26 NAVY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 2011


I would be grateful if the Second Sea Lord’s department could explain why the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal will only be given to those with five years’ service? This presumably means that someone who has been in the Royal Navy or the Royal Marines for less than that time but has served in Afghanistan will have an operational medal, but not one to mark the Jubilee and their service to the Crown. I must be mistaken in my


Five-year criteria for Jubilee medal


What about those credit card


bills racked up by MOD civil servants? Medals are the currency of


service to the Crown. I suggest the MOD be asked by the RN to think again and award it to all those on the trained strength. – Cdre Malcolm Williams (ret’d)


interpretation, or perhaps the defence budget is so stretched that giving a medal to all those serving is just too expensive.


Navy News has been informed that, as might be expected and as with all medals, very careful consideration has been given to the qualifying criteria for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (QDJM) is designed


Dreadnought at her launch in Barrow on Trafalgar Day 1960


Clean living in Dreadnought


I HAVE just read Nothing Short of Exemplary by Richard Hargreaves (June). To say that I am surprised at the conditions on board HMS Tireless


would be a bit of an understatement. I spent nearly five years on the Dreadnought as what is now known as


system with a split dog watch. We were not limited to the number of showers we were allowed as we


a ‘Backafty.’ I would have thought that conditions would have improved since I left the Dreadnought in November 1968. We never hot-bunked, we kept watches on the normal three-watch


had two Evaps on board which produce more than enough fresh water, consequently nobody stank and it never smelt like the old diesel boats I was on prior to joining Dreadnought. Thanks to four carrier air-conditioning plants the temperature was


kept at about 18 to 20°C for’d of 44 bulkhead and back aft in the (labelled as the American sector) machinery spaces. I don’t ever remember it going above 30 degrees, even in the Far East


in Singapore waters! We did have some spare accommodation bunks in the fore ends on the


USS Skipjack (SSN 575) that life was so comfortable? I really thought conditions would have improved since 1968 but according to the article things have really gone backwards. – Bruce MacDonald Allan, ex Chief Mech, Webmaster of the Dreadnought Association, Dedham, Essex


HMS Belfast’s last voyage


I WAS a child of ten when I sailed to Gibraltar with my father, E J M Bray, a boiler room artificer on HMS Belfast’s last voyage in August 1963. We left from Plymouth, went to Portsmouth and then to Gibraltar. I have no photos but I do have my Navy pass for the trip and a Belfast


ship’s badge as a keepsake. I remember a lot about this trip – the guns firing in Biscay, the Russian


ship we were woken up to take photos of, watching films projected on a screen hung from the 6in gun barrels, the sailor who broke his leg when a rope snapped, the rough weather in Biscay.


– Chris Bray A flagship, but not 2SL’s


IN your article (August) about the dismasting of HMS Victory you state that she is the flagship of the Second Sea Lord. Sea Lords do not have flagships. To be correct Victory wears the flag


of the Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command, who is also the Second Sea Lord. – Charles Addis, Commanding Officer, HMS Victory 1982-86


torpedo racks for new joiners but life on the whole was very comfortable. Could it be that it was because Dreadnought was an exact copy of the


THREE years ago the then Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral Sir Adrian Johns, told me that the profile of the Fleet Air Arm needed to be addressed. The following year was the centenary of naval aviation, last year was


Failure of raids into the Atlantic


the 70th anniversary of Taranto. The latter you covered in a two-page spread, however just as


important, the 70th anniversary of the Bismarck sinking was not covered by Navy News. Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were on Operation Rheinübung, the latest


in a series of raids on Allied shipping carried out by surface units of the Kriegsmarine. It was preceded by Operation Berlin, a highly successful sortie by


Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which ended in March 1941. The aim of operation Rheinübung was for Bismarck and Prinz Eugen


to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping. With the Bismarck now sunk, Prinz Eugen abandoned her mission


and headed for Brest to join Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In July 1941 the RAF went on bombing missions to attack the ships


in Brest. The Scharnhorst was badly damaged and underwent six months


of repairs. Prinz Eugen had one direct hit, and the Gneisenau was torpedoed. On January 12 1942, the German Naval Command, in a conference


with Hitler, made the decision to return Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen to Germany. The intention was to deploy the vessels to Norway to interdict Allied


convoys to the Soviet Union. The so-called ‘Channel Dash,’ codenamed Operation Cerberus,


would avoid the increasingly effective Allied radar and patrol aircraft in the Atlantic. Despite the success in sinking Hood, offset a few days later by the


sinking of Bismarck, Operation Rheinübung was a failure. No merchant ships were sunk, or even sighted, during the two-week


raid. Allied convoys were not seriously disrupted – most convoys sailed according to schedule, and there was no diminution of supplies to Britain. On the other hand, the Atlantic U-boat campaign was disrupted;


boats in the Atlantic sank just two ships in the last weeks of May, compared to 29 at the beginning of the month. The Kriesgmarine was never again able to mount a major surface


operation against Allied supply routes in the North Atlantic; henceforth its only weapon was the U-boat. I sincerely hope that next January Navy News honour the Swordfish


aircrew that sacrificed their lives by marking the 70th anniversary of the Channel Dash.


