VISTED WITH SAMMYDOUBLEANAL, GeoVDUB AND THE KWAN

H.M.S PLYMOUTH




The L.L.S has many uncles, Uncle Coops, Uncle Muttley, Uncle Ojay and a few more. A few nights ago it was time to visit and catch up our Uncle Kwan, with rising cinema prices and play areas being concreted over The Kwan decided to take us out on a history lesson....

Im going to try and not ramble to much and describe the history warlst posting the pictures quite randomly...





HMS Plymouth is a Rothesay-class frigate, she served in the Royal Navy from 1959 to 1988. During her lifetime, Plymouth served in a variety of locations, including the Far East and Australia. She saw action in the Cod Wars(thats right "Cod" not "Cold" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars) with Iceland and kicked ass in the Falklands War of which she is most famous for in 1982.





Plymouth was one of the first Royal Navy ships to arrive in the South Atlantic following the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Plymouth alongside Antrim, Brilliant and Endurance took part in the recapturing of South Georgia on 28 April during Operation Paraquet. Plymouth landed Royal Marines from her Westland Wasp helicopters and bombarded Argentine troop positions on the island. Later her Wasp helicopter took part in an attack on the Argentinian submarine Santa Fe, which was badly damaged and later captured by Royal Marines.



Word of the invasion first reached Britain from Argentine sources. A Ministry of Defence operative in London learnt from the Islands Governor Hunt that Argentines had arrived with a large Naval fleet, were on the island and in control.



The British government had suspected this due to similair events on South Georgia and sent the submarines HMS Splendid and HMS Spartan to patrol near by.

After confirming the Argies were rocking there shit on our soil Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sir Henry Leach realised the Argies must of not realIsed how much we liked the resource rich set of Islands and on the 1st of April Leach sent orders to a Royal Navy force carrying out exercises in the Mediterranean to be prepared to set sail!



With intellegence from the French the Navy learned the Argies were equiped with some serious air power that could easily ruin there day so a plan was hitched. On the 1st of May British operations on the Falklands opened with "Operation Black Buck" To put it simply Vulcan bombers would fly a 8,000-nautical-mile round trip and bomb the shit out of there runway so it would limit there air power.



Of the five Black Buck raids, three were against Stanley Airfield and the other two against there radar defences using Shrike anti-radiation missiles.





The missions were semi successfull, the damage to the airfields was minimal but the Argies shit a brick! How the fuck could the British hit us like that from so far away!? They had a feeling there home was next so they sent most of there fighters to guard back home to patrol home skies. Leaving room for the Royal Navy and the Army to land and take back the Island.



2 Months later and just under 1000 dead the Argentinians gave up and signed there surrender in the room pictured below, the orginal tables can just be seen in the back ground. Its amazing to think I have being in such a historic place and its sad to think in a couple of weeks it will all be scrap.....



Well thats it, its a damn shame but Im glad I got to see it before she goes. Had a fantastic night and had many LOLs. Massive props, gun noises, "Brapping" and other gang signs to The Kwan was great seeing thee again will catch up soon!



Thank you for reading!