Here's One I Prepared Earlier Part 3

 To start the real training of making the ship and crew act as one started the day after we left Plymouth. 

Just along the coast a little way lies Weymouth Bay, well known seaside resort, pleasure beach with ample hotels, B&B’s , pubs ,tea  and fish and chip shops to house the holidaying hordes from Liverpool and Birmingham. (Don’t ask me why those cities in particular but the accents were a bit of a giveaway).   

What the hell has that to do with anything I here you cry ?

 Well a lesser known resort lies at the westerly end of Weymouth Bay called Portland;  Home to a sadistic group whose sole purpose in life is to make RN sailors life miserable.  And credit where credit is due, they are very good at their job. 

  To help them accomplish their task they can draw upon other ships undergoing training,  a few submarines, various aircraft, both Naval and RAF  so that we can play war games twenty four hours a day. And I do mean twenty four hours and on a few occasions beyond.

It’s called a ‘Work Up,’  or a ‘Shake Down cruise,’ take your pick.  The point being is to test everything man and machine to the limits of their endurance and just when they think you can’t possibly take any more.... More arrives.

Everyone is tested from the Captain to the lowest youngest sailor onboard.  Many of the officers were as green as we were straight out training themselves . All of us to a man relied on the true backbone of the service the non commissioned officers.  The Chief’s and Petty Officers career sailors many of them with fifteen twenty years of service under their belt.  A dedicated group of service men who had been there, seen it and stuck around to see  and do it all again. 

Old Naval joke for Officer training;  Training task: You are ordered to erect a 30 foot flagpole prior to the Admirals visit.  You have sufficient rope wood and lifting equipment to accomplish the task. Explain how you will achieve the desired result.

I won’t bore you with the dozen or so highly inventive answers to the question, suffice to say in true Naval tradition they were all wrong.

What is the correct answer ?  Simple; You turn to the Chief Bosun’s mate and say in a loud confident voice, “Chief take six men and put up that flagpole.....

When a man of war (that’s the posh name for one of Her Majesties War Canoes) goes to ‘Action Stations,’ the highest state of readiness,  you go to your designated post and you stay there for as long as the action or assessed risk of action by the enemy is considered a likely threat.

It is potentially very boring if nothing is happening, there are no tea or meal breaks because most of the cooks and stewards are themselves at their designated location which is usually part of the medical team, damage control parties or ammunition magazine handlers.

If the Action stations, which involve the whole crew, goes on for long enough then provision has to be made to bring food.  Corned beef sandwiches, possibly soup or tea, fresh fruit if you haven’t been to sea too long and that’s about it.

 Part of the lessons to be learnt by the Captain is risk assessment or the perceived risk of attack from whatever source, be it from the air, on or below the surface .  It is impossible to maintain high alert status indefinitely.

 Of course another lesson to be learnt by the Captain is exactly how long does it take to get an exhausted crew who stood down only long enough to get something hot to eat a shower and be thinking of sleep back to full alert again.

Such are the games we played off the English coast line.   Now let’s make life a little harder.  An aircraft carrier is a very important part of your fleet and is extremely vulnerable to attack since it represents a big threat to the bad guys .  Bearing this in mind you are going to try and prevent the bad guys getting anywhere near the carrier.  So you build a screen of smaller ships around the carrier to protect her.   Even with radar a ship at sea can only see so far .  Put a ship on the horizon in the four quarters of the compass and you can increase your radar screen that much further and see things coming sooner.  You can also use this screen to sound for underwater threats from submarines as well.  Throw in a few helicopters listening to sonar as well and you would think you have all bases covered.

Of course a carrier’s best line of defence is her own aircraft, but a carrier is an Offensive weapon not a Defensive one.   The job of the carrier is to get close enough to your enemies home territory and then use her aircraft to inflict the maximum damage possible.  Alternatively, the carrier is a mobile air force there to supply air cover and support for ground troops.

All of these things we learnt, and eventually practiced, but on this occasion we were not a fully functional carrier, we had no aircraft onboard we were learning team games, that and learning how to go a long time without proper food and sleep.

Now of course we all know the old saying, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...’ Well it works for Jolly Jack Tar as well.   If you recall all this fun and games was being performed just off the south coast of England.  And I feel sure the training staff were all nine to fivers with no weekend working. Either that or they felt sorry for us and gave us a few hours to recover.

 We were close to Weymouth, a friendly seaside resort full of summer tourists and so that’s where we parked for the weekend.  Too big to get into Portland harbour we anchored just off the coast, a great tourist attraction as boat loads of sight seers were driven past us.   We borrowed a couple of old wooden Motor fishing boats and used them as ferry’s  to get people ashore for the night so a good time was had by all. 

You notice all thoughts of recovery or sleep or preparing for a restart at 08:00 hours on Monday morning had gone.  (Ah to have a fraction of that energy again !)

I have no idea if the same is still true, I haven’t been there in years, but back in the early 60’s Weymouth seemed to be seaside magnet for families from Birmingham.  Now with the addition of a thousand plus sailors it must have seemed to the good pub landlord’s and traders of Weymouth that all their Christmases had come at once, so to speak !

