30 NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2008
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45 force
for VCs Simon says... hello
halved
THE largest single collection of
Victoria Crosses in the world
will be on permanent display to
the public in two years’ time.
A £5m gallery is being built
at the Imperial War Museum
to HMS Endurance
FIRST there were 12. Then eight.
Now six.
The Type 45 programme
will stop at HMS Duncan, the
sixth and now last of the new air
in London to showcase
defence destroyers, Whitehall has
the Ashcroft Victoria Cross
revealed.
Collection.
SHE’S used to Armed Forces Minister Bob
The Tory peer and icebreaking. Now she’s
Ainsworth told fellow MPs that
businessman owns one in every
groundbreaking.
the unnamed ships seven and
nine of Britain’s highest honour
Mercifully, it’s got nothing to do
eight would not be ordered
for valour – and now he intends
with dodgy navigation. But what
after all.
to give these honours a public
happens to HMS Endurance this
Mr Ainsworth did,
airing.
summer in South Africa could set
however, tell Parliament that
To do so he has donated
at the same time as cutting
the trend for future deployments
£5m to the IWM to build the
the Type 45 programme, the
south of the Equator.
new gallery, which will open in
MOD was bringing forward plans
The Red Plum completed her
the autumn of 2010.
to replace Type 22 and 23 frigates.
spell in Antarctic waters as usual
Lord Ashcroft’s passion for
Both will be succeeded by
as the austral winter set in.
the VC began back in 1986
a vessel known as the ‘future
But instead of hopping along
when he bought LS James
surface combatant’, although no
the coast of South America and
Magennis’ medal at auction
in-service dates were given by the
heading home for Portsmouth, the
for £29,000; the submariner
minister.
survey ship turned east, making
earned the cross for crippling
The Type 45 programme is
for South Africa.
the Japanese cruiser Takao in
costing the taxpayer in excess
It’s part of an experiment to
an X-craft.
of £6bn, more than half of that
keep the ship away from home for
Since then he has added 151
devoured by the cost of the actual
upwards of 18 months, spending
more Victoria Crosses to his
ships, the rest by the PAAMS
our summer (the austral winter)
collection, feeding a fascination
missile system which the vessels
in Africa undergoing maintenance
for the bravest of brave going
are built around.
and conducting patrols and survey
back six decades.
The destroyers will replace the
work unique in the Red Plum’s
“My passion for the VC
aged and more numerous Type 42
career.
stems from the fact that it can
fl eet (the oldest, HMS Exeter, has
Maintenance comes fi rst and
be won by someone regardless
been afl oat for 30 years).
the obvious choice was Simon’s
of class, colour, religion, creed
Mr Ainsworth also told MPs
Town as probably the principal
or rank, provided they exhibit
that two of the 42s, Exeter and
naval base in southern Africa. The
truly exceptional courage in the
Southampton, had been sailing
setting’s not bad too, overlooked
face of the enemy,” said the
without Sea Dart missiles – the
by Table Mountain.
peer.
ships’ principal weapon system –
If Simon’s Town is a strange
Other notable VCs in his
for several months.
setting in which to fi nd the
collection include the second
Exeter’s live Sea Darts were
Red Plum, then working on an
one issued – to Lt (later Rear
moved into storage in July ● Nuisance callers... Endurance shipmates pose with the statue to the legendary sailors’ friend, Just
icebreaker isn’t an everyday job for
Admiral) John Bythesea for
Nuisance Picture: LA(Phot) Kaz Williams, HMS Endurance 2007, the minister said, while
Simon’s Town’s engineers.
intercepting Russian dispatches
Southampton’s were taken out at
A team from South Africa fl ew to
to Portsmouth,” said Endurance South Africa being extended carry out their duties.
during the Crimean War – and
the beginning of this year. Both
Pompey before the deployment to
engineer Lt John Ball. thanks to a spell undergoing an “A deployment like this has to
ships will pay off in 2009.
paratrooper Sgt Ian McKay who talk to the RN about its particular
The yard itself was handed overhaul in Simon’s Town. It be taken as a marathon rather than
was posthumously awarded the requirements… and a team from
over to the South Africans half a should also cut down the hefty a sprint,” explains Commanding
decoration in the Falklands war. Endurance did likewise, heading
century ago, and the RN heritage fuel bill run up by ships sailing Offi cer Capt Bob Tarrant.