– Trevor Walhen, Basingstoke


courier a bottle of their finest tipple to the writer of our top letter. This month’s winner is: George Drewett


Each month Pussers Rum are offering to


love our Navy


Why I


ONCE Navy always Navy - how often have I heard that old saying? It is true. A few of us members


of Hanworth RNA had the great privilege of meeting the residents of Pembroke House (the care home in Gillingham owned and managed by the RN Benevolent Trust) at their Summer Fair. What a wonderful time


The staff were busy caring for those in need, making sure they had all they needed to eat and drink. The barbecue blazed away


we all had together. Once the wheelchairs were manouevred around the tables and all were settled, the Royal Marines music kept the party going with a swing. We soon made friends with all.


Last of the true sailmakers


to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the accession of the Queen to the throne on February 6 1952. It is not intended to be


recognition of operational service, long and efficient service, or any form of “terms and conditions of service”, for which appropriate forms of medallic recognition are available. Detailed qualifying criteria will


be issued shortly but a five-year length of qualifying service criterion has been customary for previous Coronation and Jubilee medals back to the 1953 Coronation Medal at least – Managing Ed


I READ February’s article on gangway screens while I was in hospital and wasn’t able to reply, but now I’m home so here is my comment. I was a sailmaker on board


the Ark Royal, not the just- decommissioned one but the one before, and on the last commission I made the gangway screens for the Ark when she was at the Spithead Fleet Review. I also made a second set for in harbour, painted with the ships’ crests by the chief painter. All the electrical covers were


made in white drill with blue piping and the screens for the gangway were placed on the upper hanger lift-well. The reason for screens on the


gangway was for the decency of guests going onboard, attending dinners, etc. It was interesting to read that


there are bosuns calling themselves Sailmakers, as I was one of the last true Sailmakers to leave the RN. I did a nine-month apprenticeship at HMS Victory, now HMS Nelson, in the sail loft, which included taking exams on my trade. Since leaving the Navy I have


become a member of the RNA Plymouth, having sociable fun and the occasional rum tot. I wonder if anyone out there remembers me?


– Sid ‘Sails’ Elbro, Plymouth


Bicester’s tin appeal


and RN officers made sure no one missed out, and went round picking up the empties and putting the cash into plastic bags. It never happened in my day! Never mind, I found a young sub-lieutenant one ringer – a lady one – to be my going-ashore oppo. Not only that but at my table


I had a commander, lieutenants, a Jenny Wren and a Jolly Jack, all spinning yarns. Luckily for me the commander


why? Because we are all Navy, one company, one faith, serving or have served. That’s the Navy I love. – George Drewett,


Shepperton, Middlesex


was a minesweeper chap, so we did a bit of sweeping – even if it was only rubbish under the table! Well we all had a drink together,


THE Training Ship Bicester, the headquarters of Willesden and St Marylebone Sea Cadets, is a converted tin tabernacle, as Navy News has reported. You correctly state that very few


of these structures remain. A very small number are still used for their original purpose, but we have one of the few in our parish, and it has been in continuous service since its erection. It is St Aidan’s Church,


Caythorpe, Nottinghamshire (above), and services are held there at least once every month. Good luck to TS Bicester in


LGBT RM – or not?


I COULDN’T help noticing in August’s edition that there are no Royal Marines in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender march-past. Does Royal have his own


squad to march past, or is being gay, bisexual or transgender not allowed in the Corps? – W Williams, Okehampton, Devon


their quest to get more support. – Edgar Jackson, Gunthorpe, Notts


IT’S very easy at the moment to become depressed, whether at the state of the Navy post-SDSR, or more generally at the state of the nation. Pessimism can become a bad habit and a self-fulfilling


prophecy, so it’s timely to be reminded by Capt Dickie Payne, who heads the carrier strike programme in Navy Command HQ, that somewhere out there is a potential pilot about to be recruited into the Royal Navy who in 2032 will be Commander Air in one of our new Queen Elizabeth Class carriers. Regretting past glories is a natural human reaction, but


we should not let it infect the hopes and aspirations of the younger generation. Instead of falling into regret for the past, we should remind


programme to which the Government is committed. They offer tangible proof that there is a future for the Royal Navy, and for those young people who want to join it.


The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the MOD


ourselves that by 2020 not only will the Navy be operating with the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, Type 45 destroyers, and Astute-class hunter-killer submarines, but on the blocks will be the new Type 26 Global Combat Ships (replacing our current frigates); new RFA tankers; an upgraded helicopter fleet, and the successors to the Vanguard-class Trident submarines, which currently carry the nation’s nuclear deterrent. These are not future wishes, but a naval equipment


September 2011 no.686: 57th year Leviathan Block, HMS Nelson, Portsmouth PO1 3HH


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