 I’m sure we certainly livened things up a bit for the younger female tourist population, many of whom had been dragged there kicking and screaming under pain of death if they spoilt the family holiday sulking away from their chums back home.

We only stayed there for the weekend, and of course by the following weekend most of the previous girls had gone home only to be replaced by a new batch and we had to start all over again.  Ah Well !

Back at sea we trained and tested everything onboard again and again.  When it came time to test the weapons and defence systems we moved out into the Atlantic away from normal shipping lanes for some live fire exercises.

For part of the time we called upon the RAF to play the bad guys, and they were told that for three days they were to attempt to attack us at will and we would use our new and upgraded resources to repulse them.   (Without actually shooting them down that is. They get pissed off if you do that.)

To give the RAF pilots a target that they can actually shoot at and or bomb, we have what is called a splash target.  A thing like a big sledge which we tow about a half mile behind the ship and it throws up a column of water as a aiming point.  Of course they ain’t going to get the chance are they ?

Now, I learnt a lot about our RAF comrades during those three days,  that’s 72 hours for us the significance of which will become apparent in a minute.

This was a defensive exercise so the RAF knew exactly where to find us.  We on the other hand had no fore knowledge of when to expect them or from what direction.  That was the test, seek,  locate and destroy before they can inflict any damage to us.   We were well  briefed,  aircraft were a very real threat to us, they could strafe, drop bombs or torpedoes and an Aircraft carrier is and always shall be their primary objective .  Sink the carrier and everybody else will probably go home.

It’s high summer  in the Northern hemisphere, the sun rises about four o’clock in the morning,  so we go to action stations at 03:30 just in case the RAF launch a quick sneak attack at dawn. 

They actually turned up at twenty to nine !

 
Two Hawker Hunters arrived at full speed at sea level , came in below radar cover and caught us napping.   The two pilots them proceeded to fly in a tight circle round the ship and every time the passed the splash target they gave it a squirt of 30mm cannon fire.   Their efforts blew off one of the fins of the target which instead of sending up a column of water started to spin out of control unravelling the tow wire back towards the ship. 

Tiring of their game or they had run out of bullets the two Hawkers  broke off the attack screaming skywards with a formation Victory roll and disappeared homewards.

We on the other hand failed to get off a single imaginary shot.   RAF  One.   RN   Nil.

We slowed down retrieved the damaged target, dumped the steel wire towing cable and streamed a new target.  All the time staying on High alert anticipating their next attack, we doubled the lookouts, men with binoculars scanning the sky for the enemy.

I would add that under certain conditions Radar is useless as an early warning device.   If your target  approaches low enough his signal will be lost in what is called the ground echo  as your own radar beam bouncing off the sea.   We had two different types of Radar, the Primary, long range navigational radar is the big aerials you see going round and round on ships masts.  This gives you advanced warning of surface ships in the vicinity up to about twenty miles. Beyond that the other vessel is over the horizon and out of view.  Aircraft on the other hand can be seen from a much greater range, if they are daft enough to fly high.

Approaching fast and close to the surface they can escape radar detection but not the keenness of the Mark 1 Eye Ball !   Flying low requires great skill on the part of pilot but also it demands a great deal of increased engine power.  This increased power leaves an exhaust trail which can be seen by the naked eye in time to bring weapons to bear.

Back to the War Games,  The time is now 12 : 45. Four hours since the last attack.   Still no sign of the RAF.    They didn’t re appear for another forty five minutes with a repeat performance of the earlier attack.

This time they were spotted coming in and three Seacat missile launchers were brought to readiness.   During the attack the Sea cat aimers never got a positive lock on the target aircraft and no simulated missiles were fired by us.      RAF  Two.  RN  Nil.

I have to admit, with the benefit of 20 20 hind sight that the Sea Cat anti aircraft missile system left a lot to be desired.  It only had a maximum range of 2 ½ miles.  Sounds a long way, if you have to walk, but at sea where an aircraft can let go its bombs from outside that range you start to see my point.

The long list of other problems in the system was just as bad.  It had a three man crew, an aimer, who guided the missile onto the target with a thumb joy stick.  A Radar operator who had to search , locate and lock onto the target  before the launch controller who hopefully was getting the distance to target information from another source actually fired the rotten thing.   The small radar unit on the sea cat launchers were prone to locking onto the sea if the target aircraft was coming in low, which they always did, so the radar operator (me) had to try and hold the radar on the target manually to allow the missile to be fired.  The major problem with this method is If I don’t press the lock radar button there isn’t a confirming light on the controllers panel to tell him target has been acquired.   So as you can imagine until there is absolute trust between  crew members there is a lot of frustrated and angry shouting and a lot of rude words spoken both during and after.

  We were attacked twice more that day at 15 :25  (Half past three) and again at 19 : 30 (Half past Seven in the evening).   The results were pretty much as written above.  RAF  Four  RN  Nil.

We stayed at action stations until sundown and then headed out into the Atlantic, out of range, to lick our wounds and grab a few hours sleep, we would be back at action stations at 05 : 30 tomorrow.  

