in the allied front line. Behind them in turn, the Earl of Manchester's regiment repulsed and scattered Blakiston's brigade.
By now it was nearly fully dark, although the full moon was rising. The countryside for miles around was covered with fugitives from both sides. A messenger from Ireland riding in search of Prince Rupert wrote:
Cromwell's disciplined horsemen had rallied behind the right of the original Royalist position. Sir Thomas Fairfax, finding himself alone in the midst of Goring's men, removed the "field sign" (a handkerchief or slip of white paper which identified him as a Parliamentarian) from his hat, and made his way to Cromwell's wing to relate the state of affairs on the allied right flank. Some five or six troops of Fairfax's cavalry and Balgonie's Covenanter regiment of horse (split into two bodies) also made their way through the Royalists to join Cromwell. Cromwell now led his cavalry, with Sir David Leslie still in support and Sergeant Major General Crawford's foot on his right flank, across the battlefield to attack Goring's cavalry.
By this time, Goring's troops were tired and disorganised, and several of his senior officers were prisoners. They nevertheless marched down the hill from the Parliamentarian baggage to occupy roughly the same position which Fairfax's cavalry had held at the start of the battle, which most contemporary accounts stated to be a disadvantageous position. When Cromwell attacked, Goring's outnumbered troops were driven back. Many of them retired to the "glen", the fold of ground beneath Marston Hill, but refused to take any further part in the battle despite the efforts of officers such as Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Philip Monckton to rally them. Eventually, they obeyed orders to retreat to York late at night.
The triumphant allies meanwhile turned against the remains of the Royalist centre, overrunning successive units and cutting down many fugitives. Finally some of Newcastle's foot, the "whitecoats", gathered for a last stand in a ditched enclosure. This has usually been stated to be White Sike Close, in the rear of the Royalists' original position, where some of Newcastle's infantry would have retreated when they found their right flank "in the air" following the defeat of Byron's and Rupert's cavalry, and certainly where some mass burials later took place, although the enclosure may instead have been Fox Covert, a mile north of Long Marston on the natural line of retreat towards York. The whitecoats refused quarter and repulsed constant cavalry charges until infantry and Colonel Hugh Fraser's dragoons were brought up to break their formation with musket fire. The last 30 survivors finally surrendered.
Casualties.
Approximately 4,000 Royalist soldiers had been killed, many in the last stand of the whitecoats, and 1,500 captured, including Lucas and Tillier. The Royalists lost all their guns, with many hundreds of weapons and several standards also falling into the hands of the allied forces.
The allied generals' dispatch, and other Parliamentarian accounts, stated that 300 of their soldiers were killed. One of those mortally wounded among the Parliamentarians was Sir Thomas Fairfax's brother, Charles. Another was Cromwell's nephew, Valentine Walton, who was struck by a cannonball early in the day. Cromwell was present when he died afterwards, and wrote a famous letter to the soldier's father, Cromwell's brother-in-law, also named Valentine Walton, which briefly described the battle and then informed the father of the son's last words and death.
Outcome.
Royalists.
Late at night, the Royalist generals reached York, with many routed troops and stragglers. The Governor of York, Sir Thomas Glemham, allowed only those who were part of the garrison (in effect, only a few officers who had participated in the battle as volunteers) into the city, in case Parliamentarian cavalry entered the city on the heels of the fleeing Royalists. Many fugitives, including wounded, crowded the streets before Micklegate Bar, the western gate into the city.
Newcastle, having seen his forces broken and having spent his entire fortune in the Royalist cause, resolved that he would not endure the "laughter of the court". He departed for Scarborough on the day after the battle (3 July) and went into exile in Hamburg, with Eythin and many of his senior officers. Two days after the battle, Rupert rallied 5,000 cavalry and a few hundred infantry whom he mounted on spare horses. He considered that rather than attempt to restore Royalist fortunes in the north, he was required to return south to rejoin the King. Leaving York by way of Monk Bar on the north east side, he marched back over the Pennines, making a detour to Richmond to escape interception.
At Marston Moor, Rupert had been decisively beaten for the first time in the war. He was deeply affected by the defeat, and kept the King's ambiguous dispatch close to him for the remainder of his life. He had suffered an additional blow through the death during the battle of his dog "Boye", who had been a constant companion by his side throughout his campaigns. Parliamentarian propaganda made much of this, treating Boye almost as a Devil's familiar.
With the departure of Newcastle and Rupert, the Royalists effectively abandoned the north, except for isolated garrisons, which were reduced one by one over the next few months. The remnants of Byron's troops were driven from Lancashire in August, and were involved in another Royalist disaster at the Relief of Montgomery Castle in Wales in September. The Royalist cavalry from the northern counties, the "Northern Horse", continued to fight for the King under Sir Marmaduke Langdale. They relieved a Royalist garrison at Pontefract Castle in West Yorkshire in February 1645, but their undisciplined and licentious conduct turned many former sympathisers away from the Royalist cause. After being involved in the defeats of the King at the battles of Naseby and Rowton Heath, they made a final attempt to reach Scotland and were routed at Sherburn-in-Elmet in October 1645.
Allies.
The victorious allies regrouped, although too slowly to intercept Rupert as he left York. Once the allied army had reformed (and had been joined by Meldrum's and Denbigh's forces) they resumed the siege of York. Without hope of relief, and under the agreement that no Scottish soldiers were to be quartered in the city, the garrison surrendered on honourable terms on 16 July.
Once York surrendered, the allied army soon dispersed. Leven took his troops north to besiege Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle. He sent dispatches to Scotland ordering that all runaways from the Covenanter regiments which broke at Marston Moor be returned, but not before every tenth deserter was hanged according to article 14 of Leven's "Articles of War". Once reunited with the Army of both Kingdoms, the remnants of the six broken regiments were put to base service such as latrine duties and the disposing of corpses until they got the chance to redeem themselves during the storm of Newcastle. Manchester's army returned to Lincolnshire and eventually moved into the south of England to take part in the Second Battle of Newbury.
The Earl of Leven had again demonstrated the importance of disciplined infantry. Even as some of the newly levied allied regiments were routed by the Royalists, he had ensured he had enough veterans in reserve to replace them and overturn the early gains made by his opponents. Cromwell's reputation as a cavalry commander was also firmly established at this battle. Despite attempts by his political rivals such as Denzil Holles and military critics such as Major General Lawrence Crawford to belittle the part he played, it was acknowledged that the discipline he had instilled into his troops and his own leadership on the battlefield had been crucial to the victory. Cromwell would later declare that Marston Moor was "an absolute victory obtained by God's blessing". From this moment, he was to exert increasing influence both in the House of Commons and in the Parliamentarian armies in the field.
However, the accounts published after the battle exacerbated the rifts which were already growing between the moderates and Presbyterians on the one hand and the Independents on the other. The noted Scottish theologian Robert Baillie wrote from Westminster only a few days later to one of his Independent brethren:
Conduct of the allied generals.
Much of the resulting many-sided dispute among the Parliamentarians and Covenanters was prompted by accounts very soon after the battle that all three allied generals-in-chief had fled the field. The Earl of Manchester left the field but he subsequently rallied some infantry and returned, although he was able to exercise little control over events.
By some accounts, Lord Fairfax and Leven also fled the battlefield with their routed troops, but this has recently been challenged, certainly in Leven's case. The most detailed account of Leven's flight was written by the biographer of Lieutenant Colonel James Somerville, who was present at the battle as a volunteer. However, this second hand account was published only in 1679, and has been challenged by previously unused eye witness accounts. These show most of the Covenanter infantry and cavalry units remained fighting until the end of the battle. As seven different eyewitnesses attested, they did so under the direction of Leven. For example, Simeon Ashe (the Earl of Manchester's chaplain) noted that:
The enigmatic English reporter,"T. M.", agreed that Leven still commanded the centre battalia after the initial rout:
Fiction and media.
In 1971 the British band Electric Light Orchestra released an instrumental track titled "The Battle of Marston Moor (July 2nd 1644)".


