Portsmouth 2022 - Social

 

Portsmouth Ship Anson

Portsmouth Ship Anson IJ DM

Portsmouth Ship Anson Bar

Portsmouth Ship Anson hand pulls

Portsmouth Old Custom House

Portsmouth Customs House NVAA BFT 2022

Portsmouth Old Town

Portsmouth Still and West IJ

Portsmouth Still and West view

Bovington - TE Lawrence of Arabia Crash Site

TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia

TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia

Thomas Edward Lawrence was known as Lawrence of Arabia for his expolits in the Middle East during World War One. He was involved in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918), against the Ottoman Empire.

He studied history at Jesus College, Oxford, from 1907 to 1910, then worked as an archaeologist for the British Museum, chiefly at Carchemish in Ottoman Syria, upto the start of the First World War. 

TE Lawrence (right) Carchemish c.1912

Soon after the outbreak of war in August 1914, Lawrence volunteered for the British Army and with his knowledge of the Middle East he was posted to the Arab Bureau intelligence unit in Egypt. 

In June 1916, an Arab Revolt began when Sharif Hussein of Mecca, the Hashemite tribe leader, raised his flag to signal the start of the uprising. TE Lawrence was sent in October 1916 to work with the Arab Northern Army in the Hejaz, and established a good relationship with it's leader Feisal ibn Hussein.  

The Northern Army's would exploit along the Red Sea Coast capturing the ports of Jeddah, Rabigh, Yabu, Wejh and Aqaba, as well as conducting attacks on the Hejaz railway to disrupt supplies and potential reinforcements to the Turkish garrison in Medina. The operations supported the two Arab Armies fighting the Turks in Medina.

TE Lawrence Aqaba 1917

Lawrence travelled to Cairo to inform GHQ that Aqaba had been captured , to find that following the failure of the attacks on Gazza, the Commander of the EEF General Murray had been replaced by General Allenby. Allenby saw the potential of the Arab Revolt to support his planned advance along the Mediterranean coast with  the Arab Northern Army continuing their attacks on the Hejaz Railway and conducting raids on his right flank to disrupt the Turks.

Lawrence of Arabia meets General Allenby

Lawrence continued his guerrilla operations with the Arab Northern Army, re-reinforced by the Camel Corps, a flight of aircraft, Rolls Royce Armoured cars and 10 (Motor Section) Royal Field Artillery. 

10 (Motor Section) Royal Field Artillery

 The combined efforts of General Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force engaging Turkish Forces along the coast of Palestine, and Lawrence's guerrilla operations weakened the Turkish forces considerably. The defeat of the Turkish Army at the Battle of Megiddo (19 September 1918) and the continued harassment by Lawrence and the Arab Army resulted in a full scale retreat of Turkish forces from Palestine.

 On the 30th September, a contingent from the Arab Army and troops from the Australian Light Horse of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force entered Damascus. On 1st October TE Lawrence of Arabia rode into Damascus in a Rolls Royce. 

TE Lawrence rides into Damascus in a Rolls Royce. 

During his time with the Arabs Lawerence had promised that the British Government would give the Arabs independence on cessation of hostilities and establish an Arab nation. The British Government however had been duplicitous in their dealings with the Arabs. In January 1916 the British and French Governments had agreed the Sykes-Pico agreement which split the Middle East into British and French spheres of influence. 

Lawrence returned to the United Kingdom a full colonel, and sought to convince the British government that the promise he had made to the Arabs of  independence, was in Britains interest.  Immediately after the war, he worked for the Foreign Office, attending the Paris Peace Conference between January and May as a member of Faisal's delegation. 

Paris Peace Conference 1919 King Fisal's Delegation
TE Lawrence second from right

Disilusioned by the British Goverment's treatment of the Arabs, in 1922, he retreated from public life, and enilsted into the Royal Air Force as an ordinarly airman under a false name.   He was later discharded, joined the Royal Tank Corps and petitioned to be transferred to the Royal Air Force which was granted, seving under the name of TE Shaw. In 1926 he wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom, an accout of his exploits during the Arab Revolt. 

TE Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom

On 13 May 1935, Lawrence was fatally injured in an accident on his Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle in Dorset close to his cottage Clouds Hill, near Wareham.

Aircraftsman Shaw on Brough Superior SS100

Clouds Hill along which Lawrence was travelling

TE Lawrence Crash Site and Memorial

TE Lawrence Crash Site Memorial

Portsmouth 2022 - CWGC Royal Naval Memorial

 The Portsmouth Naval Memorial commemorates 24,659 sailors of the First and Second Word Wars who have no known grave but the sea.

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial

At the end of the First World War, the Admiralty decided that a memorial should be built in each of the three manning ports, the location of where a man was allocated for administrative purposes when he joined the Navy. Three identical memorials were built at Plymouth, Chatham and Portsmouth. The memorials, built by the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, consisted of an obelisk prominently located so it could be seen by all vessels using those ports. 

The First World War obelisk is mounted on a plinth which records the Naval actions of WW1 and the names of those lost, over 9,600. 

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War One Obelisk

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War One Commemoration

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War One General Actions at Sea

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War One Single Ship Actions

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War One Actions with Enemy Land Forces

The memorial was extended after World War Two, when low walls were added to an enclosure north of the obelisk and panels added to record nearly 15,000 additional names. 

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War Two Commemoration Wall

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War Two Commemoration

Portsmouth CWGC Naval Memorial
World War Two Commemoration

Portsmouth 2022 - HMS Alliance Submarine

HMS Alliance IJ
Royal Navy Submarine Museum

HMS Alliance

HMS Alliance is a Royal Navy A-class submarine which was commissioned in May 1947 and was in service in various roles until 1979.

The vessel was designed to conduct long range patrols in the Far East. It was originally equipped with a gun deck and external torpedo tubes.  In 1947 it conducted a trial with a snort mast which allowed her to remain submerged for 30 days.

HMS Alliance 1947

HMS Alliance external gun deck

HMS Alliance Gosport 1958

HMS Alliance was extensively modernised between 1958 to remove the  gun deck, external torpedo tubes and streamline the hull. These modifications enabled the submarine to run quieter and faster underwater. It carried a shops compliment of 5 officers and 63 ratings.

HMS Alliance 1960

HMS Alliance 1963 SAS President Kruger

HMS Alliance 1967 Gibraltar

HMS Alliance 1967 Gibraltar

was one of three submarines that transited the Manchester Ship Canal in 1967.

Mystery of submarines at Latchford Locks solved! (warrington-worldwide.co.uk)

Manchester Ship Canal

HMS Alliance 1973 Portsmouth final sail past

HMS Alliance 1973 Portsmouth

The submarine was taken off active service in 1973 and used as a training ship at HMS Doplhin, the submarine training school at Fort Blockouse, Gosport. In 1979 she was preserved as a submarine museum. 

HMS Alliance
Royal Navy Submarine Museum

Forward Torpedo

Forward Torpedo Room looking forward

Crew Quarters

Mess 

PO Mess and quarters

Control Room

Submarine Controls

Coning Tower

Periscope

Radio Room

Galley

Engine Controls

Diesel Engine

Rear Torpedo Tubes