ON PASSAGE TO GIBRALTAR AND AT GIBRALTAR 20 …

1 ON PASSAGE TO GIBRALTAR AND ATGIBRALTAR 20 september to 2 OCTOBER 1978As soon as the Royal visit was over 824 were soon back intheHDS role embarking stores, mail and people. Ourvisitors for the PASSAGE to GIBRALTAR included the Chaplainof the Fleet, the Venerable Basil O'Ferrall, three Membersof Parliament,Mr Spencer Le Marchant, Mr MichaelBrotherton and Mr John Stanley, plus Mr Alan Bilyard andhis recording team from BBC "The Last Farewell".The PASSAGE from the Moray Firth took us via the northof Scotland, the Islands of the Hebrides, the west coast ofIreland, the Bay of Biscay and on down past the Iberiancoast. After RASing fuel from RFA OLMEDA while to theSW of Ireland on Friday 22nd we bade a final farewell toour faithful oilwell as she left us for a refit in highlights of the PASSAGE included the Grand Handi-craft Exhibition and Competition, a Sods Opera and FlightDeck potted sports.

2 The handicraft competition had beeninitiated by the Chaplain soon after leaving Norfolk andduring the long period at sea many people were busyThe "Top of the Rock Race " their entries. The exhibition and judging tookplace during the afternoon of Saturday 23rd and over 60exhibits were shown. They included paintings and sketches,wood, metal, rope and leather work, ceramics, modelseither from commercial kits or self inspired design, andeven a knitted garment. It was obvious that we have awealth of hidden artistic talent on board and the exhibitiongave a lot of pleasure to highly successful Sods Opera during the evening ofthe 23rd resulted in the ship's second single record several attempts the BBC men weresatisfied with our rendering of "The Last Farewell", as theA side, with "Never Walk Alone" and "Land of Hope andGlory" on the flip side. The acts during the evening werevery varied and many had taken a lot of time and effort toperform for our 24th was a pleasant Sunday at Sea with PottedSports occupying the flight deck during the and spectators were out in force and it wasobvious from the start that the PT Staff had thought upmany arduous and strenuous events for the occasion.

3 Theeventual and worthy winners were the Seaman night we approached GIBRALTAR and with theLevanter wind persisting at the Rock giving an air of gloomwe successfully secured alongside the South Mole duringthe forenoon of Monday 25th september to start the week' almost everyone GIBRALTAR was the first stepashore for over five departments took the opportunity to carry outmaintenance work and also repair any damage that hadbeen sustained in the storm during Northern Wedding. Bythe end of the week the storm battered scars had disappearedand the ship looked smart with a new coat of the rest and recreation side, a number took advantageof a week's leave and spent their time on the tiny peninsulawith their familieswho had flown out from the UK. A veryextensive sports programme was held with success andfailure fairly evenly distributed. The biggest event of theweek was the Top of the Rock race during the forenoon ofSaturday 30th september .

4 A gallant 251 completed theuphill course and congratulations to CPO Joe Clare whoThe Royal Marine Band in in first after a fine run and to 809 Squadron who werethe overall team offered many attractions and despite the factthat the visit was a working one, many found time to see thevarious sight-seeing points of interest. A goodly numbertook advantage of the day return tours to the Moroccantown of Tangiers on the north coast of Africa. The RoyalMarine Band were once again to the fore with their servicesinpopular demand. The highlight however was amemorable concert given by the band in St Michael's Caveduring the evening of 30th september . Their trulyprofessional performance in such a unique and picturesquesetting must be one of the memories of the week for thoselucky enough to be among the packed Monday 2nd October we were ready for sea again andwith our 450ft paying off pennant flying we slipped andproceeded from GIBRALTAR for the last 7 Leaving GIBRALTAR for the last the familiar sight of the Rock of GIBRALTAR was behindus, we headed off towards Sardinia and our part in ExerciseDisplay Determination 1978.

5 This NATO exercise hadbegun during september and along with forces from theUSA, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Turkey we joined theother British warships that were already there. The aims ofDisplay Determination were to exercise various plans forthe defence of stratigically important areas of the Medi-terranean in a typical scenario of rising tension between thefamiliar Blue and Orange forces. Besides the ships of theparticipating countries taking an active role, there wasmuch support from shore based aircraft and a lot ofactivity on the European land masses bordering ARK ROYAL joined the exercise on the 4thOctober to the south west of Sardinia we found ourselveson the Orange side for a the exercise we moved from one operatingarea to another spending time off Sardinia, Sicily andGreece, with the aircraft carrying out their usual roles the 6th we welcomed for the day CINCMARIDI-PART, Admiral Baldini of the Italian Navy plus severalNATO VIP's.