Thomas C. Kinkaid

Thomas Cassin Kinkaid (3 April 1888 – 17 November 1972) was an admiral in the United States Navy, known for his service during World War II. He built a reputation as a "fighting admiral" in the aircraft carrier battles of 1942 and commanded the Allied forces in the Aleutian Islands Campaign. He was Commander Allied Naval Forces and the Seventh Fleet under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific Area, where he conducted numerous amphibious operations, and commanded an Allied fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of World War II and the last naval battle between battleships in history.
Born into a naval family, Kinkaid was ranked in the lower half of his class on his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in June 1908. His early commissioned service was spent aboard battleships. In 1913, he began instruction in ordnance engineering and served in that field for many years. He saw action during the 1916 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic. During World War I, he was attached to the Royal Navy before serving as Gunnery Officer aboard the battleship . After the war, he was Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander U.S. Naval Detachment in Turkey. Kinkaid received his first command, the destroyer , in 1924. He was executive officer of the battleship when the 1933 Long Beach earthquake struck, and participated in relief efforts. He received his second command in 1937, the heavy cruiser .
From 1938 to 1941, Kinkaid was a naval attaché in Italy and Yugoslavia. In the months prior to U.S. entry into World War II, he commanded a destroyer squadron. Promoted to rear admiral in 1941, he assumed command of a U.S. Pacific Fleet cruiser division. His cruisers defended the aircraft carrier during the Battle of the Coral Sea and during the Battle of Midway. After that battle, he took command of Task Force 16, a task force built around the carrier , which he led during the long and difficult Solomon Islands campaign, participating in the Battles of the Eastern Solomons and the Santa Cruz Islands. Kinkaid was placed in charge of the North Pacific Force in January 1943 and commanded the operations that regained control of the Aleutian Islands. He was promoted to vice admiral in June 1943.
In November 1943, Kinkaid became Commander Allied Naval Forces South West Pacific Area, and Commander of the Seventh Fleet, directing U.S. and Royal Australian Navy forces supporting the New Guinea campaign. During the Battle of the Surigao Strait, he commanded the Allied ships in the last naval battle between battleships in history. Following the demise of Japanese naval power in the region, the Allied navies supported the campaigns in the Philippines and Borneo. Kinkaid was promoted to admiral on 3 April 1945. After the Pacific War ended in August 1945, the Seventh Fleet assisted in operations on the Korean and China coasts. Admiral Kinkaid was Commander Eastern Sea Frontier and the Sixteenth Fleet from 1946 until his retirement in May 1950. He was a member of the National Security Training Commission for much of the rest of the decade. He also served with the American Battle Monuments Commission for 15 years.
Early life.
Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on 3 April 1888, the second child and only son of Thomas Wright Kinkaid, a naval officer, and his wife Virginia Lee née Cassin. At the time, Thomas Wright Kinkaid was on leave from the U.S. Navy and employed at the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. When Thomas was only a year old, his father was posted to , and the family moved to Sitka, Alaska, where a third child, Dorothy, was born in 1890. Over the next few years the family successively moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Norfolk, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland and Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Thomas attended Western High School for three years before entering a U.S. Naval Academy preparatory school. He sought and secured an appointment to Annapolis from President Theodore Roosevelt, and was asked to take the admission examination. The Navy was undergoing a period of expansion, and the intake of midshipmen was double that of two years earlier. Of the 350 who took the examination, 283 were admitted. The class was the largest since the Academy had opened in 1845.
Kinkaid was admitted to Annapolis as a midshipman in July 1904. His instructors included four future Chiefs of Naval Operations: William S. Benson, William V. Pratt, William D. Leahy and Ernest J. King. In 1905 he took an instructional cruise on . He also spent six weeks on , his only experience of a warship under sail. In subsequent years, his training cruises were on and which, while much newer, were by this time also obsolete. He participated in sports, particularly in rowing, earning a seat in the Academy's eight-oar racing shell. He graduated on 5 June 1908, ranked 136th in his class of 201.
Early career.
Kinkaid's first posting was to San Francisco where he joined the crew of the battleship , part of the Great White Fleet. During the next year, he circumnavigated the globe with the fleet, visiting New Zealand and Australia. The fleet returned to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia in February 1909. In 1910, Kinkaid took his examinations for the rank of ensign but failed navigation. While his classmates were promoted in June 1910, Kinkaid remained a midshipman, pending the result of a makeup examination in December 1910. In July, he developed pleurisy and was hospitalized in New York, New York, before being sent to Annapolis to recuperate. At the time, his father was in charge of the Naval Engineering Experiment Station there, which allowed Kinkaid to stay with his parents while studying for his navigation examination. In October, he was posted to the battleship whose skipper, Commander William Sims, an Annapolis classmate of his father's, encouraged Kinkaid's early interest in gunnery. Kinkaid passed his navigation examination on 7 December and was promoted to ensign on 14 February 1911, backdated to 6 June 1910. While still at Annapolis, Kinkaid met Helen Sherburne Ross (1892–1980), the daughter of a Philadelphia businessman. The two were married on 24 April 1911 in the Silver Chapel of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in a ceremony attended by a small number of guests. Their marriage produced no children. They enjoyed playing contract bridge and golf, and Helen was the women's golf champion for the District of Columbia in 1921 and 1922.
In 1913, Kinkaid, now a lieutenant (junior grade), commenced a course in ordnance at the Naval Academy Postgraduate School. This consisted of four months of classroom instruction followed by tours with the leading naval ordnance manufacturers, and concluded with a tour of duty at the Indian Head Naval Proving Ground. Students had to commit to remain in the Navy for at least eight years. After completing the four months in the classroom at Annapolis, Kinkaid commenced a three-month assignment at Midvale Steel, but this was interrupted after two months by the United States occupation of Veracruz. Kinkaid was ordered to report to the gunboat for duty in the Caribbean, during which the ship participated in the 1916 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic. Kinkaid came under fire for the first time when the ship was fired upon from ashore. "Machias" replied with its machine guns. When one jammed, Kinkaid exposed himself to fire to assist in clearing the weapon. He fired it in response to gunfire against the ship. "Machias" returned home in December, and in February Kinkaid resumed his ordnance studies and went to Bausch & Lomb in Rochester, New York, where he studied the manufacture of spotting and fire control systems. In March he reported to the Washington Navy Yard, where he wrote a pamphlet on fire control. He also created a design for a human torpedo, but the Bureau of Ordnance decided that his concept was unsound. He completed his ordnance studies with tours at Bethlehem Steel, the Indian Head Naval Proving Ground and the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn.
