6 NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2009
Fort for good
picture: la(phot) james crawford, frpu west
AFTER sailing more than
28,000 nautical miles, visiting
ten nations, replenishing
ships from the British, Dutch,
US and Australian navies on
15 occasions and, above all,
helping to snare £240m of
drugs, RFA Fort George is
home in the UK.
The one-stop supply ship
spent the latter stages of
her fi ve-month Caribbean
deployment as the partner in
crimefi ghting of HMS Iron Duke
– a marriage which reached its
climax with the seizure of fi ve
and a half tonnes of cocaine off
the South American coast.
In addition, the ship visited
several overseas territories
including Anguilla, the Turks
and Caicos islands and
Montserrat, where training and
exercises were carried out with
local emergency services so
they could cope with natural
disasters. Fortunately, the 2009
hurricane season proved to be
a relatively quiet one with only
‘Bill’ briefl y posing a serious
threat; thankfully it passed the
islands.
Now back in home waters,
Fort George is being kept busy
with exercises with the RN,
most notably with the FOST
End to Trafalgar knights
team off Plymouth.
She hooked up with
HMS Daring for a double
replenishment at sea – a
THIS is almost the last act in the
on December 4 with a decommissioning launching cruise missile strikes. “There’s sadness because this is the last
simultaneous stores and fuel
proud career of HMS Trafalgar.
ceremony in Devonport attended by That HMS Trafalgar did. She was time Trafalgar will be operational and some
transfer; it’s believed to be the
After 26 years’ service, the fi rst of
many of the men who have served the fi rst British nuclear submarine to submariners have been on board for up to
first time this has been done
Britain’s T-boats sails under her own steam
in her down the years, as well as launch a Tomahawk missile; she also seven years.
with a Type 45 destroyer.
dignitaries from her affi liated town of targeted Taleban strongpoints during “Close-knit submarines are almost
for the fi nal time as she makes her last entry
Morecambe and the lady who has the 2001-02 campaign to drive families and this community will be broken
to Devonport.
Albion tastes a
followed her career avidly since them out of Afghanistan. up.
The hunter-killer trailed a 120-foot
launching the boat in July 1981: More recently, the boat took “But there’s pride because of the fantastic
decommissioning pennant from her fi n as
Lady Fieldhouse. part in Joint Warrior war games work Trafalgar has done over 26 years. Most
little Belgium
she sailed up the Hamoaze, past the rare
The boat and her six sisters off Scotland, hosted potential of all I’m very proud of my ship’s company.
sight of HMS Ark Royal (typically found
were built at the height of submarine commanders on the They’ve been resilient, cheerful and hard
180 miles to the east in Pompey).
the Cold War with the aim of legendary (and fearsome) Perisher working right to the end. They, like the
ASSAULT ship HMS Albion
A Merlin from Culdrose, tugs blasting
protecting the Fleet from enemy course, and beat the French (as submarine, are a credit to the Royal Navy.”
took a break from work-up
their water cannons, MOD police boats and
boats – and hunting/killing enemy befi ts her name)… at football. Post de-commissioning on December 4,
following her refi t to spend a
a fl otilla of small craft greeted the nuclear
ballistic missile submarines (hence the “The feeling of everyone on board – some of the ship’s company will remain to
weekend in Belgium.
submarine to bid her farewell.
hunter-killer tag, more accurately ‘attack including me – as we came in for the fi nal help with the boat’s wind-down, the rest will
The port of Zeebrugge
The fi nal entry was the fi rst part in a two- submarines’). time was a mixture of pride and sorrow,” be spread among the remaining T-boat fl eet
provided the backdrop for the
act send-off for the submarine which gave With the Cold War now history, that said CO Cdr Charlie Shepherd, who’s been or join the second of Trafalgar’s successors,
four-day visit with a mixture of her name to a class of boats. role has evolved; there’s still the hunting/ in charge of Trafalgar for the past two and HMS Ambush (see opposite for news of the
official duties to perform (such as Trafalgar formally leaves the Service killing, but also intelligence gathering and a half years. fi rst A-boat’s maiden voyage).
a reception for Belgian bigwigs)
and numerous sporting fixtures.
For Albion’s CO Capt John
Kingwell, this short hop across
the Channel was a bit of a
homecoming.
Royals’ fi n-tastic voyage
Just three miles down the coast
from Zeebrugge lies the small
resort of Blankenberge.
THESE chaps are Royal
The Royals arrived by RAF reliant on joint co-operation how potent and versatile an Sceptre has spent much of
Capt Kingwell’s mother was
born in the town; his Belgian
Marines – men of 539
Hercules, parachuting out of the (aside from 539, Sceptre and the SSN can be. It’s important that 2009 in UK waters on work-
grandfather, who fled to the
Assault Squadron to be
transport aircraft and landing in RAF, FOST Submarines were we practise the wide range of up (which saw her target
the briny, where the very last of very much involved) as well as skills and abilities that we can HMS Daring), as well as
UK in 1940 when the Germans precise. Britain’s Swiftsure boats was the British weather. bring to the battle.” conducting weapons testing
invaded his country, was the Their steed is Her Majesty’s waiting for them. Thankfully, everything clicked and calibration trials, but has
first Allied soldier to liberate Submarine Sceptre. The weather was suitably into place for two days of top- now headed off for six months
Blankenberge in the autumn of The two joined forces off the calm for the green berets from notch training which proved on a ‘rest of the world’ (ROW)
1944; and his great-grandmother South Coast to practise one of Turnchapel to carry out that extremely useful for deeps and deployment.
was arrested for helping downed the ‘darker arts’ of submarine rarest of manoeuvres – a ‘fin top commandos alike. The oldest active warship in
British airmen evade the Nazis warfare: stealthy insertion. recovery’, which involves the “This type of valuable training Britain’s arsenal, the hunter-
during the German occupation. It’s something the Silent commandos occupying the fin is something that we do not get killer is due to pay off towards
The Devonport-based assault Service has done pretty much with the boat dived (hence the to do that often,” said Sceptre’s the end of 2010, by which time
ship is due to resume the mantel since its inception – but not photograph...). CO Cdr Steve Waller. she’ll have served her nation
of amphibious flagship from her necessarily like this. Such exercises are heavily “For some, it’s easy to forget for 32 years.
sister Bulwark next month.
01273 467277
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SWORD MAKERS TO THE ROYAL MARINES
006_NN_Dec.indd 1 20/11/09 14:29:10
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