6 They came to see how we were faring andwere impressed by what they the early stages the Buccaneers made strikes againsttheBlue Convoy and the American carrier, USSFORRESTAL, as they tracked to the north of Corsica andthen southwards through the Tyrrehenian Sea andeventually to Taranto in southern Italy. Then at 1600Z onthe 8th we changed sides, took on the colour blue, erecteddarken ship screens for a few days and headed across theThe Xmas Pud. PASSAGE AND EXERCISE DISPLAYDETERMINATION 2-16 OCTOBER 19785 8 Admiral Leach at the Sea to be off Greece for two days. During thisperiod we were joined by the USS KENNEDY and ourBuccaneers flew sorties to the Aegean Sea to give airsupport to the amphibious assault landings that were takingplace on the Greek coastal area of the 10th, Admiral Sir Henry Leach, GCB,Commander-in-Chief Fleet embarked, and he spent twodays seeing and doing as much as he could in the timeavailable and at all hours of the day and night.

7 One of hisfirst tasks was to give a hand to help stir the ChristmasPudding ably assisted by the Captain and the youngestsailor on board at the time, Junior Seaman Neil Jackson ofthe Side Party. The Admiral toured most departments andmanaged flights in some of the aircraft. When he left us onthe afternoon of the 12th he wished us "good luck on thelast lap and beyond it when the team breaks up".ARK ROYAL's final active role in an exercise took placeoff the east coast of Sicily and at 1800Z on the 11th Octoberwe bowed out of Display Determination. For the followingfew days we remained in the same area which enabled us tocontinue with some private flying. During this period theBadgers achieved the 2000th fixed wing launch of this yearwhen Squadron Leader R Joy and Flight Lieutenant PHuett were catapulted off the waist cat in a Buccaneer. Bythe evening of the 14th all the aircraft were safely on boardand we all waited for a Sunday at sea on the 15th was because we had been promised a scenic route bycourtesy of N-tours.

8 The navigator had organised the routeto Naples such that it took us through the narrow Straits ofMessina which separates Sicily from the toe of Italy andthen round the volcanic Aeolin Islands which includeStromboli. Unfortunately on the day the haze prevented usfrom having clear views of the islands but it made a changebeing close to land. For the more energetic, flight deckhaze of the 16th was followed by ceremonial gun salutessports were in full swing until mid afternoon when prepara-from the ship and from ashore, and we berthed alongsidetions began to arrange the aircraft for Procedure Alpha. theMolo Angioino just before 9am to begin our visit toOur entry into the Bay of Naples in the early forenoon AND ON PASSAGE16-27 OCTOBER 1978 The visit to Naples on the 16th October was the first of ourfour ports of call during our last few weeks of the deploy-ment.

9 Many of us had enjoyed Naples last year and werelooking forward to this year's visit. As before, Detours inconjunction with Aloschi Brothers, organised a number ofsight seeing tours. Although not as popular as last year thetours to Rome, Capri, Pompei and the Amalfi Coast werewell supported. A large number arranged their own visitsusing local forms of transport to get about and besidesthose places already mentioned ARK ROYALS visitedHerculaneum, the Volcano of Solfatara and the manymuseums and other places of interest in the Naples our stay it was quite warm, and although weexperienced rain most days the majority of us were notdeterred from going ashore. The bars, cafes, shops andnarrow back streets were fascinating places and neverseemed to lose their appeal, but were you "ripped off"?The sporting scene was kept to a minimum after theexperience gained from the previous visit.

10 Nevertheless afair number of competitive games were played during theweek and the sports afternoon with the WRNS fromNAVSOUTH proved very popular with honours fairlyevenly official functions were many and varied, and thenumber of VIP visitors during the week were large contingent of British forces personnel in theNaples area ensured that ARK ROYALS had an enjoyabletime during their last visit to sailing on Saturday 21st October we welcomedAdmiral of the Fleet Sir Michael Pollock, GCB, MVO,DSC and the Judge Advocate of the Fleet, Mr W MHoward QC, who were to be with us until Athens. As webade farewell to Naples at 1100A in company with ourfaithful companions, RFA's LYNESS, OLWEN andRESOURCE, each of us had our own personal memoriesof the area and by the comments that were made, thesewere many and clear of the harbour two Sea Kings of 824 Squadron flew to RFA OLWEN for an "acquaint detach-ment" but they were to return to mother on the 25th.