In July 1916, Kinkaid reported to , the navy's newest battleship, as a gunfire spotter. He was promoted to lieutenant in January 1917. In November 1917, he was ordered to supervise the delivery of a newly developed rangefinder from the Norfolk Navy Yard to the Grand Fleet. On reaching London, Kinkaid reported to Sims, now a vice admiral, who then ordered Kinkaid to deliver secret documents to Admiral William S. Benson at a meeting with Allied naval leaders in Paris. Afterwards, Kinkaid returned to the United Kingdom and tested the rangefinder at on Whale Island, Hampshire. He visited optical works in London, York and Glasgow to study the British Royal Navy's rangefinders, and the Grand Fleet at its anchorages. On returning to the United States in January 1918, he visited Sperry Gyroscope and Ford Instruments to consult with them on fire control systems. Promoted to lieutenant commander in February 1918, he was posted to "Pennsylvania"s sister ship, . In May 1919, "Arizona" was sent to cover the Greek occupation of Smyrna. For his services from September 1918 to July 1919, Kinkaid was recommended for the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, but it was not awarded.
Between the wars.
Following the normal pattern of alternating assignments afloat and ashore, Kinkaid was posted to a shore billet as the Chief of the Supply Section of the Bureau of Ordnance in Washington D.C. During this time he published two articles in the United States Naval Institute magazine "Proceedings". The first, on the "Probability and Accuracy of Gun Fire", was a technical article arguing for more rather than bigger guns on battleships and cruisers. The Washington Naval Conference would prevent these ideas from being put into practice, by restricting the number and size of warships and their guns. The second, entitled "Naval Corps, Specialization and Efficiency", argued for increasing the specializations of line officers rather than creating separate corps of specialists, a more controversial topic at a time when naval aviators were agitating for the creation of a new specialist branch of their own.
In 1922, Kinkaid became Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander U.S. Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters, Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol. This tour saw the end of the Greek occupation of Smyrna. The ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne by Turkey resulted in a draw-down of U.S. naval forces in the region, reducing Bristol's post to a primarily diplomatic one. In 1924, Kinkaid, whose father had died in August 1920, requested a posting back to the United States owing to his mother's ill-health. The ship taking him back, the light cruiser , had to sail by way of Iran in order to collect the body of Vice Consul Robert Whitney Imbrie, who had been killed by an angry mob in Tehran.
Kinkaid received his first command, the destroyer , on 11 November 1924. Since its home port was the Philadelphia Navy Yard and ships' captains did not have to spend their nights on board, Kinkaid was able to live with Helen at her parents' residence in Philadelphia. In July 1925, he was assigned to the Naval Gun Factory. He was promoted to commander in June 1926. For the next two years, he served as Fleet Gunnery Officer and Aide to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, Admiral Henry A. Wiley. In 1929 and 1930, Kinkaid attended the Naval War College. This was followed by duty on the Navy General Board. He was then seconded to the State Department as a Naval Advisor at the Geneva Disarmament Conference.
Kinkaid next became executive officer of , one of the navy's newest battleships, in February 1933. By coincidence the ship was at anchor in Long Beach, California, when the 1933 Long Beach earthquake struck. Over the next few days thousands of sailors and marines participated in relief activities. Kinkaid convinced the captain to allow homeless families of crew members to stay on the ship, and erected tarpaulins on the quayside to create family areas. He sent medical and relief supplies ashore from "Colorado".
In 1934, he returned to Washington for a tour of duty with the Bureau of Navigation, in charge of the Officers' Detail Section. During this time, Kinkaid came up for promotion to captain. Classmates including Richmond K. Turner and Willis A. Lee were selected in January 1935, but Kinkaid was passed over for promotion. However, with the help of strong fitness reports from his superiors, Rear Admirals William D. Leahy and Adolphus Andrews, he was selected in January 1936 and, after passing the required physical and professional examinations, was promoted on 11 January 1937. Kinkaid was then given his second seagoing command, the heavy cruiser . He assumed command from Captain Henry K. Hewitt on 7 June 1937.
World War II.
Attaché.
Kinkaid hoped his next assignment would be that of naval attaché to London, but that job went to Captain Alan G. Kirk. Kinkaid was offered and accepted the post in Rome instead. He took up his posting there in November 1938. In 1939, he was also accredited with the American embassy in Belgrade. Kinkaid reported that Italy was unprepared for war. Only in May 1940 did he warn that Italy was mobilizing. Soon after, he learned from Count Galeazzo Ciano that Italy would declare war on France and Britain between 10 and 15 June 1940. He provided accurate reports on the damage inflicted by the British in the Battle of Taranto. He returned to the U.S. in March 1941.
Kinkaid now faced the prospect of selection to rear admiral. He knew that captains normally required a certain amount of seagoing command experience to be considered, but because his tour of duty on "Indianapolis" had been cut short in order to take up the post in Rome, he did not have enough months, and it was unlikely that a billet as captain of a battleship or cruiser would come up in sufficient time before the next round of selections. He discussed the matter with head of the Officers' Detail Section at the Bureau of Navigation, Captain Arthur S. Carpender, an Annapolis classmate who had himself recently been selected for flag rank. Carpender came up with a solution: he recommended Kinkaid for command of a destroyer squadron. This was a seagoing command, although Kinkaid was somewhat senior for it. Good fitness reports as commander of Destroyer Squadron 8, based in Philadelphia, resulted in Kinkaid's promotion to rear admiral in August 1941, despite having no more than two years' worth of total command experience. He became the last of his class to be promoted to flag rank before the United States entered the war. No one ranking lower in the class was promoted to flag rank before retirement.
Coral Sea and Midway.
Kinkaid was ordered to relieve Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher as commander of Cruiser Division 6, consisting of the heavy cruisers , "Minneapolis" and "San Francisco". This was part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, based at Pearl Harbor. He did not reach his new command until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S. into the war. When he reached Hawaii, Kinkaid stayed with his brother-in-law, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, who was married to Kinkaid's sister Dorothy. Kinkaid accompanied Fletcher as an observer during the attempt to relieve Wake Island, and did not formally assume command of the division until 29 December 1941.
The traditional job of cruisers was scouting and screening, but with the loss of most of the battleships at Pearl Harbor these roles largely passed to the aircraft carriers, while the cruisers' main mission became defending the carriers against air attack. Kinkaid's cruisers formed part of Rear Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch's Task Force 11, which was built around the carrier . Task Force 11 rendezvoused with Fletcher's Task Force 17, built around the carrier , on 1 May 1942. Kinkaid then became commander of the Task Group 17.2, the screening cruisers and destroyers of both carriers. Carrier warfare was in its infancy, and at this stage American carriers neither embarked adequate numbers of fighters, nor skillfully employed what they had. When Task Force 17 was attacked three days later in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the burden of defending the Task Force fell on Kinkaid's gunners. Their task was complicated by the radical maneuvering of the carriers under attack, which made it impossible for the screen to keep station. Despite the gunners' best efforts, both carriers were hit, and "Lexington" caught fire and sank. For his part in the battle, Kinkaid was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.
