HollyJack

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[Gabriele Molinelli @Gabriel64869839]

There is absolutely zero need for a "Defence Review", especially if it's another performative dance disconnected by the actual intentions of government of spending and delivering.

There's a need to either fork out the money or go to NATO and say what the UK will not be doing.

[Hidden History @HiddenHistoryYT]

Before a single Allied soldier set foot on Normandy, before the battleships opened fire, before the paratroopers jumped, before any of it, a fleet of small ships sailed alone into the darkness toward the most heavily mined waters in the world.

Nobody talks about the minesweepers.

They should.

By June 1944, the Germans had laid over 6,000 mines across the approaches to the Normandy coast. Contact mines that detonated on impact. Magnetic mines triggered by a ship's hull. Pressure mines activated by the wake of a passing vessel. And some of the most sinister weapons ever devised: mines fitted with ship counters, designed to let several vessels pass safely overhead before exploding under the one that followed. You could sweep a channel, declare it clean, and still die.

The entire D-Day plan rested on one brutal fact: 6,939 ships could not reach the beaches without someone going first to clear the way.

That job fell to 350 minesweepers.

On the night of June 5, hours before the invasion fleet moved, the minesweepers sailed. No escort. No cover. Just small ships pushing into the dark, dragging wire sweeps through the water, cutting the cables of moored mines and listening for the sound of their own death.

They swept 10 separate channels, each 400 yards wide, all the way from England to the coast of France. They were operating within range of German shore batteries. In complete darkness. In rough seas with strong currents constantly pushing them off course, forcing sweeps to be repeated. Keeping formation in those conditions, in the dark, without lights, was nearly impossible.

The Germans never detected them.

Think about what that means. Hundreds of ships, running without lights, dragging equipment through the water, close enough to the French coast to be well within range of shore batteries, and the Germans had no idea they were there.

By 3:30 in the morning, all 10 channels were clear.

The price was paid. USS Osprey struck a mine on June 5 and went down in minutes, killing 6 men. They were the first casualties of the entire D-Day operation, killed before the invasion had officially begun, their names barely known to history. USS Corry struck a mine off Utah Beach and sank so fast her crew barely had time to abandon ship.

These men knew exactly what they were sailing into. Minesweepers do not have the armor of a destroyer or the firepower of a cruiser. They are small. They are slow. They go first because someone has to, and they go knowing that the mine that kills them is one they simply never found.

When the great armada finally moved, when 6,939 ships began crossing the Channel toward France, every single one of them sailed through corridors those men had cut in the dark.

Every landing craft that reached the beach. Every tank that came ashore. Every soldier who stepped onto Normandy and lived. They all passed through water that had been cleared, in silence, in darkness, hours before dawn, by men most people have never heard of.

The liberation of Europe sailed in their wake.

[John Foreman CBE @John_ForemanCBE]

Drones will never be able to enforce a blockade, evacuate the needy, assist after a disaster, repair themselves or fight on when damaged by enemy action and communications fail.

Britain cannot afford to mistake experimentation for transformation. History would suggest caution 4/4

https://t.co/ku9WEQTKMX

[Chelsea FC @ChelseaFC]

Come and visit London’s Home of Trophies. 🏆

Book your Stadium Tour at Stamford Bridge now. ⭐️⭐Come and visit London’s Home of Trophies. 🏆

Book your Stadium Tour at Stamford Bridge now. ⭐️⭐Come and visit London’s Home of Trophies. 🏆

Book your Stadium Tour at Stamford Bridge now. ⭐️⭐Come and visit London’s Home of Trophies. 🏆

Book your Stadium Tour at Stamford Bridge now. ⭐️⭐Come and visit London’s Home of Trophies. 🏆

Book your Stadium Tour at Stamford Bridge now. ⭐️⭐Come and visit London’s Home of Trophies. 🏆

Book your Stadium Tour at Stamford Bridge now. ⭐️⭐️

[Tom Sharpe @TomSharpe134]

Anyone who doesn’t instinctively understand the difference between Ukraine’s fight in the Black Sea (aided by BSF incompetence) and how the RN should operate at home, in the High North and elsewhere should not be anywhere near maritime decision making.

