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NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 1982
All-round success for Sea
Christmas on the beat -
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FOUR WARSHIPS arrived on station off the Falklands in late November to take up their role as the islanders' Christmas guardians. HMS Among them is the new Type 42 destroyer Liverpool, undertaking her first deployment. She and HM ships Ariadne and Charybdis left Plymouth on November 8 to rendezvous with the force flagship, HMS Antrim, which sailed from Portsmouth on the same day
(see Page 8). Embarked in the Antrim is the new naval commander in the South Atlantic, Rear-Admiral R. W. F. Gerken, Flag Officer Second Flotilla. The Antrim is the only one of the four ships to have taken pert in the Falklands war. At the time the Charybdis was completing refit with the Seawolt surface-to-air missile. Her *later-ship, HMS Adriadne, is now one of the few Leander frigates in the Royal Navy to be armed with 4.5-in, guns.
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Eagle
Silhouetted against the low sun, HMS Liverpool sails from Plymouth on her first deployment and (below), wearing the flag of RearAdmiral R. W. F. Gerken, HMS Antrim passes Portsmouth's Round Tower.
SEA EAGLE, Britain's airborne, sea-skimming missile which is far in advance of Exocet, has undergone its first salvo firing. The missiles, which will eventually equip Royal Navy Sea Harriers, were launched successfully by an RAF Buccaneer jet at a distance of more than 30 miles from target. They struck a representation of a light attack craft, approaching it from dif' fcrent directions - a tactic which poses a new threat to target vessels. During trials Sea Eagle has been consistently reliable, performing even better than anticipated. Britain's first "thinking" missile with on-hoard cornSea Eagle can be programmed to reject one target in favour of another. It has twice the range of Exocct and a larger ss irhead.
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SHIPBORNE Studies have been carried out a view to producing a Thorne version as a replacenent for the French-designed capon which currently equips British warships. Sea Eagle has been developed the British Aerospace I) imics Group, major subtractors including Marconi a Microturbo SA (suppliers the gas turbine engine). Meanwhile. in the field of iice-to-air missiles, a Seacat launcher has been converted to fire the more potent Scawolf. The first successful firing of a Seawolf from the lightweight, low-cost launcher was carried out by British Aerospace, workins in association with Rose Forgrove Ltd.
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SISTERS.. . BUT IN NAME ONLY!
£2,600 gift for frigate
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A GROUP of northern factory workers have boosted HMS Broadsword's recreation fund by £2,600 in a fund-raising campaign for the ship.
Development of the Leander-class frigates makes HMS Charybdis (left) almost unrecognisable as a sister-ship of the unconverted Batch 3 Leander HMS Ariadne (above). Both photographs were taken on their departure for the Falklands. Thousands away at Christmas - see back page.
A SPANISH trawler arrested by the fishery protection vessel HMS Alderney was fined a total of £4,500, plus £200 costs for fishing with undersized nets. The Alderney, under the command of Licut.-Cdr. Andy Du Port, stopped the trawler for routine inspection in the SouthWest Approaches. In a six-hour search of the hold a considerable amount of immature fish was found by the Alderney's executive officer, Lieut. Mike Wright, and the coxswain, RPO John Levey. As the language harrier provea problem a four-man crew was put on hoard "prize comprising Mid. Paul Raisbeck. MEA Frank Firth, MEM Dusty Miller and RO Grit Griffin. They spent an uncomfortable 24 hours until the trawler entered Falmouth.
The donors, from factories at St Helens, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, decided during the Falklands war to show their appreciation of the Royal Navy by "adopting" the Broadsword.
She travelled 8,000 miles for one of his smiles!
NO SERVICEMAN in the Falkland Islands can in his wildest dreams expect his wife to turn up on the "doorstep" - but that's exactly, what happened to LS(R) Duncan Thomson of HMS Sirius. Duncan's wife Jennifer was one of two stenographers who made the lô.(XX-mile round trip to Port and back in eight days. Stanley Purpose of the airlift was to lend a helping hand at a board of inquiry but for Jennifer a reunion with her husband was an added bonus. Duncan, who had thoughtfully been made available to the repair ship Stena Inspector to look after the visitors, was accommodated with his wife in the Upland Goose Hotel during her brief tour of duty. The short draft meant that Jennifer and LWrcn Alex Somers were the first Wren ratings to take the air rout;: from
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VISITS When the frigate returned from the South Atlantic her commanding officer, Capt. Bill Canning, and members of the ship's company visited their northern friends to he presented with the proceeds of discos, raffles and sponsored walks. Six of the find raisers visited the Broadsword at Plymouth, where they were afforded a welcome in true Navy manner.
the UK, flying by VC-10 from RAE Brize Norton to Ascension Island where they were delayed for 27 hours. A lack of female company on that remote island made them popular guests at beach parties and other social events before they embarked in a I lercules for the 13-hour. 4,(KX).mile leg to Stanley. The trip was, however, made less tedious by two in-flight refucllings which they watched from their seats on the flight deck.
Cockleshell men return
TREBLE STRENGTH On arrival in Port Stanley they trebled the WRNS strength on the staff of the Senior Naval Officer Falkland Islands, who usually has only one servicewoman on complement Second Officer Heather Robinson. During her stay Alex lived on board the Stena Inspector, side by side with 13() members of Naval Party 2010 and 30 Merchant Navy crewmen.
was 's'ARMOUTII visiting Bordeaux from Decenttier 3 to 8 to take part in a service of remembrance on the 40t Ii anniversary of Operation lraflkt()n - the Cockleshell I Icroes raid of the Second World War. Lieut.-Col. Blondie Hasler, who led the Royal Marines raid, will be accommodated oil board at Bordeaux, and Cpl. W. E. Sparks, his partner on the raid and the only other survivor, was travelling to France in the Yarmouth. llslS
LWrens Jennifer Thomson (left) and Alex Somers the Stena Inspector. Pc*uro
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CPO A J And~