All Guns Blazing — March 2015

1 All Guns Blazing! Newsletter of the Naval Wargames Society No. 245 – MARCH 2015 EDITORIAL NORFOLK (NNS) -- To conduct ballistic missile defense operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) has deployed from Naval Station Norfolk. In preparation for their deployment, the Laboon crew completed their composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX) with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. The crew trained during exercises involving small boat operations, routine flight operations, weapons firing and damage control drills. Commissioned in 1995, Laboon is the eighth Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and the only US Navy ship named after a Navy chaplain. Father "Jake" Laboon was awarded the Silver Star during World War II for diving off his submarine to rescue a downed aviator while under enemy fire. For more information, visit the ship's website at http://www.navy.mil/local/ddg58/. An answer has been found to the question of the mystery model in November’s AGB. A Smythe, in Essex was able to identify the “William Fawcett”, the model was produced to mark 150 years of the P&O S N Company. The Ship was the first to carry the P&O flag. The model was made by R.A.E. Models, Weybridge. March already. Frightening. The years certainly go quicker as I get older. Attend “Salute” if you can in April at The Excel Centre. Have a word or two with Simon at The NWS table. Somewhere in the World, the Sun is over the yardarm. Norman Bell

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3 The Portsmouth based frigate HMS KENT was waiting in the Red Sea as the Charles de Gaulle group sailed through Suez from the Mediterranean. The link-up between the two navies is the latest in a series of exercises and joint deployments since the turn of the decade with the goal of creating an Anglo-French expeditionary force next year. By working with the carrier group Kent will hone the necessary skills needed when the Queen Elizabeth class carriers deploy in the coming decades. HMS Queen Elizabeth, which was formally named by Her Majesty the Queen in July 2014, is currently being fitted out in Rosyth dockyard before arriving in Portsmouth. Assembly of HMS Prince of Wales is also well underway. HMS Queen Elizabeth will be handed over to the Royal Navy in 2017 and is expected to enter service by 2020. With an expected service life of up to 50 years, the QE Class carriers will be highly versatile and powerful defence assets; able to meet the widest range of tasks around the world. They are the largest, most capable and effective surface warships ever constructed in the UK.

4 The following article follows on from Rob’s notes in December’s AGB – Wargame Ships for Next to Nothing.

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9 SIGNAL PAD! Coming in April’s AGB: Games Workshop Ships. Lego. The Great Fleet of Veneti. Old Dominion Gameworks General Quarters Fleet Action Imminent – Small Action in The North Sea. JOINING THE NAVAL WARGAMES SOCIETY If you have been lent this newsletter and would like to join the Naval Wargames Society, please follow this link to join our Society: www.navalwargamessociety.org. Membership secretary: simonjohnstokes@aol.com NWS Events and Regional Contacts, 2014 NWS Northern Fleet – Falkirk East Central Scotland Kenny Thomson, 12 Craigs Way, Rumford Grange, Rumford, Stirlingshire, FK2 0EU Tel: 01324 714248 e-mail: kenny.thomson@hotmail.com - Website: http://falkirkwargamesclub.org.uk/ Falkirk Wargames Club meets each Monday night at 7pm with a variety of games running each evening. Naval games are popular with 2 or 3 run each month. Campaign games sometimes feature in our monthly weekend sessions. Games tend to be organised week to week making a 3-month forecast here a waste of time. Please get in touch if you’d like to come along.  Popular periods – Modern (Shipwreck), WW1 and 2 (GQ), WW2 Coastal (Action Stations), and Pre-dreadnought (P Dunn’s rules) Devon and the West Country Naval Wargames afternoon/evening/all day on a regular basis. Contact Stuart Barnes Watson to arrange the details. stuart_barnes_watson@hotmail.com 3 Clovelly Apartments, Oxford Park, Ilfracombe, DEVON, EX34 9JS Tel: 01271 866637