Memorial service for Falklands leader Sir Henry

A MEMORIAL service will be held next month to honour Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Leach, one of the Navy's greatest leaders in the modern era.

Sir Henry, who helped sink the Scharnhorst in World War 2 and went on to lead the Royal Navy as First Sea Lord during the Falklands conflict – famously telling premier Mrs Thatcher that his Fleet could (and should) liberate the islands – died last month at the age of 87.

His decisiveness in 1982 helped to enshrine his position as one of the most revered – and best-loved – Naval leaders of the post-war age.

A service of thanksgiving for his life and achievements will be held in Winchester Cathedral on Friday June 17 at 2pm.

Those wishing to attend are invited to apply for tickets no later than May 27 either by email tosue.dickinson428@mod.uk or by letter to Mrs S Dickinson, Navy Command Headquarters, MP G-2, West Battery, Whale Island, Portsmouth, PO2 8DX.

Tickets will be despatched from June 1 and will be issued on an individual basis; applications should therefore include the full names of all those who wish to attend. Admission to the service will be by ticket only.

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Brocklesby deals with 'very real threat' off besieged Misrata

THIS is the first, chilling image of a mine laid by Gaddafi’s forces off the beleaguered city of Misrata – and blown up by HMS Brocklesby minutes later.

Crudely tethered to an inflatable boat – sunk to serve as a makeshift ‘mooring’ – the mine packs 100kg explosive and was laid just a mile off the entrance to the Libyan port.

It was one of three dumped in the waters off Misrata by pro-Gaddafi forces – who have made repeated attempts to close the port.

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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Thales signs new Merlin support contract with Lockheed Martin

LONDON (BNS): Thales UK has signed a new contract with Lockheed Martin UK for the next five-year phase of the existing 25-year Integrated Merlin Operational Support (IMOS) programme.

This new contract covers the period April 2011 to March 2016 and continues to provide an availability-based support package for the acoustic sub-system for the Merlin Mk1 and Mk2 helicopters operated by the Royal Navy.

The Merlin’s acoustic sub-system comprises the Folding Light Acoustic System for Helicopters (FLASH) Active Dipping Sonar, combined with a sonics sub-system for sonobuoy processing.

Sutherland joins headline Cougar deployment

ON A glorious spring morn, HMS Sutherland heads into Plymouth Sound – the last ship to depart as part on the RN’s headline deployment of 2011, Cougar.

The Type 23 frigate departed Devonport today to join up with flagship HMS Albion, which sailed yesterday, and a flurry of Royal Fleet Auxiliaries: two Bay-class landing support ships (Mounts and Cardigan), one tanker (Wave Knight), and one floating warehouse (Fort Rosalie).

In addition to the ‘big ticket items’, green berets of 40 Commando are deploying with the task group aboard Albion and also Cardigan Bay, which sailed from Marchwood port in Southampton Water yesterday.

Campbeltown sails for the last time

THERE is the very last chance to see HMS Campbeltown sail under the White Ensign this afternoon as the frigate returns to Plymouth to pay off.

The frigate is due to enter Plymouth Harbour around 2pm today, flying her decommissioning pennant and escorted by patrol boat HMS Raider.

As she passes the Royal Citadel fort on the Hoe she’ll exchange ceremonial formalities with the garrison, firing a gun salute.

It will be, says Cdr Keri Harris, Campbeltown’s final Commanding Officer, “an emotional day for all involved”

The plug was pulled on all four remaining Type 22 frigates last October under the Strategic Defence and Security Review; in  Campbeltown’s case, the ship was gearing up to head to the Indian Ocean on anti-piracy duties when news of her demise was announced.

Fighting G home for the last time

THE curtain falls on the magnificent 25-year career of HMS Gloucester tomorrow when she returns from her final deployment.

The veteran destroyer will be greeted by hundreds of families and friends in Portsmouth – plus the lady who has followed the ship from the laying of the keel to this last act: the Duchess of Gloucester.

She’s shown avid interest in the Type 42’s progress through one war (first Gulf), two rededications and 15 captains.

Bite-sized exercise for Albion

HAVE a nice cup of tea and a sit down…

Now this may look like a group of officers grouped around a table, chatting over a cuppa…  (apologies for the chintz chairs…)

Well, it is a group of officers grouped around a table, chatting over a cuppa… but they are chatting about serious things.

They’re discussing Exercise Green Alligator – green for marine, alligator because it’s HMS Al(bion) and it sounds quite warry… – in a planning room aboard the nation’s flagship.

Richmond parties - for serious reasons

SOME people in this photograph are taking part in a four-day party in an island paradise.

That’s right, it’s the ship’s company of HMS Richmond (they’re the ones in whites…).

Sailors from the Portsmouth Type 23 frigate took a break from clamping down on piracy for a few days’ break in Seychelles.

