by James Jinks
Operation ‘Relentless’
118. Private information. 119. ITN, ‘David Cameron touring submarine HMS Victorious, 4 April 2013, http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/ITN/2013/04/04/204041310/?s=David%20Cameron%20Trident. 120. ‘We need a nuclear deterrent more than ever’, Telegraph, 3 April 2013. 121. Interview with David Cameron, 3 October 2013. 122. Ibid. 123. MOD Press Release, ‘NATO Praises Royal Navy’s Dedication to Delivering Security’, 5 March 2013. 124. ‘Yes-vote Scotland would be stuck with Trident “until 2028” ’, Daily Telegraph, 14 August 2014. 125. ‘Vernon Coaker to visit yards building Trident’s replacement submarines’, Guardian, 16 October 2013. 126. Ibid. 127. ‘Trident row: Cameron defends Fallon’s attack on Miliband’, Guardian, 9 April 2015. 128. Ibid. 129. The SNP won 56 seats, Liberal Democrat 8, DUP 8, Others 15. 130. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 8 June 2015, Vol. 596, Col. 886. 131. ‘Unions and MPs pour scorn on scrapping Trident’, The Times, 14 September 2015. 132. Ibid. 133. ‘Trident: Jeremy Corbyn hopes to alter Labour’s stance on nuclear weapons by stripping shadow Cabinet of power’, The Independent, 9 January 2016. 134. Jeremy Corbyn Comments on BBC Radio 4 ‘Today Programme’, 30 September 2015 135. ‘Jeremy Corbyn faces shadow cabinet mutiny over Trident’, The Telegraph, 30 September 2015 136. ‘Jeremy Corbyn row after “Id not fire nuclear weapons” comment’, BBC News, 30 September 2015 137. ‘Corbyn to complain to MoD about army chief’s “political interference” ’, The Guardian, 9 November 2015 138. ‘Trident Sceptic Thornberry Has “Open Mind”, Sky News, 15 January 2016 139. Emily Thornberry comments on BBC Radio 4 ‘Today Programme’, 8 February 2016 140. Lord West comments to Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4 ‘Today Programme’, 8 February 2016 141. Hansard, House of Lords Debates, 10 February 2016, Vol. Col. 2233. 142. John Hutton and George Robertson, ‘Labour’s Trident debate needs to be based on facts’, The Guardian, 22 February 2016 143. ‘National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015’, 20 November 2015 144. ‘National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015’, 20 November 2015 145. ‘National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015’, 20 November 2015 146. Private information 147. Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Legibus, Book III.
Appendix
Material drawn from a number of sources, including Paul Akermann, The Encyclopaedia of British Submarines 1901–1955 (Periscope Publishing, 2002); Norman Polmar and Kenneth J. More, Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945–2001 (Potomac Books, 2003); Stephen Saunders, IHS Jane’s Fighting Ships, 2012–2013 (IHS Jane’s, 2012) and internet sources.
Acknowledgements
The idea of this book was conceived on a perfect early autumn evening in late September 2010 somewhere in the Western Highlands of Scotland during a conversation between Rear Admiral Simon Lister, as he then was, Director Submarines Royal Navy, and Peter Hennessy. They were on the way in a car hired at Inverness Airport to HMS Vulcan near Thurso. The plan was to take a scenic route through Lairg. But Hennessy’s gifts as a map reader found them instead on the road to Ullapool and somewhere between Dingwall and an exquisite fishing hotel in Scourie, where dinner was just still being served. There a history of the Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1945 commended itself to their joint imaginations. Crucially, later it appealed as well to the mind of the then First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, himself a Submariner. Jinks came on board after completing a PhD on the procurement of the UK Polaris Programme, eager to continue exploring a relatively unexamined area of British history.
A crew-sized collection of gratitude has accumulated since that journey on 30 September 2010. Alongside Vice Admiral Simon Lister, Vice Admiral Ian Corder, the UK Military Representative to NATO and the European Union and Rear Admiral Matt Parr, the Royal Navy’s Commander (Operations), NATO’s Submarine Force Commander and the head of the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service, both opened many doors and offered considerable support, guidance and encouragement. Captain David Pollock, Captain Paul Dunn and Commander Andy Bower, all took time out of their busy day jobs while working in the Naval Staff in London to act as our day-to-day point of contact throughout the project. Special thanks must go to Commander Bower who saw the manuscript through its clearance process with sympathy, firmness and forbearance.
None of this would have been possible without the staff at the Naval Historical Branch, located at the HM Naval Base, Portsmouth. Special thanks to Jock Gardner, the Historian and Deputy Head of the Branch who spent many hours patiently answering questions, facilitating access to material and reading through drafts of the manuscript. Thanks also to Meyrick Young, Clerical Officer, Defence Business Services, Ministry of Defence and George Malcolmson, the archivist at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport for providing access to additional source material. We would also like to thank the HMS Courageous Association, in particular David Wixon and Michael Pitkeathly for taking us on a tour of the decommissioned Courageous in Devonport.
