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NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2007 25
Diamonds
LETTERS to the editor should letters, we cannot publish all of your
always be accompanied by the correspondence in Navy News.
correspondent’s name and We look particularly for corre-
address, not necessarily for spondence which stimulates
publication. debate, makes us laugh or raises
E-mail correspondents are important issues.
also requested to provide Please try to keep your
are forever
this information. submissions as brief as
Letters cannot be possible – our space is
submitted over the limited.
telephone. The editor reserves
Given the impres- the right to edit your
sive volume of submissions.
RFA Mounts Bay and
Daring-class destroyer HMS
Diamond both featured in
September’s Navy News.
What unforgettable memories
those names have for me.
I served aboard the Chatham-
based frigate Mounts Bay (F627)
on the Far East Station from July
1949 to March 1951.
I was 17 years of age when I
joined her and 19 when I left.
What a grand ship she was. I was
very fond of her.
In April 1952, I and the rest of
the newly-drafted Chatham-based
ship’s company left Chatham
Dockyard aboard a specially-
chartered steam train bound for
Glasgow to commission a brand-
new Daring-class destroyer, HMS
Diamond (D35) at John Brown’s
shipyard, Govan.
On arrival we unpacked our
kitbags and hammocks from the
train and marched up the gangway
and saluted the quarterdeck.
What a smart ship she was and
so different from all the other
destroyers in the Fleet.
I spent 18 months aboard her
and enjoyed every minute.
In Leith in mid-August I was
● HMS Diamond photographed
amazed to see a magnificent,
in 1962
gigantic RFA, her blue ensign flut-
again I saw in my mind’s eye all Proud
tering proudly in the breeze, and
those lads I knew all those years
wondered what her name was?
ago.
I wandered along the jetty, she
I shall never forget that feeling.
to be a
was berthed port-side to. And now, the new Diamond
Then I saw her name – Mounts will soon be commissioned, like
volunteer
Bay! I was transfixed. I was stood her much-remembered predeces-
there and my eyes filled with sor, at Govan. IN HIS eagerness to scuttle the
tears. Wonderful! ‘Wavy Navy’ and consign another
It was very emotional and it – Lt Joe Bowden (Retd) chapter of our naval heritage to
made my day. As I read that name Yatton, North Somerset the bin Lt Clifford (CCF) (Letters,
August) misses the point.
Neither the ACF nor the ATC
Fairey’s rotors
can draw upon such an iconic
image as the RNVR – the essence
of the volunteer.
That’s a naval tradition worth
I WAS involved, in a small way, in the trials carried out in USS Antietam
passing on to the next generation.
in July 1953 which Reg Gale refers to in his letter (September).
In the Sea Cadet Corps we wear
At the time I was the winchman of 771 Squadron ASR flight,
the RNVR ‘wavy lace’ with pride.
operating from RNAS Ford with Sikorsky S51 Dragonfly helicopters.
– Lt Cdr Roger Busby, RNR,
The pilot was Lt Jones. Although the flight had two choppers, Lt Jones
Sea Cadet HQ, London
and I were the only crew.
On July 2 we were in the area of the trials in a safety role, in case any of
...I FOR one am proud to wear the
the many other choppers carrying VIPs to the ship got into difficulties.
wavy lace, and I am sure that many
Fortunately our expertise was not required.
of my colleagues would agree with
– W G Ellis (former Ldg Tel(F)), Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire
me.
...WITH reference to Mr Copson’s letter (September) the MV-22 tilts
We, like the RNVR, give our
the rotors (and engines) through 90 degrees to go from vertical take-off time and enthusiasm free and so
to horizontal fl ight. continue the proud traditions of
The Fairey Rotodyne did not have a tilting rotor, the rotor was only the RNVR.
used for take off and landing. Forward motion was by the two main – Sub Lt (SCC) Tony Ingham
engines with conventional propellers. RNR, TS Euryalus, Oxford Sea
– W E Jones, Abergavenny Cadet Corps
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