NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2009 3
‘We are their legacy...’
A WREATH of poppies drifts in the Gulf of Aden, cast into these
troubled waters by the sailors of HMS Cornwall.
As their brethren across the Armed countermeasures vessel’s dive team
Forces did, the men and women of the slipped into the waters of Scapa Flow
frigate paused front-line operations to and headed 110ft down, where they fi xed
pay their respects to sacrifi ces past and a weighted wreath and White Ensign to
present on Remembrance Sunday. the remains of the leviathan.
The Type 22 frigate is leading The ceremony was part of a double
NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 2 on act of remembrance in the great natural
Operation Ocean Shield, commanding harbour. Bangor’s sister HMS Penzance
an international force of warships led tributes to HMS Royal Oak on the
attempting to stifl e Somali pirates. 70th anniversary of her torpedoing by
The ship’s company gathered on U47.
Cornwall’s fl ight deck to remember the Whilst the loss of the Royal Oak is
fi nal three British WW1 veterans, all of one of those tragedies chiseled into the
whom sadly passed away this year, as collective memory of the Senior Service,
well as more recent victims of confl ict. the loss of the Vanguard two decades
The ship’s Royal Marines detachment before has rather been lost in the mists
read out the names of every fellow of time. Ten more men lost their lives
green beret who had laid down his life in in the explosion than were killed when
Afghanistan in the past 12 months. Royal Oak sank.
After two minutes’ silence, wreaths It’s thought a long-smouldering fi re in
were cast into the ocean by Cornwall’s CO a coal bunker caused cordite charges in
Cdr Johnny Ley, task group commander an adjacent compartment to ignite. The
Cdre Steve Chick, his chief-of-staff Capt results were cataclysmic.
Irencin of the Turkish Navy, Cornwall’s Eyewitnesses described a series of
Executive Warrant Offi cer WO1 Trev explosions, before one fi nal, awful blast
Trevarthen, Mne Shane Boylan from which ripped Vanguard apart, showering
the RM detachment and fi nally AB(CIS) Scapa with molten metal and burning
Mellia Robertson representing the ship’s debris, setting the Scottish heather
company, as the strains of the Last Post alight
drifted across the Gulf of Aden. Six hundred and twenty-two of the
“Our thoughts are very much with our fallen are listed on Chatham’s naval
colleagues in Afghanistan, but this is also memorial, 126 on Portsmouth’s and 74
about remembering all of those in the on the monument on Plymouth Hoe, with
Naval Service and elsewhere who have around 20 victims buried near the wreck
laid down their lives,” said Cornwall’s site.
operations offi cer Lt Cdr Luke Hayashi. Bangor was a fi tting choice to lead the
“Here, on operations, it brings home tributes: until recently her Commanding
the point that we are their legacy and the Offi cer, Lt Cdr Peter Noblett, was Execu-
best way we can honour their memory tive Offi cer of the current Vanguard, the
is in wholly fulfi lling our own mission in ballistic missile submarine.
protecting these waters.” He fi xed a wreath to the buoy, while
The ceremony off Yemen was one wreaths were also placed on behalf of
of a myriad around the world to mark the present Vanguard, and the previous
the nation’s fallen on Remembrance bearer of the name, the legendary post-
Sunday. war battleship whose association asked
Plymouth witnessed two major acts of that the sacrifi ce of their forebears be
thanksgiving: a Festival of Remembrance remembered.
in the Pavilions, followed by the formal True to the spirit of the Corps,
service on the Hoe in the shadow of the detachments from 45 Commando
Naval War Memorial. could be found in the home towns
Sailors from HMS Drake and the of green berets who lost their lives
Devonport Flotilla formed three during the marines’ recent operations in
12-man guards, Royal Marines from Afghanistan, taking part in local parades
3 Commando Brigade, an Army guard and supporting bereaved families.
from 29 Commando, plus an 80-strong Yankee Company paraded in Arbroath,
RN platoon of senior and junior rates, 300 X-Ray Company took part both in
local Territorial Army soldiers, also took ceremonies at the Cenotaph in Whitehall
part in proceedings, with the Band of HM and at the Festival of Remembrance in
Royal Marines Plymouth providing the the Albert Hall the previous evening.
appropriate musical accompaniment. And at 45’s home of RM Condor,
The ship’s company of HMS Scimitar Regimental Sergeant Major WO1 Steven
left The Rock behind to make the 35- Shepherd read the roll of honour: 12 men
mile trip across the Strait of Gibraltar to killed serving with Battle Group North in
Tangier and the Church of St Andrew, Helmand last winter.
which has served British worshippers The service was a private gathering for
in the Moroccan port for more than 100 comrades, friends and families of those
years. killed and wounded in Afghanistan.
Its graveyard is the last resting Personnel from RNAS Yeovilton
place of 13 British and Commonwealth paid their respects not in a hangar, as
Servicemen killed in WW2. they have typically done on November
Scimitar’s sailors formed a guard of 11, but in the nearby churchyard of St
honour; their CO Lt Matt Sykes laid a Bartholomew’s, the memorial church of
wreath and AB(Sea) Gavin Armstrong the Fleet Air Arm.
placed a cross of remembrance on the Base Warrant Officer WO1 Colin Bauld
grave of an airman killed in January read a roll of honour of all RN/RM
1945. personnel killed in the line of duty since
Sixteen hundred miles to the north, the beginning of last year.
a wreath and White Ensign rest on the There could be few more spectacular
wreck of HMS Vanguard, victim of the backdrops for any November ceremonies
worst accident in Royal Navy history. than the waters of Montserrat, where
The battleship exploded at anchor in HMS Iron Duke paused to reflect on
Scapa Flow late on July 9 1917. sacrifices past and present in the shadow
Of 845 men aboard the dreadnought, of the island’s active volcano.
just two survived. More than nine And small though she might be, Wales
decades later, HMS Bangor stopped University Royal Naval Unit HMS Express
over the site – 58°52’3”N, 3°6’30”W, provided sailors to parade at ceremonies
today marked by East Cardinal Buoy – in Aberystwyth, Bridgend, Cardiff and
off the Isle of Flotta. Swansea (and attended a concert of
After two minutes’ silence, the mine remembrance in Swansea).
pictures: po(phot) owen king, rn photographer of the year, la(phots) martin carney and james crawford, frpu west, sgt ian houlding
003_NN_Dec.indd 1 18/11/09 17:50:49
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