12 NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2009
No.3
In the thrall of the mountain kings
WE’LL begin by stating
the obvious.
Strictly speaking, HMS Gannet
is not a squadron.
She’s certainly not a ship.
She is, however, the sole Fleet
Air Arm presence north of the
border.
And she’s also the busiest
Search and Rescue unit in this
sceptred isle. o
n
o
urs
So we think she’s more than
H
worthy of inclusion here.
The current unit traces its
e
history back to 1971 when the
ninth Gannet was commissioned
Copenhagen ................ 1807
at Prestwick Airport.
Walcheron .................... 1809
Its focus then was not
Suakin .......................... 1888
saving lives but hunting Soviet
Atlantic ....................1943-45
Battle Honours
submarines; with the then new
Polaris deterrent based just up the
Aircraft: Westland Sea King
Forth of Clyde, Britain’s ultimate
HU Mk5 es
insurance policy needed a little
Engines: 2 x Rolls-Royce
insurance of its own.
Gnome 1400-1 Turboshafts
Three squadrons of anti-
(generation 1,400 shp
submarine specialists have called
apiece)
Gannet their home: the Flying
Rotor Span: 62ft (18.8m)
Tigers of 814 NAS, 824 NAS
Length: 57ft 2in (17.4m)
and 819 NAS. The latter were the
Speed: 125 knots
last to leave, decommissioning in
Crew: 4 (2 x pilot, 1 x
2001.
observer, 1 x aircrewman)
By that date, Search and Rescue
Endurance: in excess of five
– a vital, if ancillary, role in 1971 –
hours
had become Gannet’s raison d’être.
Sensors: Search radar
Indeed, in 2007 Gannet – not a
transponder IFF and radar
satellite of 771 NAS, the Royal
altimeter
Navy’s other dedicated Search Facts and figur
and Rescue formation (a mistake
we’ve made in these pages in the Year title. Man and Cumbria, and westwards half a dozen involved saving life Mediterranean respectively in the Chinese Navy in 1942.
past) – conducted more rescue Down the years, Gannet’s crews 200 miles off the west coast of at sea. mid-19th Century. The Fleet Air Arm ties with
missions (357, with 349 people have grabbed the headlines for Ireland – 98,000 square miles in There was, nevertheless, plenty The fourth Gannet is Gannet began in 1943 when
saved) than any other RN, RAF or their work in major disasters such all, covered by three aircraft. of saving life: road accident undoubtedly the most famous; an the RAF airfield at Eglinton in
Coastguard unit. as Lockerbie and Piper Alpha. Actually, covered by two aircraft: casualties, pregnant women ferried 1878 barque which saw action Northern Ireland transferred to
Both numbers jumped in But day-in-day out it’s the one is at immediate notice to fly, to hospital, fishermen plucked against the Mahdi’s forces in the RN control.
2008: 379 call-outs, 365 people ‘ordinary’ lifesaving which is another is at lower readiness, the from rivers and lochs engulfed by Sudan campaigns. Renamed, The air station played its part in
assisted. Gannet’s ‘bread and butter’. third is undergoing an extensive floods, a horse rider thrown off she would eventually serve as a the latter stages of the Battle of the
The latter invariably voice their Fifteen years ago, the Sea Kings overhaul.
her animal. drill ship on the Thames, HMS Atlantic and continued to serve
appreciation through a string of were scrambled once every two And although this is a naval unit
All of which is a far cry, President. Restored to her original the Fleet Air Arm until it was
thank-you letters, but there was days on average. and the sea comprises a sizeable
unsurprisingly, from the beginning moniker, she is now preserved in closed in the spring of 1959.
also a flurry of awards for the Today, they’re airborne daily on chunk of its domain, ‘wet jobs’
of Gannet’s lineage back in 1800: Chatham.
unit in 2008 including the Firmin rescue missions. are dwarfed by ‘dry jobs’ – most
a sloop which saw action in the Gannet V and VI were a tender
● (Above) Sea King Rescue
Sword of Peace for humanitarian The unit’s domain stretches around Ben Nevis and Glencoe.
