The Standard
Fleet Review Celebrates Anglo Alliance
HM The King takes salute from British and Walmingtonian forces
Those seeking to promote the Imperial economy have of late taken to describing it as, ”stable”, and while detractors have interpreted this negatively –suggestive, perhaps, of stagnation- a similar descriptor could easily be applied to the alliance between London and Walmington, a relationship which -as this weekend’s events have gloriously described- is far from stale.
Prime Minister Mainwaring announced the Review just last month, stating that its principle justification was in celebrating the God-fearing Anglo-Saxon solidarity existing between the most evolved of nations. But this great gathering of naval might, staged in the two and a half miles of water between Elsinore and Burnbury constituted by the Ayre Sound’s narrowest stretch, must also have exhibited to Walmington’s would-be enemies the folly of their opposition, and to her prospective geopolitical partners the value of friendship and trade with this great nation.
His Godreyite Majesty reviewed the fleet from the grounds of The Hook, at Elsinore, while other members of the royal family looked on from the royal yacht Marigold, anchored just a few hundred yards away.
The Fleet Review of 2019 –the first since the Zanzibar Crisis- was the biggest in the King’s decades-long reign when accounting for both Walmingtonian and British vessels.
Leading the line was the oldest actively serving warship in the Empire, HGMS Godfrey Grâce à Dieu, the coastal battleship splitting the skies with a thunderous salute from her quartet of 11” rifles accompanied by an exhilarating rapid volley of shots from one of her quick-firing secondary guns. This was answered by a ripple of fire from the numerous m4.7/70 coastal batteries defending the approaches to the sound.
HGMS Godfrey Grâce à Dieu flying the Royal Walmingtonian Naval ensign as she approaches the Ayre Sound from open water to the north
Despite her dramatic arrival, the storied, ‘Good Godfrey’ was arguably over-shadowed by what came next. Though Walmingtonians are accustomed to British warships visiting Baltic ports, and the presence of a Royal Navy contingent had been telegraphed weeks in advance, few amongst the multitudes gathered on the shores at either side of the sound expected to see Britain’s flag ship at the head of her strike group.
One of the most powerful naval forces on earth, the group was lead, of course, by the fleet aircraft carrier HMS Queen Victoria, with the advanced Type 45 destroyers HMS Kent and Cornwall, and the workhorse Type 23 frigate HMS Norfolk in tow.
Crowds rejoiced at the site of such enormous vessels arrayed along-side our own Gloriana Class through-deck cruisers, HGMS Gloriana and Queen Mavis, several of their revolverplanes and Harrier jump-jets arrayed on deck. Ordinarily a highlight for naval enthusiasts, the Glorianas between them account for a displacement just two-thirds that of Queen Victoria alone, and together carry a similar number of –typically smaller- aircraft.
Praise God for the alliance!
More than thirty other surface ships of the RWN and RWFA joined the review. Participating were such diverse vessels as the Colony Class destroyers Green Cape, Waynesia, Honduras and Ceyloba, Falcon Class multi-role sloops Forfender, Fatidical, Fulgent, Frenzy, and Filibuster, and the Endurance Class landing platform dock ships Saint Aldhelm, Sir Harold Wendsleybury, and Hrothulf, and the special warfare support and training ship HGMAS Admiral Coney, as well as the British-built Bay Class dock landing ship HGMAS Matthew.
A further treat came when onlookers were able to glimpse from afar the ominous shape of the British nuclear-powered missile submarine HMS Vengeance, boxed by comparatively tiny Wamingtonian Royal Sovereign Class attack submarines reported to include HGMSs Freebooter, Tenebrous, Kelpie, and Fantastic.
With foreign ambassadors invited to observe the Review from the outer walls of The Hook, there can be little doubt… [cont. p4]
From The Bugle
*Review a success for the nation… and for jingo?
Government fails to capitalise on public interest as PM fluffs his lines in landmark address to the Empire; Industrial Democrats suggest Mainwaring ‘wants to be a war leader’
*Tourists in trouble as Angleland slump to 124/6 in reply to Ceyloba's 249.
3 wickets for 12 runs in final session as middle order struggle to pick unlikely flippers on a soft pitch in Banka Ta.
