The bell tolls for Cumberland as she pays off

WITH dark clouds looming, the White Ensign is lowered for the final time on HMS Cumberland as the third of four frigates axed under the Defence Review pays off.

The ship’s bell resounded three times before sailors hauled down the Royal Navy’s standard on the penultimate Type 22 frigate with the solemn tones of the Band of HM Royal Marines echoing around Devonport Naval Base.

Around 100 guests, families and friends of the Fighting Sausage, and crew members past and present were invited to attend the poignant last act in Cumberland’s proud career.

Fighting Sausage "bows out in style"

NOW that’s what we call a welcome.

Two tugs squirting jets of water with their fire hoses, a Lynx flypast, one police launch, one RIB.

What you can’t hear is the gun salute echoing around Plymouth Sound, or for that matter the cheers of hundreds of people a couple of miles away on a jetty in Devonport Naval Base.

And all for HMS Cumberland.

The Fighting Sausage and the nearly 300 souls aboard her brought the curtain down on a proud 22-year career with arguably the most eventful deployment by any British warship in the past couple of decades.

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Top bombing pulverises Gaddafi's ammo bunkers

THIS is what the Allied air campaign is doing to Colonel Gaddafi’s war machine.

Three hundred miles from the sea the bunker complex on the edge of the city of Sebha smoulders, the ground pockmarked by craters after it’s been plastered by missile strikes.

This is among the first intelligence imagery released by the MOD showing the effects of the co-ordinated naval and air attacks to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.

The images show a complex (clearly visible on Google Earth at 27° 3'50.90"N, 14°27'15.18"E) of around 40 underground bunkers which were home to small arms and artillery ammunition.

Sailors help major evacuation effort

BUT if you’re thinking ‘HMS Cumberland’ or 'HMS York' and ‘Libya’ you’d be wrong.

No, these are Britons caught up in the latest unrest between Ginger and Brownia. Saving their bacon is the good ship Albion, which has dispatched her landing craft to ‘Freeport’ to evacuate them.

The Brownian enclave of Freeport is actually Wilsons Beach, just around the corner from Weston Mill Lake Jetty (hence the unmistakable outline of HMS Ocean in the background).

York delivers aid to Benghazi and prepares to evacuate last Britons

TONS of medical aid has arrived in war-torn Benghazi aboard HMS York as the destroyer arrived for the latest stage of the civilian evacuation.

York sailed into the eastern Libyan port late this morning in the third rescue sortie carried out by the Royal Navy since the unrest in the North African nation became critical.

HMS Cumberland has already ferried more than 400 civilians – including in excess of 100 Brits – safely from rebel-held Benghazi to Grand Harbour.

Cumberland goes 'beyond the call of duty' to rescue civilians in Libya

HMS Cumberland is due back in Malta today after her second rescue mission to save foreigners caught up in Libya’s spiralling civil war.

Some 200 civilians – many of them oil workers from refineries in eastern Libya – boarded the frigate in driving rain in rebel-held Benghazi yesterday.

The port is the focal point of the international evacuation effort and several hundred Britons are still thought to be spread across the country.

Cumberland arrives in Benghazi to begin evacuation of Brits

HMS Cumberland has arrived in the Libyan port of Benghazi to evacuate stranded Britons.

The frigate, which broke off her return journey at the end of a six-month deployment east of Suez, is preparing to embark upwards of 100 Britons trapped in Libya's second city as the North African state descends into anarchy.

An estimated 50-100 British citizens are believed to be stuck in the east of the country, where Libyans have thrown off the shackles off Colonel Gaddafi’s regime.

Cumberland arrived off the port this morning as the British Government sought permission for her to enter harbour. That was given and shortly after mid-day UK time the frigate arrived in Benghazi.

The Foreign Office has been encouraging Britons in eastern Libya to make for the port. Cumberland will take what citizens it can and sail for Valetta in Malta.

Although RAF Hercules and civilian charter planes have been dispatched to the Libyan capital Tripoli, no such option was available in Benghazi's case: the runways are believed to have been damaged during fighting between rebel and government forces.

Cumberland sent to Libya as crisis deepens

HMS Cumberland is today on stand-by in the Mediterranean as civil unrest in Libya worsens.

The frigate was ordered to international waters off the North African state yesterday as Whitehall became increasingly concerned by the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi's regime – and the dictator's threats to clamp down hard on the rebels.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Cumberland was being "pre-positioned" off the Libyan coast should an evacuation of British citizens be necessary.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office estimates there are several hundred Britons in Libya presently – and it is looking to bring them home by air or sea.

Frigates work together for the final time

In the foreground HMS Cumberland. Beyond her, her sister HMS Cornwall.

Never again will two Type 22 frigates work together on operations – in this case safeguarding the troubled waters east of Suez.

Both are conducting their final deployments: the Fighting Sausage initially in the Gulf, now outside it; Cornwall as the flagship of Combined Task Force 151 keeping pirates under the thumb off the Horn of Africa.

All four 22s were axed under last year’s defence review: HMS Chatham has already paid off, Campbeltown is due to decommission imminently.

Royal Navy Frigate Continues to Support French Carrier in Gulf

HMS Cumberland has continued her operations over the Christmas and New Year period in support of the Frenchaircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle by escorting her through the Strait of Hormuz early Boxing Day morning (26 December 2010).

While most people in Britain were sleeping off the Christmas Day excess, HMS Cumberland led the French carrier group through the vital Strait of Hormuz and into the Gulf.

The British frigate had been acting in support of Charles de Gaulle in the Indian Ocean while she conducted air operations into Afghanistan over the Christmas period. Cumberland's duties with the French will continue in the Gulf.

Cumberland's Christmas tasking afforded her crew little opportunity to relax and enjoy the festivities, although, in traditional fashion, roast turkey and all the trimmings was served to the sailors by Cumberland's Captain and officers. Captain Steve Dainton, Captain of HMS Cumberland, said:

"Cumberland's tasking in support of Charles de Gaulle over Christmas has demonstrated the longstanding and close working relationship between the French Navy and us.

"The Strait of Hormuz is a vital sea lane and Cumberland has been tasked to assist in the provision of security for the French carrier. This is a task we have already provided for other high value shipping since we've been on task in the area."

Cumberland is a versatile multi-role frigate, and is as much at home providing support to the carrier as she has been providing a reassuring presence to peaceful maritime use of the Gulf since the beginning of November 2010.

She assumed responsibility as the on-watch Gulf frigate from HMS Somerset on 31 October 2010.