NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 1996 29 Options
RSITY OF GUNN
Spotlight on the campus at HMS Cambridge
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AVAL gunnery training started in the West Country 140 years ago this month - and HMS Cambridge is now celebrating the 40th anniversary of its move to its present site at Wembury, near Plymouth. Originally, the fourth HMS Cambridge was commissioned as the Gunnery Training Ship and moored in Plymouth Sound. Her berth was later shifted to the Hamoaze, next to Trevol where the rifle range was built. In 1869 the fifth Cambridge (launched as the Windsor Castle but laid down as Victoria) took on the role. Then, in 1909, training moved ashore to HM Gunnery School, Devonport, then part of the barracks, HMS Drake. The old Cambridge was broken up at Falmouth - but her figurehead (of a young Queen Victoria) remains on the parade ground at Wembury. During World War I there was another HMS Cambridge - the requisitioned paddle steamer Cambria and in 1939 a gunnery range was opened at Wembury, just to the east of Plymouth Sound. • Left: "Come into my web, said the spider to the fly . . . " Getting the feel of a 20mm Oerlikon used for close range air defence on RN and RFA ships. • Above: Fast roping techniques for boarding parties are also taught at the Royal Navy's Gunnery School.
Air defences This was mainly for Army use at first and was part of the city's air defences, but the Navy moved in in the autumn of 1940 and became the main user after the war. Exactly 100 years after the fourth HMS Cambridge was commissioned, the Devonport Gunnery School moved there. HMS Cambridge is part of the new Naval Recruiting and Training Agency and provides live gunnery and military training for the RN, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and friendly foreign navies. The clifftop site covers 155 acres including two sites of Special Scientific Interest and two bird colonies. One of these is on the Mewstone Rock and the other on the shoreline which is one
of the UK's main breeding sites for the Cirl Bunting, an endangered species. They seem to thrive here - despite the noise! - probably because very few people have access to their breeding areas. There are actually four schools on the site - Medium Range Gunnery, Close Range, Naval Military Training and
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Board and Search. Both the gunnery schools make full use of the permanently active danger areas off Wembury to fire their guns out to sea. Safety is provided at all times by two radars (in different frequency bands to minimise the risk of missing a tiny contact in the clutter). Also, the area where the rounds fall is cleared visually. For the medium range weapons this is usually about seven nautical miles offshore. When visibility is low the target towing vessel's Master gives the all clear. The Medium Range school is based around two 4.5 inch Mk 8 turrets and their associated fire control systems - GSA8 (as in the Batch 3 Type 22 and Type 23 frigates) and the Basic Fire Control Trainer, based loosely on the GSA4 and now used for generic training.
Live training
• The fourth HMS Cambridge, photographed in Plymouth Sound in 1857 shortly after her commissioning as Gunnery Training Ship. The picture was taken by Scotland's first photographer, George Washington Wilson, later Photographer Royal, from the flagship HMS Revenge. A salvo went off accidentally, owing to a mistaken signal and Wilson got such a fright that he dropped a bottle of silver nitrate on the deck which left an indelible black stain . .
The Close Range School has a mix of all the manually aimed and fired 20mm and 30mm weapons found in HM ships and RFAs. Gunnery training usually starts in the classroom, from where the students progress to a simulator. The final stage, before going to sea, is live firing training. The Royal Navy believes that a period of live training, with its associated high stress levels, is essential if operators are to join their ships ready in all respects to use their guns if required. The Naval Military Training School trains naval personnel in the skills needed to be able to use small arms safely and effectively. Under the 1988 Firearms Act every person who handles an automatic or semi-
automatic weapon must pass an annual firing test and a twomonthly competence check. HMS Cambridge trains all those who will use the weapons, their supervisors and those who conduct the Navy-wide continuation training. Apart from the classrooms, the main means of teaching these military skills are a stateof-the-art computerised indoor small arms range simulator, called the Small Arms Trainer, and two outdoor firing ranges. In an area known for its wet weather, the SAT provides a very useful way of introducing people to handling and firing the weapons and coaching them to improve their skills. This is done in a warm, dry environment where the students are much more receptive - after which the legally required annual test (now the Naval Annual Personal Weapons Test) can be fired in all weathers. Board and Search Training is given to all ships deployed outside UK waters. These must be able to take part in everything from UN embargoes to antidrug operations - and again, apart from classroom training there is a strong practical aspect that includes practising fast roping techniques from 40 ft up and searching merchant vessel-type compartments.
Confidence All this means that HMS Cambridge is a busy place, with over 5,000 students passing through each year. After a period when the future of live training has been closely examined, its future is now secure - and it can look forward to its 50th birthday with confidence.
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