British Pathe b&w newsreel of Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (R12) joining the fleet in November 1959.
Monthly Archives: September 2015
‘Masters of the Seas’ First Battlecruiser Squadron, 1915.
First Battle-Cruiser Squadron in 1915, in line of battle against the setting sun. Oil on canvas by by William Lionel Wyllie, 1915. In collection of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Operation Hurricane (1953)
Operation Hurricane was the test of Britain’s first atomic bomb on 3 October 1952. The test took place at the Montebello Islands of Western Australia. This documentary film from 1953 was produced for the Central Office of Information for the Ministry of Supply.
Med Patrol (1971)
‘Med Patrol’ features aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (R09), Leander class frigate HMS Galatea (F81), combat stores ship RFA Lyness (A339) and fast fleet tanker RFA Olna (A123).
Battlecruisers HMS Lion, HMS Princess Royal, and HMS New Zealand c. 1916
Battlecruisers HMS Lion, HMS Princess Royal, and HMS New Zealand, watercolour by A. B. Cull. Depicted c. 1916-17, painted 1924. In collection of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Fearless to the Fleet (1978)
Nice little documentary, around 26-minutes, put the kettle on and have a look.
Features landing platform dock HMS Fearless (L10), frigate HMS Andromeda (F57), and submarine HMS Dreadnought (S101).
Today is the 70th anniversary of V-J Day
Great post on VJ Day from the folks at CVN 68.
70 years ago today, Allied Forces joined together aboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) to sign the Instruments of Surrender, marking the Allies’ victory over Japan and the end of World War II. The hundreds of Sailors onboard filled in nearly every open space on the ship’s weather decks to watch the monumental occasion.
Acting on behalf of Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese government, foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed first for Japan, followed by General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of Staff, Japanese army headquarters.
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur signed next followed by Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, as well as other commanders of Allied Forces.
After the surrender ceremony, 450 carrier planes from 3rd Fleet passed in mass formation over Missouri and the 254 allied ships in Tokyo Bay. Minutes later, Army Air Forces B-29 bombers flew by, signifying the Allied victory and the…
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President Calls for More Icebreakers
‘The Destroyers’ by Rudyard Kipling, 1898
Kipling began work on the poem in 1897 after visiting the Thornycroft destroyer HMS Foam during her sea trials. He published the poem in McClure’s magazine in 1898
‘The Destroyers’ by Rudyard Kipling, 1898
The strength of twice three thousand horse
That seeks the single goal;
The line that holds the rending course,
The hate that swings the whole;
The stripped hulls, slinking through the gloom,
At gaze and gone again —
The Brides of Death that wait the groom —
The Choosers of the Slain!Offshore where sea and skyline blend
In rain, the daylight dies;
The sullen, shouldering swells attend
Night and our sacrifice.
Adown the stricken capes no flare —
No mark on spit or bar, —
Girdled and desperate we dare
The blindfold game of war.Nearer the up-flung beams that spell
The council of our foes;
Clearer the barking guns that tell
Their scattered flank to close.
Sheer to the trap they crowd their way
From ports for this unbarred.
Quiet, and count our laden prey,
The convoy and her guard!On shoal with scarce a foot below,
Where rock and islet throng,
Hidden and hushed we watch them throw
Their anxious lights along.
Not here, not here your danger lies —
(Stare hard, O hooded eyne!)
Save were the dazed rock-pigeons rise
The lit cliffs give no sign.Therefore — to break the rest ye seek,
The Narrow Seas to clear —
Hark to the siren’s whimpering shriek —
The driven death is here!
Look to your van a league away, —
What midnight terror stays
The bulk that checks against the spray
Her crackling tops ablaze?Hit, and hard hit! The blow went home,
The muffled, knocking stroke —
The steam that overruns the foam —
The foam that thins to smoke —
The smoke that clokes the deep aboil —
The deep that chokes her throes
Till, streaked with ash and sleeked with oil,
The lukewarm whirlpools close!A shadow down the sickened wave
Long since her slayer fled:
But hear their chattering quick-fires rave
Astern, abeam, ahead!
Panic that shells the drifting spar —
Loud waste with none to check —
Mad fear that rakes a scornful star
Or sweeps a consort’s deck.Now, while their silly smoke hangs thick,
Now ere their wits they find,
Lay in and lance them to the quick —
Our gallied whales are blind!
Good luck to those that see the end,
Good-bye to those that drown —
For each his chance as chance shall send —
And God for all! Shut down!The strength of twice three thousand horse
That serve the one command;
The hand that heaves the headlong force,
The hate that backs the hand:
The doom-bolt in the darkness freed,
The mine that splits the main;
The white-hot wake, the ‘wildering speed —
The Choosers of the Slain!
Naval Matters 