Kinkaid was detached with the cruisers "Astoria", "Minneapolis" and "New Orleans", and four destroyers on 11 May 1942 and sailed for Nouméa, while Fletcher took the rest of Task Force 17 to Tongatapu. Kinkaid then headed north to join the Vice Admiral William F. Halsey's Task Force 16. Kinkaid's force became part of its screen which was under the command of Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Shortly after Task Force 16 returned to Pearl Harbor, Halsey was hospitalized with a severe case of dermatitis and, on his recommendation, was replaced as commander of Task Force 16 by Spruance. Kinkaid then became commander of the screen, also known as Task Group 16.2. He was one of only four American flag officers present during the subsequent Battle of Midway. However, he saw little action, as Task Force 16 did not come under attack.
Solomon Islands.
After the battle, Spruance became chief of staff to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) and Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA). In Halsey's continued absence, Kinkaid became commander of Task Force 16, built around the carrier , although he was not an aviator, and his experience with carriers had been restricted to commanding their screens at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. In early July, Kinkaid was briefed by Nimitz about plans for a landing in the Solomon Islands, codenamed Operation Watchtower. For this operation, Kinkaid's Task Force 16 would be one of three carrier task forces under Fletcher's overall command. To protect his flagship, "Enterprise", Kinkaid had the battleship , heavy cruiser , antiaircraft cruiser , and five destroyers. The addition of the new battleship and its twenty /38 caliber dual-purpose guns greatly strengthened Task Force 16's antiaircraft defenses.
The American landing on Guadalcanal evoked a furious reaction from the Japanese, who sent their fleet to reinforce the Japanese garrison on Guadalcanal. Fletcher's carriers had the mission of protecting the sea lanes to the Solomons. The two carrier forces clashed in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Kinkaid disposed his carrier task force in a circular formation, with "Enterprise" at the center, the cruisers at 10 and 2 o'clock and the battleship aft at 6 o'clock. This proved to be a mistake. With a top speed of , the battleship fell behind the carrier when the latter accelerated to while under attack, depriving itself of the protection of the battleship's guns. "Enterprise" came under direct attack by Japanese aircraft, taking three bomb hits that killed 74 of its crew. Extraordinary efforts permitted the carrier to continue operating aircraft, but it was forced to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs. In his report after the battle, Kinkaid recommended that the number of fighters carried by each carrier be further increased. For his part in the battle, he was awarded his second Distinguished Service Medal.
Task Force 16 returned to the South Pacific in October 1942, just in time to take part in the decisive action of the campaign, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, when the Japanese Army and Navy made an all-out effort to recapture the airfield of Guadalcanal. In addition to "Enterprise", Kinkaid's force included the battleship "South Dakota", heavy cruiser "Portland", anti-aircraft cruiser "San Juan", and eight destroyers. Fortunately, both "Enterprise" and "South Dakota" had been fitted with the new Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. In the three early carrier battles, Kinkaid had been a subordinate commander. This time, he was in overall command, in charge of Task Force 61, which included both his own Task Force 16 and Rear Admiral George D. Murray's Task Force 17, built around the aircraft carrier . The battle unfolded badly. "Hornet" was sunk, and "Enterprise", "South Dakota" and "San Juan" were severely damaged. Aviators like Murray and John H. Towers blamed Kinkaid, as a non-aviator, for the loss of "Hornet". It became a black mark on Kinkaid's record. The Japanese had won another tactical victory, but Kinkaid's carriers had gained the Americans precious time to prepare and reinforce.
Aleutian Islands.
On 4 January 1943, Kinkaid became Commander of the North Pacific Force (COMNORPACFOR) following the failure of his predecessor, Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald, to work harmoniously with the U.S. Army. Command relationships in the North Pacific were complicated. Naval forces came under Fletcher's Northwestern Sea Frontier. The troops in Alaska, including Brigadier General William O. Butler's Eleventh Air Force, were commanded by Major General Simon B. Buckner, Jr., who was answerable to the head of the Western Defense Command, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt. Kinkaid's command was responsible for coordinating these forces and retaking the Aleutian Islands captured by the Japanese. He found the Army eager to cooperate, but encountered more difficulty with Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, the commander of the Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet, and later the IX Amphibious Force. Rockwell was an Academy classmate of Kinkaid's, who was senior to him in rank, and convinced that he would both plan and command the amphibious phase of the operation rather than Kinkaid.
The War Department's original plan was to attack the main force on Kiska Island, but it took Kinkaid's suggestion to bypass Kiska in favor of an assault on the less heavily defended Attu Island. Kinkaid moved his headquarters to Adak to be with those of Buckner and Butler, and at Buckner's suggestion established a joint mess where their two staffs ate meals together. However, the amphibious planning was done in San Diego by Rockwell and his U.S. Marine Corps advisor, Brigadier General Holland M. Smith. The Battle of Attu was only the third American amphibious operation of the war, and was carried through to a costly success under difficult conditions. The slow rate of progress ashore caused Kinkaid to relieve the Army commander, Major General Albert E. Brown and replace him with Major General Eugene M. Landrum. In June 1943, Kinkaid was promoted to vice admiral, thereby removing any lingering doubts about who was in charge, and awarded his third Distinguished Service Medal. He now prepared Operation Cottage, the much larger invasion of Kiska. This was carried out as planned, but the invaders found that the Japanese had already evacuated the islands. In September 1943, Kinkaid was replaced by Vice Admiral Frank Fletcher.
Southwest Pacific.
In November 1943, Kinkaid replaced Carpender as Commander Allied Naval Forces, Southwest Pacific Area, and the Seventh Fleet, known as "MacArthur's Navy". General Douglas MacArthur had twice requested Carpender's relief, and Kinkaid's record working with the Army in Alaska made him a logical choice. Australian newspapers hailed the appointment of a "fighting admiral", but neither MacArthur nor the Australian government had been consulted about the appointment, which was made by the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, Admiral Ernest King. This was a violation of the international agreement that had established the Southwest Pacific Area. The Navy Department then announced that the replacement of Carpender with Kinkaid was merely a proposal, and MacArthur and the Prime Minister of Australia, John Curtin, were asked if Kinkaid was acceptable. They agreed that he was. In his new role, Kinkaid had two masters. As commander of the Seventh Fleet, he was answerable to King, but as Commander Allied Naval Forces, Kinkaid was answerable to MacArthur. Operations were conducted on the basis of "mutual cooperation" rather than "unity of command", and relations between the Army and Navy were not good. Kinkaid was not the most senior naval officer in the theater, for the Royal Australian Navy's Admiral Sir Guy Royle and the Royal Netherlands Navy's Admiral Conrad Helfrich were both senior to him.