Fleet Review Celebrates Anglo Alliance
HM The King takes salute from British and Walmingtonian forces
Those seeking to promote the Imperial economy have of late taken to describing it as, ”stable”, and while detractors have interpreted this negatively –suggestive, perhaps, of stagnation- a similar descriptor could easily be applied to the alliance between London and Walmington, a relationship which -as this weekend’s events have gloriously described- is far from stale.
Prime Minister Mainwaring announced the Review just last month, stating that its principle justification was in celebrating the God-fearing Anglo-Saxon solidarity existing between the most evolved of nations. But this great gathering of naval might, staged in the two and a half miles of water between Elsinore and Burnbury constituted by the Ayre Sound’s narrowest stretch, must also have exhibited to Walmington’s would-be enemies the folly of their opposition, and to her prospective geopolitical partners the value of friendship and trade with this great nation.
His Godreyite Majesty reviewed the fleet from the grounds of The Hook, at Elsinore, while other members of the royal family looked on from the royal yacht Marigold, anchored just a few hundred yards away.
The Fleet Review of 2019 –the first since the Zanzibar Crisis- was the biggest in the King’s decades-long reign when accounting for both Walmingtonian and British vessels.
Leading the line was the oldest actively serving warship in the Empire, HGMS Godfrey Grâce à Dieu, the coastal battleship splitting the skies with a thunderous salute from her quartet of 11” rifles accompanied by an exhilarating rapid volley of shots from one of her quick-firing secondary guns. This was answered by a ripple of fire from the numerous m4.7/70 coastal batteries defending the approaches to the sound.
HGMS Godfrey Grâce à Dieu flying the Royal Walmingtonian Naval ensign as she approaches the Ayre Sound from open water to the north
Despite her dramatic arrival, the storied, ‘Good Godfrey’ was arguably over-shadowed by what came next. Though Walmingtonians are accustomed to British warships visiting Baltic ports, and the presence of a Royal Navy contingent had been telegraphed weeks in advance, few amongst the multitudes gathered on the shores at either side of the sound expected to see Britain’s flag ship at the head of her strike group.
One of the most powerful naval forces on earth, the group was lead, of course, by the fleet aircraft carrier HMS Queen Victoria, with the advanced Type 45 destroyers HMS Kent and Cornwall, and the workhorse Type 23 frigate HMS Norfolk in tow.
Crowds rejoiced at the site of such enormous vessels arrayed along-side our own Gloriana Class through-deck cruisers, HGMS Gloriana and Queen Mavis, several of their revolverplanes and Harrier jump-jets arrayed on deck. Ordinarily a highlight for naval enthusiasts, the Glorianas between them account for a displacement just two-thirds that of Queen Victoria alone, and together carry a similar number of –typically smaller- aircraft.
Praise God for the alliance!
More than thirty other surface ships of the RWN and RWFA joined the review. Participating were such diverse vessels as the Colony Class destroyers Green Cape, Waynesia, Honduras and Ceyloba, Falcon Class multi-role sloops Forfender, Fatidical, Fulgent, Frenzy, and Filibuster, and the Endurance Class landing platform dock ships Saint Aldhelm, Sir Harold Wendsleybury, and Hrothulf, and the special warfare support and training ship HGMAS Admiral Coney, as well as the British-built Bay Class dock landing ship HGMAS Matthew.
A further treat came when onlookers were able to glimpse from afar the ominous shape of the British nuclear-powered missile submarine HMS Vengeance, boxed by comparatively tiny Wamingtonian Royal Sovereign Class attack submarines reported to include HGMSs Freebooter, Tenebrous, Kelpie, and Fantastic.
With foreign ambassadors invited to observe the Review from the outer walls of The Hook, there can be little doubt… [cont. p4]
From The Bugle
*Review a success for the nation… and for jingo?
Government fails to capitalise on public interest as PM fluffs his lines in landmark address to the Empire; Industrial Democrats suggest Mainwaring ‘wants to be a war leader’
*Tourists in trouble as Angleland slump to 124/6 in reply to Ceyloba's 249.
3 wickets for 12 runs in final session as middle order struggle to pick unlikely flippers on a soft pitch in Banka Ta.