Missles fired in anger.......

I`m currently reading a book, about nuclear subs. In this book it makes mention of HMS Turbulent, spending 10 months straight at sea. During which time she was involved operations againest the Taliban & the Iraqi`s having fired 30 missiles into Iraq. I`m curious to know did she fire any into Afganistan as well. I know her sister ship the Trafalgar did.

 

turbulent didnt fire 30 missiles into iraq, it was 15, i know as i loaded them and fired them. also she didnt fire any into afghan either that was another t and a s boat, i think it was splendid but i may be mistaken.

 

I think the book you are reading is clearly shite - the full "war load" of a T boat is not 30 and they would not be all TLAM anyway. Whilst possible to re-load East Of Suez (i.e. DG), I don't think it happened in this instance. Is this the same book where you got your info about Triumph? (other thread you started) - that's all bollocks as well.

 

I was firing missiles in anger last night in the mens room. From the aft not the bow though!

 

Cheers guys, you`ve all be of great help. It is very clear that my book is full of errors!!!!


Heres one for nelliesWellies 12. Just out of interest did your 10 months at sea, qualify you for the OSM Afghan & Iraq medal?

 

The book is called.....


Modern Submarines: An Illustrated Reference Guide


its clearly full of errors, can anyone suggest one that isn`t?

 

yes i was awarded both of those without clasp.

 

I think that the main problem with accuracy lies in the availability of reliable information. The vast majority of press articles about submarines that I have read, and of which I have knowledge of the facts, are inaccurate in some ways, and often are completely wrong. Some of this is due to sloppy journalism, some must be due to a lack of willingness on the part of the MoD to give out too much information, leading to speculation on the part of the journos, and some is, I am certain, due to deliberate misinformation. It must be difficult for a journalist with no particular expertise in the submarine world to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff.

 

A book that is not full of mistakes, as it has been written by proper experts.

 

Joe, you make a bl**dy good point there & thanks for the book link, I`ll certainly try and track a copy of that down.

Nellies, now that is very interesting, I can see why there was no clasp on the OSM (I think I`m right in saying that at take time there wasn`t one), but no clasp for the Iraq medal how come, surely if any unit deserved the clasp it was the Turbulent & indeed the Splendid. Is there a reason why you didn`t get it?

 

An excellent book as Joe says, though at £30 a bit rich for me (I've had a few sneaky peeps though)

 

IIRC a number of the TLAM fired by TURBULENT were gifted to us by the USN, because our war stocks were so small.

That was a long patrol. Telic 1 was just another thing to do. I was luck enough to ride back from Gib with TURBULENT. Had a great time, and was thoroughly impressed by everyone and everything.

 

Am curious just how long did Turbulent spend on her Iraq deployment? The reason I ask is that according to wiki..

On 16 April 2003 HMS Turbulent was the first Royal Navy vessel to return home from the war against Iraq. She arrived in Plymouth flying the Jolly Roger after launching thirty Tomahawk cruise missiles.


I also believe that the crew didn`t qualify for the claps to the Iraq medal? Am I right in thinking they spent less than a week?

Qualifying criteria........The Iraq Medal with Clasp ‘19 Mar to 28 Apr 2003’

Naval personnel were awarded the medal with clasp for 7 days continuous service at sea within certain specified geographical boundaries between those dates.

 

Re "Corageous-Cold War Warrior" try your local library, mine forked out the 30 quid no problem

 

Maybe they didn't get ashore ;-)

 

No im sorry thats not accurate,

we did a weapon load in diego garcia which was an absolute mare due to the swell range and then went into the gulf into bahrain, had 9 days in bahrain and then sailed and went round in circles in a box designated for us by the yanks for nearly 9 weeks before we fired, we had a boat transer about 5 weeks in to bring us fresh veg and some back aftie spares and then fired 15 missiles on the first day of the conflict, all empty canisters were ejected into the gulf rather than bringing them back into the boat to speed up the reloading process. immidiately after firing the last missile we dropped our towed array and left for gibraltar via the red sea and suez canal.

:lol:

 

This would explain why Turbulent didn`t qualify for the clasp to the Iraq medal. Did Splendid qualify?