Despite the unpromising relationship with the army, Kinkaid's most troublesome subordinate was a U.S. Navy officer, as had been the case with Rockwell in the Aleutians. This time, the subordinate was Rear Admiral Ralph W. Christie, the commander of Task Force 71, the Seventh Fleet's submarines. Christie commonly greeted a returning submarine at the pier and awarded decorations on the spot. This practice bypassed military and naval award boards, and annoyed Kinkaid because confirmation of sinkings was accomplished by Ultra, and news of awards given so quickly could constitute a security breach. Kinkaid gave Christie and his other subordinates orders forbidding pierside awards, and the award of army medals to navy personnel. In June 1944, Christie accompanied a war patrol on Commander Samuel D. Dealey's submarine . Afterward, Christie met with MacArthur and related the events of the war patrol to the general, who decided to award Dealey the Distinguished Service Cross and Christie the Silver Star. When "Harder" was lost with Dealey and all hands on its next patrol, Christie recommended Dealey for the Medal of Honor. Kinkaid turned down the recommendation on the grounds that Dealey had already received the Distinguished Service Cross for the same patrol. Angered, Christie sent a dispatch to Kinkaid in an easily decipherable low-order code that criticized him and urged him to reconsider. Upset by both Christie's attitude and his losses, which included Dealey and Kinkaid's nephew, Lieutenant Commander Manning Kimmel on in July 1944, Kinkaid requested Christie's relief. On 30 December 1944, Christie was replaced by Captain James Fife Jr.
Other forces under Kinkaid's command included the cruisers of Task Force 74 under Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley, Task Force 75 under Russell S. Berkey, and Task Force 76, the VII Amphibious Force, under Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey. The main role of the Seventh Fleet was supporting MacArthur's drive along the northern coast of New Guinea with a series of 38 amphibious operations, usually directed by Barbey. Kinkaid accompanied MacArthur for the landing in the Admiralty Islands, where the two men came ashore a few hours after the assault troops. With 215 vessels involved, Operations Reckless and Persecution in April 1944 together constituted the largest operation in New Guinea waters. It was followed in quick succession by four more operations, at Wakde, Biak, Noemfor and Sansapor.
For MacArthur's long-awaited return to the Philippines in October 1944, the Seventh Fleet was massively reinforced by Nimitz's Pacific Fleet. Kinkaid commanded the assault personally, with Barbey's VII Amphibious Force as Task Force 78, joined by Vice Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson's III Amphibious Force from the Pacific Fleet as Task Force 79. Kinkaid was also given Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's Task Force 77.2, a bombardment force built around six old battleships that had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's Task Force 77.4, a force of escort carriers. However, Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher's Task Force 38, the covering force of the fast carriers and battleships, remained part of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet, which was not under MacArthur or Kinkaid's command.
Halsey's orders, which gave priority to the destruction of the Japanese fleet, led to the most controversial episode of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Four Japanese task forces converged on Kinkaid's forces in Leyte Gulf: a carrier task force under Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa, from the north; a force under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita through the Sibuyan Sea; and two task forces commanded by Vice Admirals Shōji Nishimura and Kiyohide Shima, which approached via the Surigao Strait. Carrier aircraft from Task Force 38 engaged Kurita in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, and forced him to withdraw. In a controversial decision, Halsey concluded that Kurita was no longer a threat and headed north after Ozawa's force but, due to a misunderstanding, Kinkaid believed that Halsey was still guarding the San Bernardino Strait. Kinkaid deployed all available Seventh Fleet vessels in the Surigao Strait under Oldendorf facing Nishimura and Shima.
In the Battle of the Surigao Strait that night, Kinkaid engaged the Japanese with his PT boats and Oldendorf's destroyers, cruisers and battleships. Oldendorf was able to "cross the T" of the enemy fleet. It was the last occasion in history where battleships fought each other. Of Nishimura's two battleships and five lesser ships, only the destroyer survived; Kinkaid's PT force lost only "PT-493", with 3 killed and 20 wounded. In Oldendorf's task force, only the destroyer was hit, mostly by friendly fire. Total Allied casualties were 39 men killed and 114 wounded.
However, the victory was marred when Kurita's force doubled back and engaged Sprague's escort carriers in the Battle off Samar the next day. Oldendorf's force headed back but Kurita withdrew after sinking an escort carrier, two destroyers and a destroyer escort. After the war, Halsey defended his actions in his memoirs. Kinkaid's position was that:
Following the demise of Japanese naval power in the region, Kinkaid's Seventh Fleet supported the land campaigns in the Philippines and the Borneo. Kinkaid was promoted to admiral on 3 April 1945. After the Pacific War ended in August 1945, the Seventh Fleet assisted in landing troops in Korea and northern China to occupy these areas and repatriate Allied prisoners of war. Kinkaid elected not to land troops at Chefoo as originally instructed because the city was in the hands of the Communist Eighth Route Army; Tsingtao was substituted instead. He was awarded the Legion of Merit by the theater commander in China, Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of Precious Tripod by the Chinese government.
Later life.
Kinkaid returned to the United States to replace Vice Admiral Herbert F. Leary as Commander Eastern Sea Frontier and Commander Sixteenth Fleet, making his home in the historic Quarters A, Brooklyn Navy Yard. He served on a board chaired by Fleet Admiral Halsey which also included Admirals Spruance, Towers and Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher, whose task was to nominate 50 of the 215 serving rear admirals for early retirement. Kinkaid was soon facing this fate himself, when the House Armed Services Committee sought to reduce the number of four-star rank officers in 1947. Kinkaid was one of three admirals, the others being Spruance and Hewitt, who would have to retire or be reduced in rank to rear admiral. After some lobbying, this was averted, and they were permitted to remain in the grade until 1 July 1950, past Kinkaid's retirement age. Retirement ceremonies, including a parade through New York City, were held on 28 April 1950 and Kinkaid formally retired two days later.
In December 1946, it was announced that Halsey, Spruance and Turner had been awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal. A message soon arrived from MacArthur stating that he could not see why Kinkaid should not merit the same award, which had been recommended by Krueger during the war. The medal was duly presented by General Courtney Hodges in a ceremony on Governors Island on 10 April 1947. The Australian government chose to honor Kinkaid with an honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath, which was presented by the ambassador at a ceremony at the embassy in Washington on Australia Day, 26 January 1948. Kinkaid had already been created Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1944. In March 1948, he was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold and presented with the Croix de guerre with Palm in a ceremony at the Belgian embassy in Washington, D.C.
He served as the naval representative with the National Security Training Commission from 1951 until it was abolished in 1957, and with the American Battle Monuments Commission for fifteen years, beginning in 1953. In this capacity, he attended the dedication of the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial, Rhone American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila American Cemetery and Memorial and the East Coast Memorial. He also paid a visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1951. Until 1961, he attended the annual reunions held to celebrate General MacArthur's birthday, 26 January, joining MacArthur and his old colleagues, including Krueger and Kenney. Kinkaid died at Bethesda Naval Hospital on 17 November 1972 and was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on 21 November. The Navy named a after him. was launched by his widow Helen at the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 1 June 1974.