North Sea and Baltic during the and gunboat respectively. VII too
708 sweeps over the Scottish
work and the GAPAN Prince from Ben Nevis in the north, east Take October last year for
Napoleonic Wars. was a gunboat, serving on the
countryside during a training
Phillip Helicopter Rescue of the to Edinburgh, south to the Isle of example: 30 call-outs in all, barely
Gannets II and III, both sloops, China Station from the late 1920s
mission
served in the Americas and until she was transferred to the
Picture: WO1 Ian Arthur, FRPU Clyde
photographic
HEROES OF THE ROYAL NAVY No.58
Lt Cdr Eric Robinson VC
THE knock-out blow. How often have politicians Almost immediately both parties became
and military leaders sought to deliver it – and how pinned down by Turkish fire.
often have they sought to deliver it cheaply. Robinson told his men to take cover – dressed
In the winter of 1914-15 with the armies of the in white they were too easy a target for Johnny
Entente and the Central Powers deadlocked on Turk, he explained.
the Western Front, one glittering prize seemed The officer – also dressed in white – went on,
tantalisingly within reach to Paris and London: alone, evading the fire of snipers, and found the
Constantinople. guns unoccupied.
No-one was more tempted than Winston Gun cotton charges destroyed two of the
Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty. Capture weapons, but Robinson scurried back down
Constantinople, he reasoned, and the Ottoman the hill for a second charge to finish off the task
Empire would fall. while the guns of the battleships brought down
It did not even require much of an army; it did, an iron rain upon the Turkish positions.
however, require a substantial naval presence to Still Robinson was not done. Now he led his
appear off the Golden Horn. party to Orkanieh, blew up a 9.4in gun, then
It was little more than 160 miles from the returned to the picket boats and back to the
heart of Constantinople to the open waters of Vengeance.
the Aegean. In fact, Eric Robinson would demonstrate
But the road to Constantinople lay through the his fortitude under fire repeatedly during the
Dardanelles. bungled campaign. Four times he led a makeshift
In peace, the Dardanelles were hazardous – a minehunter into the strait to clear the Turkish
stretch of water three dozen miles long but no minefields, then commanded another demolition
more than four miles wide (and just 1,300 yards party dispatched (successfully) to scuttle the
across at the narrowest point). submarine E15 which had run aground.
In war, two dozen forts, a dozen minefields That latter mission was worthy of Britain’s
and a couple of anti-submarine barriers barred highest award, but it was for the raid on Orkanieh
the way to the Sea of Marmara – and the road to that Eric Robinson was honoured.
Constantinople. The rather dry words of the citation fail to
To open that road, the forts had to be capture Robinson’s bravery. Not so the
neutralised. words of a superior – who
It began inauspiciously in mid-February with had not thought much of
a less-than-effective bombardment of the forts the officer beforehand.
straddling the entrance to the strait. “I am honestly lost in
On the southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula admiration for Robinson,
DON’T try this at home...
stood the guns of Ertugrul and Seddulbahir, and he has done splendidly
February’s image from the
little more than two miles away on the Asiatic and I honestly am
archives of the Imperial War Museum
shore were the forts of Kum Kale and Orhanie. surprised,” he wrote.
would most certainly not be endorsed
The guns of the battleships alone could not “I did not think
by Health and Safety offi cials. Three crew
silence the Turkish forts. Demolition parties were much of him as a
members – none apparently wearing a safety
also required. First Lieutenant.
harness – work on the starboard engine gantry
On the afternoon of February 26, the But that evidently
of a RNAS North Sea (NS) type non-rigid airship
obsolescent battleship HMS Vengeance put a does not prevent
during an anti-submarine patrol, circa 1918. On the
party of 100 Royal Marines and sailors ashore him being an
upper level the mechanic is standing next to his
near Kum Kale. exceedingly
compartment from where he controlled the engines.
The Royals would deal with the guns around brave
On the lower level a gunner mans his gun next to the
Kum Kale; the matelots, led by torpedo officer man.”
float. (Neg Q27488)
Lt Cdr Eric Gascoigne Robinson, would head to
■ THIS image – and 9,999,999 others from a century
Orhanie and eliminate coastal and anti-aircraft
of war and peace – can be purchased from
batteries.
www.iwmcollections.org.uk, by
Eric Robinson had already distinguished
emailing photos@IWM.org.uk,
himself in the Boxer Rebellion. Today he would
or phoning 0207 416 5333.
enter the pantheon of military legend.
0012_NN_Feb.indd 112_NN_Feb.indd 1 220/1/09 11:10:180/1/09 11:10:18
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