Day two was virtually a repeat of day one.... with one notable exception, the RAF pilots had  discovered a major weakness in Eagles defences, we had an inability to bring any weapons to bear if the attack came head on.   You can guess which direction they came from after that.

The other thing I noticed was the attack times were very similar to the previous day...  It seems our RAF friends were not taking the exercise too seriously.  Certainly not seriously enough to disturb their beauty sleep or their digestions, they never missed a meal back at their base.

Ok It was becoming apparent that this war game was becoming a farce.  Day three dawned and as usual  two Hawker Hunters would arrive have some sport with our slash target, waggle their wings and bugger off home for a swift half and more bullets.

Our Captain obviously talked to his boss who talked to his boss in the Admiralty who spoke to the Joint Chiefs telling them that the RAF weren’t playing fair and we needed the practice at shooting them down.  Good for moral don’t you know ?

At 14 : 10 a long range radar contact was reported to the bridge, and they started to track it inbound towards us.   There followed a series of visual reports from the look outs that an aircraft was approaching broad side on .  Main Gun armament started to track the target and was ready to open fire at maximum range of ten miles.  In the mean time three sea cat launchers started to acquire the target .  If the pilot kept on coming as he was  he was flying directly towards  four 4.5 inch guns and three anti aircraft sea cat missiles.

He kept coming, at a steady speed at a fixed height of about two thousand feet off the sea and flew his Vulcan Bomber right over the top of us.  He then flew on for a few miles turned very slowly and repeated his flight from the opposite direction again passing directly over the top of the ship. 

He too waggled his wings and went home.  Twenty minutes later we were stood down from action stations the captain admitting that although quite a few good lessons had been learnt (?) the exercise had been a waste of time.

As far as I was concerned the only thing I learnt was that in the event of a war against anybody with a half decent air force we were very definitely going to die !   

It is a well know fact of life that the Ministry of Defence (MoD (RN)) have a fantastic sense of humour.   So it seems fairly obvious that with a crew fresh out of the box, green as hell, you are going to carry on their training boost their ego to the point of invulnerability so that they will go forth with fortitude to defeat the enemies of Queen and Country.

Yeah Right !  During these particular sea trials we were little better at defending ourselves from underwater threats either.   I suppose with four whacking great propellers, the size of a medium sized bus and thrashing around at 28 knots we were keeping the submariners awake at night.

Nor is your overall confidence boosted by constantly being reminded that as a Fleet Carrier you will be the centre of attention for your enemies at all times.  I think this was the Navy’s way of cracking the whip, make you the crème de la crème always on your toes at peak efficiency.... (Side note to the Admiralty.... In my case It didn’t Work guys.... Side note to self, Improve swimming endurance ... sleep on deck.)

Additional training, theoretical, is based upon what the potential enemy has to throw at you, and how this will be thrown. 

The good news is the Russians do not have a Carrier fleet of their own, the bad news is they don’t think they need one.   They had at the time a submarine fleet that outnumbered us   six to one with an impressive array of torpedoes and missiles and by our own admission we had no idea where the little buggers were most of the time.

We were also told that most modern detection techniques like Radar and communications like radio were a double edge sword and while you were chatting and detecting away you were in fact giving your exact position away to the enemy who was at that very moment designing a missile that could fly right down our own radar beam.....

You see what I mean about great confidence boosting techniques....  Whatever happened to ‘Ignorance is Bliss ?”   Now when we go to sea for real we are both blind and defenceless,  Fan Bloody Tastic...  might as well stay at home then,  and I suppose if the ship had a suggestion box I might have been tempted to put my views forward for consideration.

To boost my sagging morale and to take my mind off all the potential nasty things that was going to befall me we paid our first foreign visits. We paid a courtesy visit to the port of Brest, in France.  I have no idea why, it might have had some political significance but as I was under punishment for some minor infraction or other  I never went ashore.    No great loss according to my ship mates, the natives were far from friendly and some were downright hostile.  (Something about a punch up at places called Agincourt and Waterloo... the French have long memories.)

A little better a couple of weeks later we entered Gibraltar harbour,  to supply the guard of honour in time for the Trafalgar Day celebrations.  (So Ya Boo Shucks to the French...we got long memories too).

Geographically speaking Gibraltar may appear to be like a small boil on the butt of Spain but strategically it is of vital importance standing as it does as one of the pillars of Hercules at the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea .   Nobody gets past Gibraltar without us knowing about it, be they friend or foe.

It was also my very first taste of the World !  Warm sunny and Duty Free !  Could you ask for more ?  Some of the older crew members who had been there before volunteered to act as tour guides and showed us the sights, Historical as well as liquid refreshment variety.

All too soon we were back home in Devonport, and a spot of some serious leave to go home with our duty free booty before returning once more to Devonport and to prepare for sea. 

Only this time it was to take up our rightful place as a capital ship of the fleet.   I forgot to mention that our Lords and masters had past us with flying colours, sea trials were a roaring success, apparently, our training as a crew moulded into one mean fighting machine was equally successful , they obviously knew more than I did, either that or they were easily pleased.   Or perhaps I was better than my instructors were telling me....

Either way on December 1^st 1964 we set sail for the Far East and the first order of the day was to bring on our aircraft squadrons.