12 NAVY NEWS, JULY 2010 649


fl eet with ‘hard’ names. Well, they don’t come any ‘harder’ than this one HMS Vengeance: inflicting punishment or exacting retribution for being wronged. In Vengeance’s case, the ‘hard’ name


is reinforced by a hard ‘bite’: up to 16 Trident nuclear missiles, the ultimate weapons in Britain’s arsenal.


Vanguard-class boats based in Faslane which uphold the nation’s nuclear deterrent. To maintain a constant presence


The submarine is the youngest of four


– there is always one ballistic missile submarine on patrol – Vengeance has two crews: port (Cdr Andrew Bower) and starboard (Cdr Richard Small). While one crew is on deterrent patrol, the other is either training or on leave. Vengeance was launched in September 1998, commissioned the following year and conducted her maiden patrol in early 2001. She has fired her main armament once – a test launch of a Trident (minus warhead, of course) in the autumn of 2000, as all V-boats must do at least once per commission.


THERE was a time – not too long ago – in the pages of Navy News when sailors lamented that there were few ships in the modern


To her fell the honour of conducting the 300th patrol by the deterrence fleet, begun all the way back in June 1968 by HMS Resolution and her Polaris missiles.


For the duration of a patrol, the men of Vengeance work six hours on, six hours off (1pm-7pm, 7pm-1am, 1am-7am and 7am-1pm so that everyone catches breakfast, lunch and dinner while off duty). Their sole link with the outside world is a daily print-out of world news and sporting results, plus 60 words sent twice a week by loved ones.


The sacrifices the crew make will be honoured later this year with the first issuing of the RN Deterrent Patrol Pin for any man who completes one or more patrol of 30 days’ duration (they last rather longer than that normally...). As the youngest of the quartet, Vengeance has yet to receive her three-year mid-life refit (Vanguard and Victorious have already undergone the overhaul in Devonport; Vigilant is about half-way through the process now).


‘hard’ name, the ship’s company are big softies really. They maintain close links with Bury St Edmunds (the starboard crew were the last to visit towards the end of 2009), and the town’s Sea Cadets. The latter are fairly


regularly beneficiaries of fundraising by the bomber crew, as is Riverwalk School, which caters for children with special needs.


Despite their boat’s


time. This fourth-rate was captured from the French but after being stranded spent the rest of her career as a prison hulk. There was one more Vengeance in the age of sail: this 84-gun second-rate served from 1824 until the end of the century, earning a battle honour for the Crimea.


By the time she was broken up, plans were in hand for the first powered Vengeance, a Canopus-class pre- dreadnought.


The Vengeance name begins in 1758 with a 28-gun frigate captured from the French.


Her successor, a 74-gun frigate, fought with distinction in the West Indies and latterly housed French prisoners of war...


Vengeance in service at the same


... as did another


She joined the Fleet in 1902 and served in the Far East and home waters, before helping to escort British troops to the Continent in 1914. Vengeance was dispatched to the Mediterranean for the opening stages of the Dardanelles, earning the ship’s final battle honours. The most recent Vengeance, a Colossus-class carrier, arrived in the Far East just too late to take part in WW2. She was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy in the mid-50s, before being sold to Brazil.


As the Minas Gerais, the carrier was in service until the 21st Century, when she was finally paid off. Despite a vociferous campaign to save her for use as a museum ship in the UK, she was broken up in India.