Camp Hydle

Camp Hydle also called Drakes Bay Range was a large training center during World War II, located at Drakes Bay, on what is now Point Reyes National Seashore on the coast of northern California in the United States. The camp had several training sites: Camp Hydle, Drakes Bay Air to Ground Gunnery Range, Drakes Bay Dive Bombing Target, Camp Murphy's Ranch, Camp Hydle Maneuver Area, and Camp Hydle Skip and Dive Bombing Range. Also at the camp were landing craft training and air sea rescue training. The site was 10,532 acres of Marin County, California land on the West Coast of the United States. The complete area from Stinson Beach to the south and Dillon Beach to the north was called the Point Reyes Gunnery Range at Point Reyes. The Gunnery Range also included: two radar towers, horse stable, two lifeboat Stations, the Point Reyes Lighthouse, lookout towers, and land strafing targets (rake). The dive bomber airplanes came from Hamilton Army Airfield (AAF), Santa Rosa Army Airfield (AAF), and Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS). In addition to Drakes Bay the planes also training using the nearby Abbotts Lagoon, and Tomales Bay. The landing craft training used Limantour Beach and Limantour Spit. Anti-aircraft gun training was important training for the Pacific War. Camp Hydle base was inland 1/2 mile east of Limantour Beach. For gunner training planes towed targets across Drakes Bay. Ships also trained at the base, like the and . The Navy's Camp Hydle took over the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station during the war. The 50 men at the Station were air sea rescue pilots, dropping rafts to plane crew that landed in the ocean during training. The first troops arrived at the site on December 7, 1941. The site was also used as a coast defense spot, looking out for Japanese subs and ships. Most of the land was leased from Leland Murphy (Murphy Ranch), after the war in 1962, the site became Point Reyes National Seashore.


Battle of Stratton

The Battle of Stratton, also known as the Battle of Stamford Hill, took place on 16 May 1643, during the First English Civil War. In the battle, the Royalists destroyed Parliament's field army in Devon and Cornwall.
Background.
When the war started, Cornwall was generally supportive of the Royalist cause, while Devon and Somerset were sympathetic to Parliament, though significant opposition existed in both areas. In July 1642, King Charles named the Marquess of Hertford his Lieutenant General in the West, with Sir Ralph Hopton as his deputy. The Earl of Stamford was given command of Parliament's army in the West Country in January 1643, and appointed James Chudleigh his deputy.
At Sourton Down in April, Chudleigh captured letters ordering Hopton to join forces with the Marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice in Somerset. Hoping to destroy Hopton's army before the Royalists forces could combine, Stamford raised the largest army that he could by stripping Parliamentary garrisons throughout Devon and bringing in reinforcements from Somerset.
After Stamford had his army assembled and began to move into Cornwall, he sent most of his cavalry on a diversionary raid commanded by Sir George Chudleigh to attack the Royalist garrison at Bodmin and prevent Hopton from drawing on the Bodmin garrison to reinforce his army. The ploy seemed to work as ultimately Hopton was only able to assemble a Royalist force of 2,400 foot and 500 horse to counter Stamford's invasion force of 5,600. On 15 May, Stamford and the Parliamentarian army reached Stratton. Stamford deployed his infantry facing southwest along the top of a rectangular hill that ran from the northwest to the southeast.
Battle.
At 5:00 am on 16 May, Hopton attacked the hill by means of four widely spaced simultaneous assaults on the face of the hill. Each of the assault columns was composed of 600 foot and 2 guns. Hopton led the first column from the southeast, while Francis Bassett led a second column and attacked from the northwest. The final two columns led by Sir Bevil Grenville and Sir Nicholas Slanning operated as separate units and attacked from the southwest. In this manner, the Royalist columns focused the strength of their attacks at four particular places along a long and dispersed Parliamentary line. In reserve behind the four Royalist columns was their cavalry.
Close action fighting followed for the next eight hours, with determined efforts on both sides. With the Royalist troops running short of ammunition, the Parliamentarian pikemen under Major-General James Chudleigh charged Grenville's regiment. Grenville was knocked over and his troops shaken, but Sir John Berkeley's musketeers made a counter-attack that stopped the Parliamentarian momentum and began to push them back up the hill.
Against the odds, the Royalist troops pushed forward reaching the top of the hill before 4:00 pm. At that point the Parliamentarians gave way and Stamford's army fled the field. Three hundred Parliamentarian dead remained on the field, together with seventeen hundred prisoners. Royalist losses were estimated to be 90 men.
Aftermath.
James Chudleigh was taken prisoner and promptly defected to the Royalists. The Earl of Stamford retreated to Barnstaple and then to Exeter, blaming the defeat on Chudleigh. George Chudleigh abandoned the Bodmin campaign and returned to Exeter. In the end, Hopton had secured Cornwall for the King and would take control of most of Devonshire within a matter of days.


