8 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2008
An explosive
combination
AMID the waters of northern Europe, a small team of minehunters under British lead
have been carrying out sterling work, ridding the seas of the dangerous remnants of
World Wars 1 and 2.
HMS Roebuck is the command Baltic.
ship for the four international mine- Here the ships will continue with
hunters and minesweepers that make their role of locating, identifying and
up Standing NATO Mine Counter clearing the historic ordnance of
Measures Group 1 – reduced earlier wars, although they are
to the slightly more palatable primarily set up for operations
SNMCMG1. against modern buoyant and
British MCMV HMS Hurworth ground mines.
has been joined by the Latvian Over the course of the year it
LNVS Imanta, the German FGS is expected that the minehunting
Weilheim and the Belgian BNS force will visit 30 ports in 14 dif-
Primula. ferent NATO or partner countries,
Since the current group assem- including the warmer waters of the
bled in Germany, the units have been Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
involved in a number of multi-national Cdr Chris Davies took over command
exercises and operations, culminating in the of the NATO group in January this year, and
clearance operations which resulted in the his staff of 11 are embedded in the Group’s
destruction of ten WW1 and WW2 mines flagship HMS Roebuck.
– as well as the rescue of one injured Initial port visits featured the some-
yachtsman. what local highlights of Belfast and
The German Weilheim was work- Glasgow, but the Group has acknowl-
ing with a Dutch minehunter HNLMS edged its international flavour with
Schiedam when a mayday call came stops at Stavanger in Norway,
in from the Waikiki. Frederikshavn, Aalborg and Aarhus
The European ships sent a par- in Denmark, Den Helder in the
amedic over to the 37-foot sailing Netherlands, and Wilhelmshaven
vessel to help the injured man, in Germany.
who was later winched to safety Later this year the MCM
by an RAF search and rescue group will take part in NATO
helicopter. exercise Loyal Mariner 2008,
SNMCMG1 is one of the four off the Spanish Coast in June,
Standing Maritime Groups under bringing together numerous ships,
the NATO aegis, and later this year aircraft and submarines in a joint
will form part of the NATO Reaction exercise.
Force (NRF) – the quick-response maritime
force (although offering no defence against a ● (Right) Carrying out demolitions preps are
flood of acronyms – Ed). PO(D) Tim Hall, LD Richie Throup and AB(D)
The minehunters have spent the first part of Skin Rudkin from HMS Hurworth in the waters
their deployment charged with clearing mines off Zeebrugge
around the cold waters of northern Europe,
with the month of May taking them into the ● (Below) Detonation time...
Pictures: PO(Phot) Brad Bradbury
08_NN_may08.indd 1 21/4/08 09:16:27
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