Picture: LA(Phot) Stu Hill, FRPU North


Quiberon Bay .............1759 Martinique ..................1794 St Lucia ......................1796 Crimea ........................1854 Dardanelles ................1915


Class: Vanguard-class SSBN ballistic missile submarine Pennant Number: S31 Builder: Vickers Shipbuilding, Barrow-in-Furness Laid down: February 1 1993 Launched: September 19 1998 Commissioned: November 27 1999


Displacement: 15,680 tons (dived) Length: 149.9m (491ft) Beam: 12.8m (42ft) Draught: 12m (39ft) Complement: 14 officers; 121 ratings Propulsion: Rolls Royce PWR2 (Pressurised Water Reactor) nuclear reactor; two GEC turbines; two auxiliary retractable propulsion motors; two WH Allen turbo generators; two Paxman diesel alternators Sensors: BAE Systems SCMS; Thales Underwater Systems Type 2054 composite sonar suite comprising: towed array sonar, hull-mounted active and passive search sonar, passive intercept and ranging sonar; Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 I band navigation radar Armament: 16 ballistic missile tubes capable of fi ring Trident D5 SLBM missiles carrying up to 192 warheads, four 21in (533mm) torpedo tubes capable of fi ring Spearfi sh torpedoes


Ultimate Vengeance HEROES OF THE ROYAL NAVY No.75 – S/Lt Arthur Giles Blake


WHILE the RAF basks in the refl ected glory of its deeds 70 years ago this summer, here’s a timely reminder from the photographic archives of the Imperial War Museum that victory in 1940 was a triumph of the free world.


Relaxing between sorties outside their crew room at RAF Fowlmere at Manor Farm in Cambridgeshire are (left to right), Plt Off Wallace ‘Jock’ Cunningham, S/Lt Arthur Giles Blake and New Zealander Fg Off Frank Brinsden (holding Rangy the spaniel). Blake – known by comrades in 19 Squadron as ‘Admiral’ – was one of 23 naval aviators seconded to the RAF during the dark days of 1940.


In 1940, the 23-year-old had been serving at HMS Daedalus when he was drafted to 19 Squadron, first at RAF Duxford, then to Duxford’s satellite airfield at Fowlmere. Blake proved to be a wise choice; he’s one of only around half a dozen credited naval ‘aces’ during WW2 – status granted to pilots who downed five or more enemy aircraft. Six and a half Luftwaffe aircraft were shot down by Blake’s guns in September and October 1940. Five of those were Messerschmitt Bf109s – proof that the young naval aviator was a highly-adept flier. Indeed two of the premier German fighters of the day were downed in a single sortie on September 17 1940 – subsequently commemorated as Battle of Britain Day. Two more were shot down on September 27.


Arthur Blake also downed a Heinkel 111 medium bomber, shared the destruction of another (hence the ‘half kill’) and possibly despatched a twin-engined Bf110 Zerstörer heavy fighter. His luck ran out in the fading light of October 29 1940 over Chelmsford, Essex. He was shot down and killed in his Spitfire Mk IIa P7423 QV-Y.


official end date is October 31). He joined ten other Fleet Air Arm pilots on ‘eternal patrol’. As for the Admiral’s comrades, Wallace Cunningham and Frank Brinsden survived the battle. The former was shot down in the summer of 1941 and ended up in Stalag Luft III of ‘Great Escape’ fame. Brinsden served throughout the war and into peacetime, rising to the rank of wing commander.


The Gladiators of 804 at Hatston on Orkney and 808’s Fairey Fulmars based on the Scottish mainland at Wick were charged with defending the Fleet at Scapa Flow. ■ THIS image (CH1459) – and 9,999,999 others from a century of war and peace – can be viewed or purchased at www.iwmcollections. org.uk, by emailing photos@IWM.org.uk, or by phoning 0207 416 5333.


photographic


Duxford during the summer of 1940 via a special Twitter page, twitter. com/RAFDuxford1940


With thanks to Ian Proctor


The two dozen naval fliers attached to the RAF that summer and autumn were not the sole Royal Navy participants in Britain’s finest hour. Two Fleet Air Arm squadron came under Air Force control during the battle: 804 and 808 NAS.


Arthur Blake was 19 Sqn’s last casualty of the Battle of Britain (the


This photograph can also be seen until the end of the year at an exhibition at the IWM’s Duxford museum charting the air station’s role in the Battle of Britain. Internet users can follow daily life for pilots and ground crew at


Facts and figures


Battle Honours


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