Convoy HX 237

HX 237 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX series which ran during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It was one of several convoy battles that occurred during the crisis month of May 1943.
Background.
HX 237 was an east bound convoy of 47 ships, plus local contingents, which sailed from New York on 1 May 1943 bound for Liverpool and carrying war materials. Convoy commodore was Capt. R Gill RNR in "Pacific Enterprise".
Mid-Ocean Escort Force group C2 joined the convoy from St Johns on 7 May. Escort group C2 was led by Cdr EH Chavasse in destroyer "Broadway"; other ships of this group were frigate "Lagan" and three corvettes. These were joined on the same day by a Support Group, SG 5, comprising escort carrier "Biter" and four destroyers.
Arrayed against them in the North Atlantic were the patrol lines "Rhein", "Elbe" and "Drossel", though although in the event only "Rhein" and "Drossel", comprising 19 U-boats, engaged HX 237.
Action.
First contact was made on 9 May by "U-359", which called up other boats from "Rhein" and commenced shadowing. "U-359" was attacked by an escort, and lost contact, but the following day, 10 May, contact was regained by "U-454". She also was driven off, by aircraft from "Biter", but by evening a number of U-boats from both groups were in contact and began their attack. These were unable to penetrate the escort screen, though three ships that had become separated were sunk; the Liberty ship "Fort Concord", sunk by "U-403" and "U-456" in the early hours of 11 May; the Norwegian tanker "Sandanger", sunk by "U-221" on 12 May, and Norwegian freighter "Brand", sunk by "U-603" on the night of 12/13 May.
On 12 May "U-89" was sighted by a Swordfish from "Biter" and destroyed by "Broadway"
and "Lagan". Later the same day HX 237 came within range of Coastal Command aircraft, and "Biter" and her group detached to go to the aid of SC 129, which was coming under attack 200 miles to the south-west.
That night "U-456" was attacked by a Liberator flying at long range. The aircraft used FIDO, a new and secret homing torpedo, on the rapidly diving U-boat; she was damaged, but was able to surface and drive off the aircraft with anti-aircraft fire. The Liberator was able to summon help, however, and the next morning the destroyer "Opportune" found "U-456" and attacked. The U-boat crash-dived, but was not seen again; it was later presumed she had been fatally damaged by the aircraft attack, the first instance of a U-boat being sunk by FIDO.
On 13 May "U-753" was found and attacked by a Sunderland, but the U-boat chose not to dive to escape, driving off the aircraft with flak. The Sunderland commenced circling and summoned help, which came in the form of "Lagan" and "Drumheller". As "U-753" dived away the Sunderland attacked with depth charges, followed by depth charges from the two ships. Nothing more was heard from "U-753" and post-war analysis credited the aircraft and two ships with her destruction.
With these losses, and little success in breaching the convoy's defences, BdU called off the attack.
HX 237 continued without further interference and arrived at Liverpool on 17 May 1943.
Aftermath.
HX 237 was seen as a success by the Allies. Three ships had been lost, but 38 ships arrived safely; another four had been forced to return and two had detached to other destinations.
In return, three U-boats had been destroyed, though two of these were unconfirmed at the time. Several others had been damaged and forced to return to base. The convoy was another in a series of set-backs suffered by the U-boat Arm, collectively known as Black May.


Operation Dexterity

Operation Dexterity was a military operation, part of Operation Cartwheel in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) for the Allies in the Pacific theater of World War II. The operation was directed by the Supreme Allied Commander in the SWPA, General Douglas MacArthur. Dexterity included amphibious landings at Arawe on 15 December 1943, and Cape Gloucester on 26 December 1943 in the northwest of New Britain, the capture of the Imperial Japanese held Tuluvu aerodrome on the 30 December 1943 and the amphibious landing at Saidor on 2 January 1944. The operation ended on 10 February 1944.
History and planning.
The Empire of Japan had largely achieved its objectives in the Pacific region in the spring of 1942, with almost the entire area between Burma and the Bismarck Archipelago under Japanese control. Further Japanese offensives against the Allied lines were planned to force them into a single decisive battle and then request negotiations for their surrender. The initial Japanese offensive failed during the Battle of Midway in June 1942 and subsequently the Japanese attempt to also capture Port Moresby in New Guinea collapsed, ending the Japanese offensive run in the Pacific theater of operations for the rest of the war. The allies in the South Pacific began their first counter-offensive against the Japanese-held island Guadalcanal in August 1942 and the Japanese forces were forced onto the defensive.
To keep the Japanese cowed and begin the Allied advance towards the Japanese home islands, the Allied military leadership envisaged an advance through the Pacific over two main lines of attack. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz would lead Allied forces in the Pacific and General Douglas MacArthur would advance Allied operations against the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific. Landings along the coast of New Guinea were planned which constituted the first step towards a return to the Philippines and the conquest of the Gilbert Islands. The operation in New Guinea was known as Operation Cartwheel which began on 30 June 1943 with the objective to conquer New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Rabaul. Until mid-September 1943, the fighting focused on the eastern part of New Guinea, while a decision was made on 22 September 1943 to land in West New Britain.
Operation Dexterity was to be conducted in three separate phases:
Geography and Environment.
Like most of the islands of the South Pacific, the Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago are of volcanic origin with steep mountain slopes, jungle and treacherous marshes, where malaria was a problem for all deployed troops. The hot, tropical climate was rarely ameliorated by the torrential rain storms and dense clouds which afflicted the region. The inhabited islands had been managed by Australia as a League of Nations Mandate before the war, and there was only a settlement of Westerners originally settled by Imperial Germany before the First World War that was centered on coconut plantations and missionary complexes.
The Japanese on New Britain.
The high command of the 8th Area Army of the Japanese Imperial Army in Rabaul controlled the Japanese actions in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Bismarck Islands. In January 1942, the Japanese had taken the strategically important port of Rabaul in northeastern New Britain and in subsequent months the largest and most important Japanese naval and air base in the Pacific was constructed at that location. The 8th Area Army was commanded by General Hitoshi Imamura who had at his disposal nearly 200,000 men. In early 1943, the Japanese leadership had expected that the Allies would attempt to break the inner Japanese defensive belt in the Pacific and attack the bases on New Guinea, the Mariana Islands, Palau and the Philippines. General Imamura therefore foresaw an attack on New Britain, at the latest after the Allies had occupied New Ireland, which was expected in February or March 1944.
The 8th Area Army relied exclusively on barge and submarine traffic from Rabaul to New Guinea, because of Allied air superiority. In September 1943, Major General Iwao Matsuda took over the 65th Brigade, the various pioneers and debarkation units, and a number of troops of the 51st Division, whose main units were on New Guinea in the fight against Australian troops. Two companies of 115th Division and provisional infantry companies formed from artillery and engineer elements of the 66th Division, and about half of the 51st Reconnaissance Regiment belonged to General Matsuda's command. General Matsuda, a highly experienced officer, established his headquarters near the airfield of Cape Gloucester. On 5 October 1943, all of Matsuda's units came under the command of the 17th Division which was commanded by Lieutenant General Yasushi Sakai, who had arrived in December 1943 from the Japanese theater of operations in China.
General Sakai set up his headquarters at Malalia in the vicinity of Cape Hoskins on the East Williaumez Peninsula. The 17th Division's troops began immediately ordering the expansions of the defensive lines. The Japanese headquarters was established in an existing concrete bunker at the foot of Talawe Mountain, which was surrounded by dense, tropical vegetation. Smaller bunkers and shelters for machine gun positions were sited at possible Allied landing beaches five miles southeast of Cape Gloucester. Two hills known later as "Target-Hill" and "Hill 660" served as focal points for the Japanese defenses. Thus about half of all available Japanese troops in the west of the island were in positions that could effectively contribute to the defense of Cape Gloucester.
On 12 December 1943, General Yasushi Sakai advised all commanders of his units about an imminent Allied invasion. The large volumes of Allied landing ships along the ports of New Guinea did not convince the Japanese of the scheduled operations of Allied forces. False invasion alarms were commonplace up to the end of 1943. With the Allies' air superiority increasing, the bombing of Rabaul and Wewak brought the realization that the invasion of New Britain was imminent.
Preparatory actions.
Reconnaissance.
Two days after the decision to proceed with the operation was taken by the Allied commanders, the US 6th Army's Alamo Scouts began to deploy in the area of Cape Gloucester. They neared the coast by torpedo boat, then transferred to dinghies and landed on the beaches. From there they reconnoitered the Japanese defenses by direct observations or through contact with the local aboriginal population of New Britain.


