16 NAVY NEWS, JULY 2008
No.1
The all-seeing eyes
Normandy ..................1944
Palembang .................1945
Okinawa .....................1945
Japan .........................1945
Normandy ..................1944
Palembang .................1945
Okinawa .....................1945
Battle Honours
● A Bagger Sea King Mk7 ASaC fl ies over the
Dhofar mountains of Oman during Exercise
Magic Carpet with HMS Invincible
Picture: PO(Phot) Mick Storey
THREE into one won’t
formations are not. Once enemy aircraft are key to another primary role for They headed to RAF Leuchars
go, as any maths teacher
As the longest standing of the detected the observers in the the front-line ASaCs: maritime for an exercise co-ordinating
trio, 849 – motto primus video, I ASaC helicopters can direct security operations. and controlling various UK Palembang .................1945
will tell you.
see fi rst – is the parent unit. friendly fi ghters to intercept the 854 has spent six months military aircraft, directing them Okinawa .....................1945
But one into three does.
It trains student observers and attack or report the target for a on Operation Calash with RFA on to ground targets. East Indies .................1945
Three times to be precise.
aircrew converting from other ship-fi red missile engagement. Argus east of Suez, monitoring All three squadrons trace
In the dying days of 2006,
helicopter types, and offers Additionally, by using radar drug smuggling, human their heritage back to the later
the Navy’s solitary airborne
refresher training on the Mk7 for the observers can also achieve traffi cking and pirate activities stages of WW2.
Aircraft: Sea King Mk 7
surveillance and control
aircrew going to the front line. long-range detection of hostile as part of an international task All saw action in the Far
Airborne Surveillance and
(ASaC) squadron, 849 NAS,
Bagger observers face two ships and fast attack craft... force. East in the fi nal battles against Control
was dissected to create three
distinct phases of their Sea King then guide friendly aircraft or The 854 team were replaced Japan, but 849 and 854 also Engines: two Rolls-
distinct units.
training, the Aircraft Conversion surface-to-surface missiles on in April by their sister squadron provided aerial support for the Royce Gnome H1400 gas
es
Thus were born 854 NAS
Phase and the Operational to the target using over-the- 857 – motto animus opibusque Normandy invasion. turbines
(from 849’s A Flight) and 857
Conversion Phase. horizon techniques. parati, prepared in minds and And all three units were
Length: 72ft 8in
NAS (from B Flight).
During aircraft conversion, The squadrons can also resources – who fl ew out to disbanded within months of the
Height: 16ft 10in
All three squadrons, based at
students learn the basics of support operations in a strike the Middle East after a hectic war’s end.
RNAS Culdrose near Helston,
Rotor span: 62ft
the Sea King and its systems, role (working with friendly 2007. Seven years later, 849 were
provide the ‘eye in the sky’ of
Weight: 21,400lbs
including radar handling, ground attack aircraft) or in
Last year began on Calash back, however, in an early-
the Royal Navy.
helicopter navigation, and littoral manoeuvre (providing
duties, principally off the Horn warning role, fi rst in Skyraiders,
Speed: 90kts
The trio’s Sea King Mk7s are
grapple with secondary roles, assistance to amphibious forces
of Africa, with RFA Fort Austin subsequently in Gannets.
Range: 450 nautical miles
equipped with the Searchwater
such as winching. ashore) during hostilities.
serving as 857’s fl oating base. The squadron bowed out
Endurance: four hours
2000 radar, a state of the art
Once that is complete, All these functions – and more
The helicopters then joined when HMS Ark Royal IV did
Rate of climb: 1,500ft per
long-range radar carried in an
they move on to operational – are performed by the two front-
HMS Illustrious for a spring three decades ago, but the
minute
infl atable sack or bag (which
conversion to learn to ‘fi ght line units, 854 and 857.
deployment to the USA Falklands confl ict reaffi rmed
Crew: one pilot, two
gives the squadrons their
the aircraft’: anti-air and This past year has seen
alongside the US Marine Corps the need for airborne early
observers
Bagger nicknames).
surface warfare, fi ghter control, 854 – motto audentes fortuna
and US Navy fast jets. warning, so 849 returned in
Although it looks a rather surveillance and close air juvat, fortune helps the daring – There was no let-up for the 1984, this time in Sea Kings Facts and figur
cumbersome piece of kit from support. deployed from as far west as the
857 fl iers back in Blighty. with their distinctive bags.
