OPERATION SNOWDROP
We read and hear about warmer winters. Brian Hawkins, a retired BBC producer, looks back over 60 years to a winter which started out as one of the coldest, and to his involvement in "Operation Snowdrop" whilst he was serving in the Royal Navy on his National Service engagement.
In early January 1955 I was returning from Christmas leave to my ship, HMS GLORY, a light fleet carrier, which had distinguished herself in the then recent Korean campaign. Berthed in the Royal Naval Dockyard Portsmouth, in the shadow of Nelson's flagship Victory, GLORY was preparing to join the reserve fleet.
However adverse weather conditions dictated a change of plan, Glory was to be deployed on a humanitarian mission and join "Operation Snowdrop". The weather conditions in Scotland had been severe. The country north of the Caledonian canal was virtually cut off from the rest of Scotland. Relief operations by the Royal A
72 days after the Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Isles a ceasefire was declared on 14 June; the commander of the Argentine garrison in Stanley, Brigade General Mario Menéndez, surrendered to Major General Jeremy Moore the same day.
In the face of seemingly impossible distance and against a background of impending cuts to the Armed Forces, particularly the Royal Navy Britain put together and despatched a military Task Force, that sailed with 4 days of the invasion, to regain the dependency from the Argentine invaders.
225 British personnel, 649 Argentine personnel and 3 civilians died in the conflict, nearly 2,400 were wounded. 16 ships were lost, over 80 fixed wing aircraft and nearly 50 helicopters were downed.
It is said that senior officers are always ready to fight the last war and unprepared for the next. Could Britain today despatch and sustain a similar standalone Task Force - should it retain this capability in times of austerity -
In 1588, the ships of the English Navy set sail to attack the Spanish Armada through the mouth of the River Plym, thereby establishing the naval presence in Plymouth.
In 1689 Prince William of Orange became William III and almost immediately required the building of a new dockyard west of Portsmouth. Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Royal Navy, travelled to Devon searching for an area where a dockyard could be built; he sent in two estimates for sites, one in Plymouth, Cattewater and one further along the coast, on the Hamoaze, a section of the River Tamar. Having dismissed the Plymouth site as inadequate, he settled on the Hamoaze area which soon became known as Plymouth Dock, later renamed Devonport. On 30 December 1690, a contract was let for a dockyard to be built: the start of Plymouth (later Devonport) Royal Dockyard. Dummer was given responsibility for designing and building the new yard.
At the heart of his new dockyard, Dummer placed a stone-lined basin, giving access
The Royal Navy submarine E18 was lost, with all hands, on 2 June 2016. A joint memorial service is being held on 5th June at 13.00 in the Church of the Holy Spirit, Tallinn and at St. Ann’s, Portsmouth also at 10.00.
E18 entered service in the UK in 1915 and soon began North Sea patrols with the 8th Flotilla at Harwich. On her one and only patrol prior to leaving for the Baltic E18 departed Yarmouth on 9 July 1915. On 14 July 1915 when at the mouth of the Ems, deep in enemy waters the Commanding Officer, Lt Cdr Halahan brought E18 to the surface as he preferred the sea to using the toilet arrangements on board. While in this awkward situation a Zeppelin appeared, E18 dived but was easily visible from the air. E18 was then straddled with 12 bombs which caused no damage other than some embarrassment for Halahan in being caught ‘short’.
E18 was dispatched to the Baltic as part of the Royal Navy Submarine Flotilla to be based there. She left Harwich on 28 August with
The Bismarck, probably Germany’s most famous battleship in was sunk on May 27th 1941. The Bismarck had sunk HMS HOOD on 24 May before being sunk herself
On May 18th 1941 Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen slipped out of the Baltic port of Gdynia to attack Allied convoys in the Atlantic. Grand Admiral Raeder intended for the Bismarck, the Prinz Eugen, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau to operate in the Atlantic supported by supply and reconnaissance ships. However, Raeder’s plan, code-named “Exercise Rhine”, was severely hampered when the Gneisenau was hit
On 19th May 2016 The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) opened a major exhibition to commemorate the largest naval battle in history, the Battle ofJutland. ‘36 Hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle That Won The War’ is the most comprehensive exhibition ever staged on the subject, and highlights the essential role of the Royal Navy in winning the First World War.
The Battle of Jutland was the defining naval battle of the First World War, fought over 36 hours from May 31st to June 1st 1916. It is often considered a German victory due to the number of British lives lost; the British lost 6,094 seamen and the Germans 2,551 during the battle. However these figures do not represent the impact upon the British and German fleets. At the end of the battle the British maintained numerical supremacy; only two dreadnoughts were damaged, leaving twenty-three dreadnoughts and four battlecruisers still able to fight, whilst the Germans had only ten dreadnoughts.
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3 Commando Brigade establishes first bridgehead on the Falkland Islands at San Carlos. Ten enemy aircraft destroyed by escorts and Sea Harriers. HMS ARDENT sunk by enemy aircraft, ANTRIM, ARGONAUT and BRILLIANT damaged. This was the first day 5 days of battle between aircraft and ships during the British landings in San Carlos.
