36
NAVY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 1997
Oldest Marine dies at 103
Options
Big welcome home for global task group ships
Ocean Wave rolls ashore
THE OLDEST surviving Royal Marine, former CSM George Finch, has died at the age of 103. He joined the RM Light Infantry in 1908 and during World War I was awarded the DSM for his part in the sinking of a U-boat by the merchant cruiser HMS Oropesa in 1915. Later in the war he survived the sinking of the cruiser HMS Drake, going on to complete 24 years' service before joining the Royal Marines Police. He retired in 1958. In October, at a gathering at the Imperial War Museum, George Finch met Jack Gearing, at 102 the oldest former Naval rating and the last RN survivor of Gallipoli. Jack died earlier this year.
AS NAVY NEWS went to press thousands of sailors were approaching the
shores of Britain after seven months at sea on exercise Ocean Wave '97. When HMS Fearless arrived home on August 4 she was welcomed back to Portsmouth by Royal Marines bandsmen and cheering crowds on the jetty and Round Tower.
Death of Prince of Wales' most senior survivor THE MOST senior surviving officer of the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales has died aged 95 at his home in Twyford, Hampshire. Cdr Arthur Greg Skipwith was First Lieutenant of the battleship when she and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk in a Japanese air attack off Malaya in December 1941. His long Naval career spanned four decades, and ended when he retired in 1947. After the Japanese surrender in 1945 he was a member of the Naval party which opened the port. He was also the author of the Admiralty's Damage Control Handbook of the time. The last surviving escapee from the top-security PoW camp at Colditz Castle, Cdr Billie Stephens, has also died, aged 85. Cdr Stephens, as a lieutenant in the RNVR, was captured on the St Nazaire raid in 1942 and spent less than two months at Colditz before escaping successfully with four other prisoners, including Capt Pat Reid RASC. Cdr Stephens was a holder of the DSC and Bar and the French Medaille Militaire.
i Assault ship HMS Fearless, one of the first warships to return from the seven-month Ocean Wave deployment, enters Portsmouth to a rousing reception. Picture: LA(PHOT) Richard Thompson, FPU.
Ship firefighters win praise over Cattistock blaze
MEMBERS of the ship's company of HMS Cattistock are being praised for their swift action in bringing a serious engine-room fire under control in the minehunter.
The Hunt-class vessel was crippled by the blaze during an exercise in the Solent with her fellow ships in NATO's Standing Naval Force Channel. No one was injured and the fire was quickly doused thanks to swift and effective damage control, i said a Royal Navy spokesperson.
The fire is believed to have started when a high pressure air bottle, used to start the starboard main engine, exploded and damaged a fuel tank. This caused a fireball which left the ship via the starboard airlock access, starting secondary fires in a battery store and gash stowage on the sweep deck. Once the fires were out, Cattistock was towed to Portsmouth by the Danish minelayer Falster. It is believed that repairs to the damaged ship will take weeks. j
An even bigger turn-out was expected for the arrival on August 28 of HMS Illustrious, HMS Gloucester and HMS Richmond at Pompey and HMS Beaver, Trafalgar and Trenchant at Devonport. Armed Forces Minister Dr John Reid was flying out to HMS Illustrious to welcome home the flagship of the exercise and meet the Commander of the UK Task Group, Rear Admiral Alan West. At Devonport, Deputy Flag Officer Submarines, Commodore Tim McClement, was greeting HMS Trafalgar, the first British nuclear submarine to circumnavigate the globe through the Suez and Panama canals, and HMS Trenchant, the last submarine to be in Hong Kong. Ocean Wave would not have
Anglesey saves two on Atlantic boat voyage HMS ANGLESEY went to the rescue of a 67-year-old man and his grandson after their boat was almost smashed to pieces in a collision with a Chinese freighter. The 45ft sloop Soy Yun lost her mast and all her communications equipment in the crash 130 miles south of the Scilly Isles. Canadian skipper Ian Jackson, who was sailing from New York to Cornwall with his seven-year-old grandson Christopher, managed to stabilise his vessel and continue under engine power. But it was two days before a French fisherman spotted his damaged vessel and raised the alarm.