Thomas Claw

Thomas Claw (February 23, 1922 – May 26, 2009) was an American Navajo Code Talker during World War II. He served with the 1st Marine Division throughout the Pacific theater during the war.
Claw was born in Chinle, Arizona, on February 23, 1922. He attended Fort Wingate High School before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps on March 13, 1943, in Phoenix, Arizona. Claw, who was fluent in Navajo, was sent to Camp Pendleton to be trained as a code talker.
Claw served with the 1st Marine Division as a code talker throughout World War II. He was stationed in Australia, New Caledonia, New Britain, the Solomon Islands, Palau and the Ryukyu Islands.
Claw moved to Parker, Arizona, with his wife, Barbara, following the end of World War II and his departure from the Marines. He worked as a water master for the Colorado River Indian Irrigation Project, a program run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for approximately twenty years.
Thomas Claw died of cancer at the Northern Arizona VA Health Care Center in Prescott, Arizona, on May 26, 2009, at the age of 87. He was survived by his wife, Barbara Claw and their children Carolyn Hammond, Renold Claw, Pauline James, Harold Claw and Gloria Claw. Claw's death came less than a week after the death of another Navajo Code Talker, John Brown, Jr.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley signed a proclamation ordering all flags lowered to half staff until Claw's funeral stating, "Just as we bade farewell to one of our honored Code Talkers, we sadly hear of the loss of another. It is with deep regret that we learned of the passing of Navajo Code Talker Thomas Claw, another of our distinguished warriors from World War II."


Victory Shipbuilding

Victory Shipbuilding was a shipbuilding company in Newport Beach, California. To support the World War 2 demand for ships Victory Shipbuilding built: Tugboats and two sub chasers. Victory Shipbuilding opened in 1943. After World War 2, the shipyard closed. The shipyard was located at 613 Pacific Coast Hwy, Newport Beach. This was one of the few shipyards not on the waterfront.
Tugboats.
Victory Shipbuilding built small harbor tugboats for the US Army in 1943 and 1944. The tugs had a length of , a depth of , a beam of , and measured and . The tugs were numbered from MTL 1222 to MTL 1257. MTL was the hull classification symbol for Motor Launch Tugs.
Submarine chaser.
Victory Shipbuilding built two submarine chasers that were of the design that had a displacement of 94 tons with a length of , a beam of , a draft of , a top speed of . They had a crew of 28. Power was provided by two General Motors, Electro-Motive Division, 16-184A diesel engines, and two propellers. They were armed with one Bofors 40 mm gun, two Browning M2 .50 cal.
machine guns, two depth charge projector "Y guns", and two depth charge tracks.


British Liberation Army

The British Liberation Army (BLA) was the official name given to the British Army forces which fought on the Western Front of World War II between the Invasion of Normandy and the end of the war. Almost all BLA units were assigned to the 21st Army Group, which also included forces from other countries.
Following the war the BLA was redesignated to become the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in August 1945.


Clyde W. Wood

Clyde W. Wood was a shipbuilding company in Stockton, California. To support the World War 2 demand for ships Clyde W. Wood built: tugboats, and US Army barges. Clyde W. Wood started as a construction company paving asphalt and concrete slabs. In 1941 the company opened a small emergency shipyard. The yard first built barges and then tugs for the Army. After World War 2, the shipyard closed in 1945. The yard was located at 1805 Harbor Street, Stockton, the current location of the Penny Newman Grain Terminal. The shipyard was on the Stockton Channel on the deepwater port on the Stockton Ship Channel of the Pacific Ocean and an inland port located more than seventy nautical miles from the ocean, on the Stockton Channel and San Joaquin River-Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel (before it joins the Sacramento River to empty into Suisun Bay.
US Army Barge BCS.
The first US Army Dry Cargo Barge was delivered in 1942, number BCS 211 at a length of 46 feet. Clyde W. Wood delivered 25 of the 46-foot barges. BCS for Barge Cargo Small. These were used to ferry to shore cargo from cargo ships and transport ships arriving at the sallow port theaters of war.
US Army Tugboats.
The first US Army Small Harbor Tugboat was delivered in 1944, number TP 97 at a length of 96 feet. Clyde W. Wood delivered 10 tugboats. The tugs had a 183 gross tonnage, a 124 net tonnage, a beam of 24,6 feet, and a draft of 11.5 feet. TP is for "Tug/Passenger". The US Army for World War II had a fleet of 43 small wooden-hulled diesel-powered harbor tugs built.
US Army Barge BC.
The first US Army 130-foot Dry Cargo Barge was delivered in 1944, number BC 2814 at a length of 130 feet. Clyde W. Wood delivered 120 of the 130-foot barges. BC for Barge Cargo Medium.
References.
[[Category:American Theater of World War II]]
[[Category:1940s in California]]
[[Category:American boat builders]]
[[Category:Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States]]