On This Day ... in 1672 & Others
Having patrolled the North Sea without persuading the Dutch fleet to accept battle, the Anglo-French fleet under the Duke of York and the Comte d'Estrees had retired to anchorage off Sole Bay to replenish supplies and take on reinforcements. The Earl of Sandwich, commanding the rear squadron, was uncomfortable at their exposed situation, but his request to stand off to sea were refused.
On the morning of 28 May, a French frigate appeared, pursued by the Dutch fleet. It is a measure of the lack of preparedness of the allies that the Duke of York's flagship, Prince, was heeled over for bottom-scrubbing. Nevertheless, the fleet weighed anchor in great confusion and attempted to form up for battle. The situation was not helped by the French squadron, lying to the south, deciding to steer south - it was supposed to be the lead squadron and perhaps assumed the rest of the fleet would follow and form up on it. Instead, the two English squadrons steered north-east, straight for the Dutch. Bankert's Zeeland squadron detached from the Dutch formation to hold off the French.
The confused situation suited the Dutch, who tactically preferred close-quarter melee and boarding action, given their inferior weight of artillery. The Earl of Sandwich's squadron, now finding itself in the lead, was the first into action, against van Ghent's northernmost Dutch squadron. The Duke of York's squadron engaged de Ruyter's main body about an hour later, and was roughly handled by the Dutch, Prince being the target for several opponents. Prince was eventually forced out of the line and the Duke transferred his flag to Sir Robert Holmes' St Michael. Before the end of the battle, he had to transfer his flag yet again, to London, after St Michael in turn suffered too much damage to stay in action. Another of the major ships in the Duke's squadron, Royal Katharine, was cut off by the Dutch and overwhelmed by boarding parties. However, her surviving crew, led by the bosun, later managed to break free, defeat the prize crew and take possession of the ship once more.
The Earl of Sandwich's flagship, Royal James, suffered even more heavily than Prince. Fighting a crowd of smaller Dutch ships, she lost her masts and one Dutch ship, Groot Hollandia, managed to get across her stern, causing heavy casualties at point blank range. The Earl wanted to lead a boarding party across the stern, but was dissuaded since that would have stripped the ship of her surviving gun-crews, who were still managing to hold the other Dutch at bay, killing Admiral van Ghent in the process. By dropping a sea anchor, Royal James managed to break free from the embrace of Groot Hollandia, but a Dutch fireship then emerged from the smoke and struck her. Royal James went down ablaze, taking with her most of her crew and the Earl. Nearby, Henry was cut off and briefly captured by the Dutch before other ships came to her aid and retook her. The Dutch in turn suffered two losses, Stavoren drifting out of control into the English formation and being captured, and Josua sunk by gunfire.
With the French slowly returning from the south, where they had been skilfully held off by Bankert, and night falling, the Dutch broke off action, losing one more ship to fire during the night. Both sides had suffered very heavy damage and casualties among their crews, perhaps 2,500 men on each side. Royal James was the only complete loss for the allies, against three lesser Dutch ships, but six major English ships had been forced out of the action; both sides claimed victory.
1673: A year after Sole Bay, the Anglo-French fleet of 76 ships, now under Prince Rupert and the Comte d'Estrees, sought battle with the Dutch force of 52 vessels under de Ruyter that was sheltering in the Schooneveld basin at the mouth of the Scheldt. Given the shoal waters off the coast that favoured the Dutch vessels with their shallower draft, Rupert sent in an advanced frigate and fireship squadron, following up with the main squadrons. The Dutch left the safety of the shoals to meet them, Tromp's van squadron, outnumbered two to one, engaging the frigates and Prince Rupert squadron, while de Ruyter took on the French squadron, and Banckert fought against Sir Edward Spragge's rear squadron. Tromp's ships did well to hold their own against Rupert, despite suffering heavy damage; Tromp had to transfer his flag three times as successive flagships were forced out of action. De Ruyter outmanoeuvred his French opponents and managed to bring part of his force south to help the heavily outnumbered Banckert. Although the action lasted some nine hours, the allies failed to score a decisive victory over the Dutch; one Dutch ship, Deventer, was briefly captured by the French Foudroyant, before being retaken, and another, Jupiter, suffered critical damage stopping an English fireship attack.
1940: Following the heavy air attacks the previous day, the Luftwaffe was much less active over Dunkirk, low cloud combining with the huge pall of smoke from the devastated town to hamper visibility significantly. British and French engineers worked ceaselessly to reopen the port, finally achieving success in the early hours of the following morning.
1982: At Goose Green in East Falkland, the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment fought an engagement with superior Argentine forces defending the settlement, the airstrip, and nearby Darwin. The attack began in darkness in the early hours, and initially made good progress. However, it then ran into strong defensive positions around Darwin. Lieutenant Colonel H Jones, 2 Para's Commanding Officer, was killed as he charged a machine-gun post. Eventually, the Argentine defence was broken, and some 1,250 prisoners taken. Lieutenant Colonel Jones was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Comments
Goose Green, a schoolfriend of mine was cut down by 20mm fire trying to recover an LMG dropped when the gunner was wounded. He is buried in Blue Beach cemetary, RIP Mark Holman Smith.
Posted by: TimC | May 28, 2008 9:58 AM
Having passed the half-century mark, this military history geek still has much to learn. For instance, I have long been aware of the fact that my ancestral land fought a war with the Dutch (also a land of my ancestors, as it happens); I had somehow managed to make it this far unaware that that folly was compounded by fighting it allied to the French.
Posted by: D.W. Drang | May 28, 2009 10:29 AM