Gib gets first tri-Service provost unit
SUBSCRIBE TO NAVY NEWS For as little as £14 a year you can receive Navy News, delivered to your door every month FREE! A WONDERFUL FULL COLOUR POSTER (normal price £2.50 inc. p&p)
WITH EVERY NEW SUBSCRIPTION Subscriber Priviliges: * 1st to see the latest Navy News from around the world
* 1st to receive Special Offers ^^ * Your copy is delivered to your door, hot off the press Claim your FREE POSTER by returning the Priority Order Form with remittance or call our
on + 44 (0)1705 826040 To: Navy News Business Manager, HMS Nelson, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, PO1 3HH. Yes I would like a
lyear
2year
3year subscription
'tick as appropriate) and claim my FREE poster Subscription rates: (Navy News is published monthly) UK: 1 year - £14.00; 2 years - £25; 3 years - £36.50 Overseas surface mail: (including Republic of Ireland, Europe, Canada, USA, & Australia) lyear - £17.50; 2 years - £30.00; 3years - £43.00 Payment by Cheque/Switch or International Money Orders in £ Sterling and drawn on UK bank is enclosed OR complete the Credit Card option below (Credit Card orders must be over £4.)
Monmouth off to W. Africa
9"770028"167054"
firing ranges in the world - 3,400 sq kms. Speaking from South Africa, Major Simon Shadbolt said: "The combined arms field firing involved anti-tank missiles, mortars, helicopter live firing, our own battery of 105mm guns and some very heavy supporting fire from South African multi-launch rocket systems and 155 mms. "There are only a few main areas where you can do something on this scale and it is certainly the largest we have taken part in for some time." • Full report and pictures in next month's Navy News.
Credit Card Hot Line
THE FORMER HMS Rooke in Gibraltar has new tenants with the creation of the first totally triService provost unit. The old Gibraltar Joint Provost Unit (GJPU) has been disbanded and replaced by a new, 28-member Gibraltar Provost and Security Unit, an amalgamation of the GJPU, RAF Police and security representatives of all the Services. There are now three RN Regulators on the Rock - LREGs Perry Bruce, Jay Jaycock and Mac McCaffrey.
TYPE 23 frigate HMS Monmouth leaves this month for deployment to the Eastern Atlantic off the coast of West and Southern Africa. The ship is scheduled to leave Devonport on September 5, and will return early next year.
been possible without the Royal Fleet Auxiliary: RFAs Olna, Fort Austin, Fort George and Sir Percivale are all on their way in. And Sir Galahad and Sir Geraint are making their way back from South Africa where 40 Commando Group have just completed the largest international exercise there since the end of Apartheid. Almost 700 RM Commandos and a troop of Dutch Marines joined forces with the South African Defence Force for the exercise on one of the biggest live
Card Number Exp Date
Visa/Access/Mastercard/Delta/Switch. Issue No(Switch)
Amount: £
Signature of Cardholder:
IM.I:ASK. m.i. IN mi-: FORMS KKI.O\V IN HI.OCK cAITI AI.S My Name.. Address....
Britannia's last holiday FAMILIES of Royal Yachtsmen bid bon voyage to the Queen at Portsmouth Naval Base before she embarked in HMY Britannia for the ship's last Western Isles voyage. Britannia was taking members of the Royal Family on their annual summer holiday trip to the Scottish Islands before she is due to be decommissioned at the end of the year.
Plans to end the ship's service have not been altered by an unsolicited proposal by a private company to refit her for about £50 million. A Ministry of Defence spokesman told Navy News that the proposal to overhaul her for 20-30 years further service could not be rejected out of hand and therefore was being studied. However, he stressed that decommissioning plans had not changed.
..Postcode.. WHY NOT TAKE OIT A SI HS< R I I ' I I O N FOR A FRIFAI) OR RF.I.ATIVF. Friend/Relatives NameAddress ..Postcode.. Please Note: This offer applies to NEW subscriptions only
Please start subscription from month Due to administration costs, a refund cannot ho given if the subscription is cancelled during the first year.
Published by Navy News, HMS Nelson. Portsmouth, and printed by Portsmouth Publishing and Printing Ltd, The News Centre, Hilsea, Portsmouth, PO2 9SX