2 NAVY NEWS, APRIL 2008
HMS Ark Royal
HMS Bulwark
HMS Albion
HMS Cornwall
RFA Mounts Bay
42 Cdo
45 Cdo
HMS Roebuck
HMS Walney HMS Dasher
HMS Pursuer
HMS Exeter 40 Cdo/Vikings/
HMS Somerset
846 NAS/FSMASU
HMS Sabre/Scimitar
Northern Diving Group
539 ASRM
HMS Illustrious
HMS Westminster
RFA Wave Knight
HMS Argyll
RFA Largs Bay HMS Chiddingfold
HMS Atherstone
HMS Edinburgh
HMS Campbeltown
HMS Blyth
HMS Ramsey
RFA Argus
RFA Bayleaf
RFA Cardigan Bay
HMS Nottingham
FASLANE
ROSYTH
HMS Sceptre
HMS Monmouth
HMS Gannet
HMS Shoreham
845 NAS
HMS Clyde
HMS Raider
HMS Ledbury
HMS Endurance
Plus one ballistic missile submarine on patrol somewhere beneath the Seven Seas
DEVONPORT
RFA Sir Bedivere
PORTSMOUTH
HMS Liverpool
● A rare moment of serenity for HMS Walney (right) as
FFleet Focusleet Focus
she hands fl agship duties back to HMS Roebuck (left)
in the Danish port of Grenaa
PHEW. We’re amazed we managed to squeeze everything
on to our map this month.
Yes the public and press may care little, but the men and
women of the Senior Service have been exceptionally busy this
spring.
Their efforts seem to be split between extremes of temperature.
We’ll begin where it’s cold.
A sizeable task force and Royal Marine presence could
be found clustered around Narvik and Harstad for Armatura
Borealis: HM Ships Albion, Bulwark, Cornwall and Ark Royal,
plus RFA Mounts Bay, and the green berets of 42 and 45
Commandos were all involved in the Allied winter war games
(see pages 25-28).
Those war games fortuitously coincided with the discovery by
the Norwegians of the wartime destroyer HMS Hunter, lost near
Narvik in 1940. Sixty-eight years later, the British and Norwegian
navies paid their respects to her (see page 23).
Ice and snow are not, of course, the preserve of the Northern
Hemisphere. HMS Endurance welcomed Britain’s second most
senior naval officer who paid a rare visit to the ice survey ship on
operations around Antarctica (see page 22).
A short distance (relatively speaking) away, destroyer HMS
Nottingham popped to South Georgia before heading to the
warmth of Rio (see pages 8-9).
It can be cold in Scotland too (despite what we said in these
pages a couple of months ago) as we found on a visit to Britain’s
No.1 Search And Rescue unit, HMS Gannet (see pages 16 and
17). Gannet’s Sea Kings were also called upon during a joint
exercise with HMS Shoreham, which was paying a visit to
nearby Ayr (see page 4).
Minehunter HMS Walney stepped into the shoes of HMS
Roebuck on NATO duties in the Kattegat and Skagerrak (see
right) and possibly wished she hadn’t as storm after storm lashed
her for the better part of a month.
Right, that’s enough of the cold, time for the warmth. The RN
is back in charge of Combined Task Force 158 in the northern
Gulf... to which HMS Campbeltown is attached. She’s taken
over from HMS Argyll, currently enjoying the Egyptian sun after a
mammoth patrol aided by RFAs Argus and Bayleaf. At the tip of
the Gulf, RFA Cardigan Bay is training Iraqi sailors and marines,
while HMS Blyth and Ramsey have been operating alongside
the Kuwaitis and Americans. Turn to page 7 for a round-up of
AAal’al’ss well that ends well well that ends well
operations in and around the Gulf.
Gulf-bound is the Orion 08 task force. Flagship HMS Illustrious
belatedly made it to Malta (see page 10), accompanied by
IF THE sailors of HMS Walney Group 1, which includes cocktail parties and had Batt prematurely and the small
frigate HMS Westminster which has been blasting away with
were expecting a quiet winter, well HMS Hurworth, over the the honour of leading the ships returned to the sanctuary of
her Seawolf missiles (see page 11). Destroyer HMS Edinburgh
they didn’t get one. weeks to come from their Allied warships into the port.
broke off from the task group to tackle piracy (see page 4) and
With barely a week’s notice, the new fl agship. Danish port of Aalborg. The good news about Aut
also operating semi independently are HMS Atherstone and
Sandown-class warship was asked The task force had The town welcomed Batt’s demise, however, was that
Chiddingfold; the latter paid her respects to one of the doyens
to stand in for HMS Roebuck on a fairly punishing the visiting sailors Walney could return to Faslane as
of the RN clearance diving branch (see pages 4 and 23).
NATO duties in Norway and the schedule which with open arms… Roebuck returned to the force to
In the Med, HMS Somerset has been hunting submarines (with
Baltic for a month. waited for no man and Walney learned resume her fl agship duties.
varying degrees of success – see page 5) while destroyer HMS
The Faslane-based mine – irrespective of that Aalborg was very The bad news was that as soon
Exeter enjoyed the high life in Monaco before being given a rare
countermeasures vessel was weather. much a ‘sailors’ town’, as she sailed for home, she sailed
glimpse inside a former top secret Soviet submarine base in the
readying herself for impending And if you think not least thanks to one into the teeth of a storm. Gusts
Crimea (see page 6).
Neptune Warrior war games and we’ve had a pretty street which boasted battering the ship exceeded 50kts
845 NAS are gearing up for Afghanistan courtesy of some
a package of pre-deployment rotten winter here in 198 clubs, pubs and at times.
training in Snowdonia (see page 13). They will be joining their
training. Blighty, well it’s been far restaurants. With the wind, the ship made
Commando Helicopter Force comrades of 846 NAS already in All those plans had to be thrown worse at sea… especially if Suitably recovered from 6kts more than her maximum
theatre. (temporarily) out of the window. you’re a small minehunter. their exertions in Aalborg, the speed but against it, as she rounded
About to leave Helmand are the Royals of 40 Commando. The stores suddenly fi lled with cold The force was battered by an ships moved to Fredrikshavn for Cape Wrath, she lost 5kts.
They will do so after a particularly successful series of operations weather clothing and the navigator incessant procession of storms the Danish-led exercise Aut Batt, After a three-day bruising,
around the town of Sangin, now firmly wrestled from Taleban clambered aboard clutching a bevy from which the fjords around a cross between a mine hunt and Walney sailed up the Clyde for
control (see pages 14-15). of charts of Norwegian waters. Stavanger in Norway offered little a Thursday war (with surface and home. Now alongside, it’s off
And finally... our ship of the month is not HMS Richmond He was followed by the protection. aerial attacks thrown at the force). with the Norwegian and Danish
(which appeared twice in the space of 90 days – instead of command staff, who would Still it’s not all been bad. As There was, sadly, little chance charts and on with preparations
ten years – thanks to an administrative faux pas) but the much direct the operations of NATO’s fl agship of the NATO group, for either; inclement weather for Neptune Warrior and pre-
smaller university training boat HMS Raider (see page 12). Standing Mine Countermeasures Walney hosted her fair share of brought the curtain down on Aut deployment training.
NNEW 002_NN_Apr.indd 1EW 002_NN_Apr.indd 1 118/3/08 15:50:198/3/08 15:50:19
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