The warship’s visit to the islands coincided with the inaugural Carnival International de Victoria (translation’s fairly easy…) which saw more than 20 nations represented in some form.

Bulwark takes her place in the Fleet again

JUST one more thing young man... 

In the bowels of HMS Bulwark, Cdre John Kingwell raises an issue with one of the assault ship’s junior officers.

The commodore – Commander UK Task Group – was one of the inspecting officials to determine whether 18,000 tonnes of pusser’s grey was fit to take her place in the Fleet after a £30m refit.

Since the ship emerged from that overhaul at Devonport, she’s been shaking off the cobwebs (chief among them an anchor which resolutely refused to budge automatically and so required the ship’s company to haul it in manually...

Brock n roll as minehunter encounters heavy weather

THIS is what the Navy calls ‘a bit sporty’.

Waves crash over the bow of minehunter HMS Brocklesby as she struggles across the Bay of Biscay to take part in NATO exercises.

Hunts are not renowned for their seakeeping and the infamous bay is not renowned for showing clemency to mariners.

Perfect combination, then.

When Brock did complete her passage in company with the rest of NATO’s Standing Mine Countermeasures Group 1, she joined more than 20 vessels from 17 Allied nations on Exercise Noble Mariner.

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.

Falklands 'forgotten ship' finally honoured

AT LAST there stands a memorial to the ‘forgotten ship’ on the islands she helped liberate 30 years ago.

On Hookers Point outside Stanley, and surrounded by small square granite setts representing the ship’s company, is the monument to HMS Glamorgan.

Nineteen miles from that spot in 1982, the guided missile destroyer was struck by an Argentine Exocet missile in one of the final acts of the Falklands war.

Fast jets buzz Albans off Plymouth

HOW far away are they?

Not very.

This isn't a trick of the eye. That Hawk really is rather close to HMS St Albans as the frigate is buzzed during training off Plymouth.

The Saint is undergoing combat training with the Flag Officer Sea Training organisation in Devonport in company with Britain's biggest warship, HMS Ocean, and destroyer HMS Edinburgh.

The Mighty O's being given some 'top-up' training by FOST ahead of some demanding aviation exercises involving Apaches, Chinooks and Merlin, while Edinburgh is readying herself for deployment later in the year after a lengthy refit in Portsmouth.

Culdrose sailors take giant steps

A Sea King from 771 Naval Air Squadron lifts a metal stairway out of the English Channel – one of the more unusual ‘rescue’ missions the Ace of Clubs have been called to.

The steps in question lead from the top of rocks at Porth Kerris, near St Keverne on the Lizard peninsula, down to the sea.

They were used by divers from all three Services – the imaginatively-titled Porth Kerris building nearby, which is looked after by Culdrose staff, serves as the frogmen’s dedicated ‘clubhouse’.

Winter storms ripped the stairway off the rock and tossed them into the sea – prompting a two-stage rescue operation.

First a team from HMS Seahawk Sub Aqua Club moved the steps into deeper waters – where they’d receive less of a battering from the waves – by borrowing some special lifting bags from fellow divers in Falmouth.

Teekay Tankers To Load Vessel In Libya In Next Couple Of Days

LONDON (Dow Jones)–A Suezmax vessel owned by New York-listed Teekay Tankers Ltd (TNK) is still scheduled to load at a Libyan port over the next couple of days despite port closures by the country’s head of state Col. Moammar Gadhafi, a company spokesperson told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.

“We have a suezmax scheduled for Libya in the next couple of days,” Priscilla Sharun said.

All ports, including Zawia, Tripoli, Benghazi and Misurata, were closed Tuesday, traders in Libya said, with force majeure declared on all imports of gasoline and gas oil.

Last salute for the Mighty Manch

SALUTING the ship which has served the nation for 30 years – and which he has commanded for the past two – Commander Rex Cox bids farewell to HMS Manchester.

The destroyer formally bowed out of the Senior Service this morning as she was decommissioned in Portsmouth Naval Base.

Having sailed the equivalent of 35 times around the globe, Manchester – known affectionately by her 250 sailors as the Mighty Manch or Busy Bee – will sail no more as she makes way for the next generation of destroyers gradually entering service.

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.

Bye, George as support ship sails out of Plymouth

WITH the waves crashing against Plymouth’s outer breakwater, RFA Fort George leaves the Royal Navy’s West Country home for the final time.

The one-stop support ship is one of the ‘forgotten victims’ of the Strategic Defence and Security Review; while all the media attention (and we too fell into this trap admittedly) focused on the demise of HMS Ark Royal, the Harrier jump jets and all four Type 22 frigates, three auxiliaries were also axed – a smaller surface fleet requires a smaller support fleet.