Lessons, yes.
Tearing up the rule book, no.

[Iain Ballantyne @IBallantyn]

Once the UK Govt drank the elixir of drones - a way to do without those expensive Type 26 warships, their seemingly too-hard-to-recruit people and costly weapons - and the Ukrainians 'beat a navy without a navy', it seized upon the 'hybrid navy' as the latest 'silver bullet' to avoid boosting defence properly.

Yes, it is essential to have autonomous systems, but to reinforce the Royal Navy, not as a 'hybrid' means to dodge creating a proper fighting fleet. The Black Sea is not the Atlantic, a vast, mean treacherous ocean, and warships still matter. The Northern Fleet is the apex of Russian naval power, not a confined lesser force like the Black Sea Fleet. It is a tough mother that will eat you alive if it can.

Norway is to get five T26s in some kind of joint operational arrangement with UK, but what if its govt decides one day that it does not agree with our defence and foreign policy? No can play UK...you are on your own! UK govts must stop contracting out sovereign defence needs.

Six not eight RN T26s mean only two at sea at any one time and not until mid to late 2030s, if we are lucky. In war six is too few to sustain an effective presence in the Atlantic or absorb losses. Unless the UK thinks it can prevail with a tiny fleet too precious to deploy?

But, there are the five cheaper Type 31s? Not an ASW ship, no matter its virtues. Australia is buildingng 6 x T26s - plus will have 11 Mogami frigates - and Canada is building 15 x T26s. More than the UK, the nation that created the alleged world's supposed greatest ASW ship, the as yet not in service T26.

Until the UK Govt places an order for more T26s to replace those going to Norway then it is again failing on defence. The UK should actually build at least 12 T26s for the RN. And not just as a means to try and buy votes in Scotland with job creation, but because it is what the UK needs to be secure...and its navy needs a heck of a lot of other stuff too. Pronto.

Stop being so timid and pathetic on defence @GOVUK

[Hampshire Prints @Hantsprints]

We haven't done a giveaway for a while so here goes...A free print of your choosing (up to A3) from our website https://t.co/mgdbAg0Hkz just retweet to enter, winner selected at random 08/04/26 - Good Luck ⚓️ #royalnavy #army #royalmarines #RAF #RFA

[HollyJack @chrisholly31]

@Hantsprints Back when the ‘Geordie Gunboat went Global!’

[HollyJack @chrisholly31]

@ChelseaFC Cat amongst the pigeons!

[HollyJack @chrisholly31]

@ONLYONEGIBBO @davidclaridge16 @RoyalNavy As have you WO G!!
All made possible by that epic deployment!

[HollyJack @chrisholly31]

@ONLYONEGIBBO @davidclaridge16 @RoyalNavy 3P Mess - ‘Round the world Gentlemen’…

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Recreating the WW2 Dambusters raid

[All The Right Movies @ATRightMovies]

BEETLEJUICE was released 37 years ago this week. A surreal comedy that catapulted the careers of director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton, the making of story is strange and unusual. It’s showtime…

1/42

[Daniel Korski @DanielKorski]

Winston Churchill in the White House…

Not wearing a suit because he is at war

[HollyJack @chrisholly31]

@RN_engineers @HMS_Medway @engines201 Great work Shep, very well deserved recognition for an outstanding Engineer - BZ! 👏

[HollyJack @chrisholly31]

@HMS_Medway Cracking job Fletch, best of luck with the next role. Congratulations James - best job in the RN!!

[Philip Kendall @Piquer]

Calshot Harbour on Tristan da Cunha is safely operable 70-80 days per year. Today is not one of those days! #islandlife #TristandaCunha #Storm #Ocean #Harbour

[All The Right Movies @ATRightMovies]

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE was released 35 years ago today. The third, and for some best, entry in the Indiana Jones series, reading the behind the scenes story will mean you chose wisely…

1/38

[Yeovil Town FC @YTFC]

Happy Somerset Day! 💚

#YTFC 💚

[HollyJack @chrisholly31]

@ATRightMovies