NAVY NEWS, JUNE 1997 Options
Rusty and encrusted, but still in surprisingly good condition, one of the Graf Spee's A A guns is brought ashore after almost six decades on the bed of the River Plate. The man with the handkerchief to his face is a former member of the ship's company.
MS Norfolk at scene of River Plate victory
RAF RAISED
GUN
HMS NORFOLK'S visit to Montevideo gleaned news there of the salvage of a relic recalling a Royal Navy victory of almost 60 years ago. During the South Atlantic South Atlantic shipping lanes. Although her 11 in main guardship's stand-off in the Uruguayan capital for mid- armament outranged the cruisHMS Exeter, Achilles and deployment maintenance, ers the Graf Spee was damshe learned that divers had Ajax, aged and forced to seek repair just raised an anti-aircraft in the neutral port of gun from the wreck of the Montevideo. German pocket battleship Believing that the British Admiral Graf Spee, scuttled force had been reinforced by outside the harbour in 1939. capital ships, the German Capt The gun, one of the warship's six 105mm weapons, was brought up for a TV programme. One of the men present as the weapon was landed was one of the sailors who were interned across the River Plate in Argentina, and later settled in the region. Three cruisers had cornered the Graf Spee In the River Plate after she had embarked on a destructive raiding spree in the
• HMS Norfolk in King Edward Cove, South Georgia. Picture: Lt Cdr Roger Float.
Langsdorff scuttled his ship a few days later and afterwards shot himself.
Exercises HMS Norfolk, which is due to return to Devonport in July, is almost five months into her deployment. Her activities have ranged from troop transfer and supply in South Georgia to fishery protection on behalf of the Falklands administration. The ship has conducted air defence exercises with RAF Tornado strike aircraft, transferred stores and personnel from RAF helicopters, and conducted naval gunfire support with Gurkha spotters and patrols ashore. She has practised naval skills with the patrol vessel HMS Leeds Castle and the fleet tanker RFA Grey Rover. The frigate also found time to commemorate the San Carlos landings in 1982 and hold a Combined Services Entertainment show in her hangar.
The Graf Spee in Montevideo after the Battle of the River Plate.
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Southampton gets it all together in GuH • RFA Bayleaf refuels HMS Southampton over the stern during Gulf operations. Picture: LA(PHOT) Nobby Hall.
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HMS SOUTHAMPTON'S busy Gulf deployment which ends this month has involved her in a series of exercises with the navies of Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain - as well as the USA and France. The Type 42 destroyer's most recent wargame was Exercise Neon Spark with the Bahrain! and US navies. That followed similar manoeuvres with US, French and Kuwaiti warships in Ex Eager Sentry, and with the USA, France and Oman in an exercise codenamed Khunjar Hadd. In between the training periods she has been involved in enforcing UN sanctions against Iraq, boarding and checking over 20 merchant vessels for illicit cargoes. She was being relieved on task by HMS Westminster on June 1 and is due to undertake more exercises with allied forces on her way home. Her last port of call is Raima. Majorca, before she is due to complete the last leg of her voyage home to Portsmouth on June 25. j
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