Henry E. Eccles
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Henry Effingham Eccles (born in
Bayside, New York Bayside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, the Long Island Sound and Little Neck Bay to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south, and Fresh Meado ...
, on December 31, 1898 - died May 14, 1986 in Needham, Massachusetts) was a Rear Admiral in the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and a major figure at the
Naval War College The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associ ...
in
Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
from the late 1940s through the 1970s, as a thinker and writer on naval logistics and military theory.


Early life and education

The son of an Episcopal priest, the Reverend George Warrington Eccles, and his wife Lydia Lawrence, he was initially educated privately at home by his parents and later sent to Trinity School in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, before enrolling as an undergraduate at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. After one year at Columbia, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating with the class of 1922.


Naval career

After his first assignments to battleships, Eccles attended Submarine School and served in two submarines before being ordered to Columbia University, where he earned a Master of Science degree in
mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...
in 1930. He commanded two submarines, then served as Engineer and Repair Officer at the Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut; then served for nearly three years as engineer in the heavy cruiser and two years in the Design Construction Division of the
Bureau of Engineering The Bureau of Steam Engineering was a bureau of the United States Navy, created by the act of 5 July 1862, receiving some of the duties of the former Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair. It became, by the Naval Appropriation Act of 4 June ...
in the Navy Department, Washington, D.C. In 1940, he was ordered to command the destroyer on the
Asiatic Station The Asiatic Squadron was a squadron of United States Navy warships stationed in East Asia during the latter half of the 19th century. It was created in 1868 when the East India Squadron was disbanded. Vessels of the squadron were primarily inv ...
, based in the Philippines. He was in command when the Japanese simultaneously attacked Pearl Harbor as well as American and British positions in Southeast Asia on December 7, 1941. He and his ship participated in the
battle of Badung Strait The Battle of Badung Strait was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the night of 19/20 February 1942 in Badung Strait (not to be confused with the West Java city of Bandung) between the American-British-Dutch-A ...
, and shortly after, while assigned to the
American-British-Dutch-Australian Command The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allies of World War II, Allied forces in South East Asia in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II. The command consists of ...
(ABDA), the
battle of the Java Sea The Battle of the Java Sea ( id, Pertempuran Laut Jawa, ja, スラバヤ沖海戦, Surabaya oki kaisen, Surabaya open-sea battle, Javanese : ꦥꦼꦫꦁ​ꦱꦼꦒꦫꦗꦮ, romanized: ''Perang Segara Jawa'') was a decisive naval battle o ...
. Wounded in action, Eccles was later awarded the
Navy Cross The Navy Cross is the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps' second-highest military decoration awarded for sailors and marines who distinguish themselves for extraordinary heroism in combat with an armed enemy force. The medal is eq ...
, the Silver Star, and The Netherlands Order of the Bronze Lion. After recovering from his wounds, Eccles served in the Base Maintenance Division in the
Office of the Chief of Naval Operations An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...
in 1942-43, where he helped to coordinate logistics planning for all advanced bases. After attending the command course at the
Naval War College The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associ ...
, he was promoted to captain and assigned for the final two years of the war to be the Director of the Advance Base Section, Service Force at the headquarters of the
U.S. Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor ...
in Hawaii. In this key position, Eccles coordinated the planning, construction, and support of advance bases in the Central Pacific, a critical aspect of the American island-hopping strategy in the war against Japan. For his service in this capacity, he received the Legion of Merit. Immediately after the conclusion of the war, the Navy Department assigned Eccles to the Joint Operations Review Board, a group of officers from all services assigned to evaluate joint operations during World War II. From that posting, he went on to command the battleship . In 1947, the
President of the Naval War College The president of the Naval War College is a flag officer in the United States Navy. The President's House in Newport, Rhode Island is their official residence. The office of the president was created along with the Naval War College as a whol ...
, then Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, selected Eccles to be the first Chairman of the College’s newly established Logistics Department, an area that Spruance and others felt had been neglected in professional naval thinking during the period between the two world wars. While in that position from 1947 to 1951, Eccles wrote his first book, ''Operational Naval Logistics'' (1950), a manual for the United States Navy that was a pioneering work on the fundamentals of his subject. He left the Naval War College in 1951 with orders to be Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics to the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean (CINCNELM) with headquarters in London and, simultaneously, Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics, to NATO’s Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe (CINCSOUTH), with headquarters in
Naples, Italy Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
.


Retirement Years

Eccles retired from active duty in the Navy on June 30, 1952 and was promoted to rear admiral on the retired list. Returning to his home in
Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
, he was closely associated with the
Naval War College The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associ ...
, where he served unofficially as a confidante and advisor to successive presidents of the College as well as an instructor for elective courses on military theory, principles of logistics, and international relations. During this period, he was also a stimulating force for the Naval War College faculty and wrote several major works. When he left Newport in 1985 to enter a retirement home in Needham, Massachusetts, the Naval War College honored him by naming its library in his honor. Henry Eccles died in Needham a year later on May 14, 1986.


Awards


Published works

*''Operational Naval Logistics'' (1950) *''Logistics in the National Defense'' (1959, 1981, 1997) *''Military Concepts and Philosophy'' (1965) *''Military Power in a Free Society'' (1979)


References

* Eveleyn Cherpak, ''Register of the Henry E. Eccles Papers'' (Newport: Naval War College, Naval Historical Collection, 1988)


External links


Oral History by Rear Admiral Henry E. EcclesReminiscences of Mrs Isabel Eccles

To the Java Sea: Selections from the Diary, Letters, and Reports of Henry E. Eccles, 1940-42
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eccles, Henry E. 1898 births 1986 deaths People from Queens, New York United States Naval Academy alumni Naval War College alumni Naval War College faculty United States Navy rear admirals Recipients of the Navy Cross (United States) Recipients of the Silver Star Recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the Bronze Lion