By George,
The IWM already holds 50 in the opposite direction to chat
in Simon’s Town has not been
from Portsmouth/Plymouth to the “By rotating my ship’s
Victoria Crosses and 29 George with Armscor – the Simon’s Town
forgotten: the crests of HM Ships
Falklands and beyond. company we are able to sustain
Crosses. counterpart to FSL or Babcock in line the walls of the base’s dry
As for Endurance, it means not the deployment and our
it’s Rosalie
All will be housed in the new the UK – earlier this year. dock.
only can she venture up the west operational standards. It’s a real
gallery, which will explain how “There was a feeling of déjà vu This is new ground for the ship
African coast, but she can also case of ‘sweating the asset’ while SUPPORT and supply ship RFA
the medals were created and for all of us in Simon’s Town yard and the RN, but if the plan works
return to the ice earlier in the preserving the people.” Fort George will receive an £18m
recount the personal stories of – the stone dockyard buildings out then it could mean future RN
season than ever before. ‘Preserving the people’ is slightly overhaul over the next six months
the Servicemen honoured. and general layout are very similar deployments to South America/
And just as the Antarctic and easier when you’re berthed in the – a stone’s throw away from
South Atlantic takes its toll of the shadow of Table Mountain, just another mainstay of the Fleet.
ship, so an 18-month deployment 25 miles from Cape Town and a The ship has arrived at
can take its toll on men and women stone’s throw from South Africa’s Northwestern Shiprepairers
– and their families. national parks and winemaking and Shipbuilders Limited in
All Endurance’s sailors are region. Birkenhead – the fi rm occupies
www.navynews.co.uk
being rotated allowing them to You can follow Endurance’s the former Cammell Laird yard –
get back to the UK to see loved progress this summer via her for a ‘makeover’ inside and out.
ones as well as to brush up on any educational website, www. The 36,000-ton ship provides a
professional courses they need to visitand learn.co.uk mixture of fuel, food, ammunition
and general supplies to RN
vessels.
THE TIME OF
Externally, her hull will be re-
painted; internally, machinery will
receive a thorough overhaul and
1968196
new communications systems will
be installed.
Fort George will return to
YOUR LIVES
8
1988 service in the new year, by which
time RFA Fort Rosalie, older
but performing roughly the same
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duties, will also be back at sea.
U.K.
August 1968
She too is being revamped in
Birkenhead in a £28m deal which
A saving of £3.60 on the cover price
will see her accommodation areas,
Polaris missile submarine HMS Resolution slipped away from
weapon systems, machinery and
Faslane to begin the Navy’s deterrence patrol – the first of
comms kit enhanced.
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more than 300 now conducted by the Silent Service. Defence
Between them the two RFA
secretary Denis Healey said the inaugural patrol opened “a
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Fittingly a decade after the first deterrence patrol, it was HMS
Resolution which chalked up the milestone of patrol no. 100 by
on booze
Hampshire PO1 3HH, England
Overseas* One £22.00
the ‘bomber’ force – Renown, Repulse and Revenge completed MOD police offi cers on the
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the quartet of strategic missile submarines. And as with that Forth have joined their civilian
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first deployment back in 1968, patrol no. 100 began – and counterparts in a crackdown on
ended – with the same lack of ceremony. loutish behaviour.
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Residents in Rosyth were
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becoming increasingly concerned
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by the booze culture of
youngsters which was fuelling
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A massive air-sea rescue operation was mounted by the RN
violence and vandalism to civilian
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and NATO in response to the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster in the
and MOD property.
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in £ Sterling made payable to ‘Navy News’
Police based at HMS
the first vessels on the scene and began to co-ordinate the
Caledonia in Rosyth joined Fife
I wish to pay by relief operation. When Sea King Rescue 177 of 819 NAS at HMS
Constabulary officers on a high-
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Gannet arrived at the rig, said Lt Paul Shepherd, “was ablaze
profile weekend patrol.
from top to bottom”. 167 people died in the tragedy, including
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ex-CPO Eric Deverell.
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alcohol and take the details of
those found drinking in public.
Credit Card orders cannot be accepted under £5.00 ● An artist’s cutaway impression of HMS Resolution, Britain’s
Card Number After that the youngsters stopped
fi rst nuclear deterrent submarine
are allowed to go on their way
– unless they are drunk or have
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case they are taken home or to a
police station.
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The first such patrol saw 37
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being drunk by youths in public
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One adult was reported for
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