the outside, inside the bag is a Fighter control is an important Caribbean to as far East as the
veritable box of tricks capable part of the training as observers Arabian Gulf.
of remarkably-accurate detec- are required to control a Aboard HMS Ocean in the
tion of surface and air targets. multitude of fi ghter, strike and Caribbean, 854 worked side-by- HEROES OF THE ROYAL NAVY No.51
Also fi tted to the Sea Kings is rotary wing aircraft such as side with Merlins of 700 NAS in
electronic equipment capable Typhoons, Tornado F3s, Harrier the war against drug-runners.
of passively detecting enemy GR7s and Apache gunships. The baggers were instrumental
ships and aircraft by listening The Searchwater radar greatly in the seizure of two drugs hauls
Lt Cdr Richard James Rodney Scott, AM
for their radar emissions. enhances the detection ranges with a combined street value of
Although the aircraft for of inbound air raids – giving $120 million.
IN Versailles the ink had barely dried on the As the crews endeavoured to neutralize the
all three Bagger units are surface units more time to react The ability to track vessels
weighty volumes of the treaty which brought the weapons, both ships were mined.
the same, the roles of the and combat the attack. moving across the ocean is
curtain down on war with Germany. The blast killed all but one man in Myrtle’s
Salvagers and divers swarmed around the engine room, wounded countless more, and
hulks of the once mighty High Seas Fleet, now crippled the ship.
engulfed by the waters of Scapa Flow. On the bridge Lt Cdr Richard Scott ordered the
Communists and revolutionaries clashed with wounded to be transferred to another ship.
TOWN CLASS CRUISERS 1942
steel-helmeted veterans of the trenches in the Barely had the diffi cult manoeuvre been
streets of Germany. completed when the bow sheered away and
And further east, the Bolsheviks fought bitter disappeared beneath the waves.
Replica models, measuring 10.5” long, hand cast in metal and hand painted, mounted
battles with Tsarists and counter-revolutionaries There was now no choice but to abandon ship.
as civil war ravaged the newly-titled Soviet Scott was the last man off – but there was talk
on a wooden plinth 12” x 3” with brass nameplate. HMS Southampton, HMS Union. among his shipmates of a comrade possibly left
Newcastle, HMS Birmingham, HMS Glasgow, HMS Manchester, HMS Gloucester,
The war of the Bolsheviks spread to the shores behind.
of the Baltic where the Red Army was determined And so Richard Scott
HMS Sheffield. Also available HMS Belfast 1943 and HMS Edinburgh 1940.
to impose its authority on the people of Estonia returned to the blazing
who had thrown off the Russian yoke. hulk of the Myrtle, drifting
To halt the Red tide and fan the fl ames of uncontrollably through the
freedom, Britain had dispatched a substantial minefi eld, rolling violently,
fl eet to the Baltic. to look for his missing
The world little noted, nor long remembered comrade.
£75.00
what happened in the Baltic, but it should never He scoured what was
+ £8.00 p&p
forget what British sailors achieved there. left of his ship but in
Sailors like the men of HMS Myrtle, a 1,250-ton vain; the man was never
UK Only
Arabis-class sloop sent to sweep Bolshevik found.
minefi elds – a growing danger in the summer of His bravery that fateful
1919. Tuesday earned the 32-
On July 15, Myrtle and her sister Gentian were year-old from Bath the
sent into the treacherous waters of the Björko Albert Medal “for gallantry y
Sound in the eastern Gulf of Finland. in endeavouring to save life life
This narrow stretch of water had already at sea”.
claimed aircraft carrier HMS Vindictive as their It was a decoration he
victim. The ship had run aground at high speed cherished. Nearly half
To order your model send your name, address and daytime telephone number, and only been refl oated, severely damaged, after a century later, and a
along with your cheque or credit card details to:
2,000 tons of equipment, including her aircraft, year before his death
Skytrex Ltd, Unit 1 Charnwood Business Park, North Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 1LE
had been removed. at the age of 80, the
There was to be no such good fortune for the then Rear Admiral Scott
Tel: 01509 213789 Fax: 01509 230874 Gentian and Myrtle. Four mines were identifi ed was a founder member
email: sales@skytrex.com www.skytrex.com by 1st Fleet Minesweeping Flotilla and the two of the Albert Medal
sloops were sent in to deal with them. Association.
PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 28 DAYS FOR DELIVERY
0016_NN_July.indd 116_NN_July.indd 1 119/6/08 18:14:519/6/08 18:14:51
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50