A considerable number of serving and retired Royal Navy and MOD personnel have helped with our research. We would like to thank Admiral of the Fleet The Lord Boyce, Admiral Sir Peter Herbert, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, Admiral Sir John Woodward, Vice Admiral Sir Tim McClement, Vice Admiral Sir Toby Frere, Rear Admiral Mark Beverstock, Rear Admiral John Gower, Rear Admiral Steve Lloyd, Rear Admiral Richard Heaslip, Rear Admiral Roger Lane-Nott, Rear Admiral Henry Parker, Rear Admiral James Perowne, Commodore Paul Branscombe, Commodore John Corderoy, Commodore Toby Elliot, Commodore Steve Garrett, Commodore Paul Halton, Commodore David Jarvis, Commodore Doug Littlejohns, Captain Phil Buckley, Captain Paul Burke, Captain Paul Dailey, Captain Mike Davis-Marks, Captain Chris Groves, Captain James Hayes, Captain Paul Jessop, Captain James Taylor, Captain Chris Ward, Captain John Stanley-Whyte, Commander John Aitken, Commander Iain Breckenridge, Commander Dan Clark, Commander Hywel Griffiths, Commander Alan Kennedy, Commander Irvine Lindsay, Commander Mark Lister, Commander John Livsey, Commander Ryan Ramsey, Commander Guy Warner, Lieutenant Commander Andy Johnson, Lieutenant Commander David O’Connor, Andy Mackinder and Heather Hammond.
Three retired submariners in particular, deserve special thanks: Rear Admiral John Hervey, Commodore Martin Macpherson and Captain Richard Sharpe, all helped us with our research and carefully proof read the final manuscript at very short notice. Their contributions have made the book immeasurably better than it would otherwise have been. All errors are ours.
We would also like to thank the crews of HMS Astute, HMS Tireless, HMS Trenchant, HMS Triumph, HMS Talent, HMS Vanguard, HMS Vigilant, HMS Victorious and HMS Vengeance for hosting us on board during our visits and answering our many questions, as well as the Perisher students for allowing us to witness what has to be one of the most demanding training courses in the world.
Many of the companies involved in the UK submarine enterprise have been kind enough to open their doors to help with our research. BAE Systems provided three years sponsorship and financial support for Jinks’ PhD Thesis on the UK Polaris programme, much of which appears in this book. We would like to thank Gavin Ireland, who spent a considerable amount of time supporting Jinks’ research, Dick Olver, the Chairman of BAE Systems, John Hudson, Managing Director, BAE Systems Maritime and Tony Johns, Managing Director, Maritime – Submarines. At Babcock International Group we would like to thank John Gardner, Group Head of Government Relations, for his considerable assistance over the years, as well as Gavin Leckie, the Submarine Programme Director. At Rolls Royce, we would like to thank Jason Smith and Tony Fletcher. We would also like to thank the scientists and staff at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston.
At Penguin, we would like to thank our editor Stuart Proffitt for his meticulous editing, constant wisdom and friendship, as well as Ben Sinyor, Donald Futers, Richard Duguid, Rebecca Lee, Ilaria Rovera, Rebecca Moldenhauer, Penelope Vogler, Rosie Glaisher, our copyeditor Mark Handsley and Dave Cradduck for the index. Professor Eric Grove also read through a copy of the manuscri
pt and made very helpful suggestions. We would also like to thank our agent David Godwin. Alison Firth at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Jeremy Postle, the Company Photographer at Babcock International and Michael Vallance, the Senior Photographer at BAE Systems in Barrow-in-Furness all helped with photographs.
Additional thanks must also go to what was the Mile End Group at Queen Mary University, particularly its former Director, Dr Jon Davis, now the Director of Partnerships and The Strand Group at Kings College London’s Policy Institute.
Finally, we would like to thank our families for their encouragement and support and for tolerating almost four years of talk about submarines. Hennessy would like to thank his wife Enid, daughters Cecily and Polly, sons-in law Mick and Paul and grandsons Joe and Jack who showed real enthusiasm during the project and relished (or so Hennessy thought) the tales he bought back from the deep. Jinks would like to thank Breege, Richard, Annie and Megan for their considerable support over the years.
THE BEGINNING
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First published by Allen Lane 2015
Published in Penguin Books 2016
Copyright © Peter Hennessy and James Jinks, 2015
The moral right of the authors has been asserted
Front cover: HMS Dreadnought leaving Faslane in 1979
ISBN: 978-0-141-97370-8