By WARSHIPS IFR Special Correspondents
Neill Rush (Gibraltar), Iain Ballantyne (UK) & Charles Strathdee
(USA)
The British aircraft carrier, and Royal Navy fleet flagship, HMS Illustrious leaves Gibraltar on July 16 headed for the Lebanon. Photo: Neill Rush.
As the eastern Mediterranean plunged ever deeper into war, the British government ordered Royal Navy's warships to waters off Beirut. There was also speculation that the American government would order US Navy ships to head for the same waters on a similar evacuation mission, while the French were rumoured to be readying units based in Toulon, possibly including the brand new helicopter carrier FNS Mistral (L9013). However, a ferry had been ordered to the Lebanon from Cyprus to evacuate some of the estimated 20,000 French passport holders. The Italians were the first of the major European nations to have a warship off the coast of the Lebanon, with the destroyer ITS Durand de la Penne (D560) standing by as plans were made to evacuate 1,000 stranded Italian nationals. Some Italian passport holders had already been evacuated by air from Syria having escaped the fighting by road.
HMS Bulwark at sea 'East of Suez' during her current deployment. Photo: Royal Navy.
The French Navy assault carrier FNS Mistral, which could also be ordered to waters off the Lebanon. Photo: DCN.
Heading home after long deployments 'East of Suez', the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (R06), carrying Merlin and Sea King Mk7 Airborne Surveillance and Control (ASaC) helicopters, and amphibious command ship HMS Bulwark (L15), the former at Gibraltar and the latter off Barcelona, were on July 15 ordered to turn around. Unannounced, but probably also deployed to the eastern Mediterranean with Illustrious, was the supply ship RFA Fort Victoria (A387), carrying four Merlin helicopters, which was visiting Alicante at the same time as the carrier was in Gib.
The need for naval intervention came after Israeli strike
planes bombed the international airport in the Lebanese capital of Beirut
while the Israeli Navy mounted a sea blockade.
Some 10,000 UK citizens were by July 15 trapped in the Lebanon by fighting
between Israel and the terrorist organisation Hezbollah. It was also
claimed a further 15,000 'dual nationality' citizens might need to be
evacuated by the British. Both major Royal Navy ships are well suited
to an evacuation mission, with Illustrious able to operate helicopters
as big as Chinooks from her large flight-deck, while Bulwark has not
only a helicopter capability but also landing craft. While neither ships
had Chinooks embarked they could possibly be flown out to them from the
UK. It was also likely that additional Royal Marines would need to be
transported by air to Cyprus, where the UK has operational bases, so
that they could go aboard Bulwark and Illustrious to provide the main
landing force. Officially, the UK Ministry of Defence would only confirm
British warships were being sent to the eastern Mediterranean and would
not comment on the exact nature of the two vessels' subsequent mission.
Sailors and marines in both ships had been looking forward long-awaited
homecomings at their respective base ports of Portsmouth (Illustrious)
and Plymouth (Bulwark).
HMS Illustrious left Gibraltar for the Lebanon at 9.00am on 16 July,
leaving behind tearful relatives of her sailors, who had flown to Gib
from the UK. Some of them had been expecting to sail back in the ship.
It was considered essential that both should have escort
ships too, especially with a proven Anti-Shipping Missile (ASM) capability
in the eastern Mediterranean.
Just hours before the RN vessels were ordered to take up position of
the Lebanon, Hezbollah managed score a hit on an Israeli corvette with
a radar-guided C802 missile, allegedly of Iranian origin and possibly
operated by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel. Four casualties,
including one confirmed fatality were reported among the Israeli corvette's
crew. The warship, reportedly one of the Israeli Navy's 1,227 tons SAAR
5 Class, the Hanit (503), had to be towed back to base at Haifa, its
aft section smouldering. The Israeli warship was using its 76mm gun to
carry out a bombardment of Beirut airport at the time of the incident.
Some sources in the Middle East claim that two missiles - the first launched
around 8pm (Lebanese time) on 14 July - were in fact fired at the Israeli
corvette. The first missed, but the second - using a sea-skimming flight
profile - hit the warship's flight-deck. It is claimed that the Hanit
was gripped with severe fires and only the damage control efforts of
her sailors saved her from sinking. Meanwhile, another missile fired
by Hezbollah was alleged to have sunk an Egyptian-registered merchant
vessel.
Setting course for the Lebanon: An officer-of-the-watch aboard the British frigate HMS St Albans during her current deployment. Photo: US Navy.
In one of those accidents of fate the last warship to successfully shot down an anti-shipping missile was assigned to guard against the ASM threat for the British naval evacuation force. The Type 42 destroyer HMS Gloucester (D96), which deployed with the Illustrious at the beginning of the year, was somewhat closer to the action than the carrier or Bulwark. She had lingered in the eastern Mediterranean to ride shotgun on a Royal Navy nuclear-powered attack submarine transiting the Suez Canal on 13 July. The destroyer and made a passage north back through the waterway on 15 July. In early 1991, during the closing hours of the Desert Storm liberation of Kuwait, the Gloucester used Sea Dart missiles to shoot down a Chinese-origin Silkworm missile as it headed for an American battleship. Much modernised in the intervening 15 years, defence experts speculated that Gloucester would possibly be facing missiles carried by drone aircraft rather than shore-based batteries. Also assigned to the UK's Lebanon-bound task group was the Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans (F83), the other ASM guard. St Albans was on her way back to the UK from a spell of duty in the Gulf.
The assault carrier USS Iwo Jima earlier this month, during a passage through the Suez Canal. Photo: US Navy.
As the British were confirming Illustrious and Bulwark were heading from the eastern Mediterranean it was thought likely that the US Navy assault carrier USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7), then in the Red Sea on exercise with regional allies, would probably head north through the Suez Canal accompanied by the assault ships USS Widbey Island (LSD 41) and USS Nashville (LPD 13). Embarked in the Iwo Jima and other vessels of her Expeditionary Strike Group were 2,000 US Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24th MEU). Providing defence for the Iwo Jima ESG against possible ASM attack were the Arleigh Burke destroyers USS Cole (DDG 67) - herself the victim of a suicide boat attack attack at Aden in October 2000 - and USS Bulkeley (DDG 84), plus the Ticonderoga Class cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58).
The diving ship USNS Apache at sea. Photo: US Navy.
Unusually, the US Navy did not have a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) in either the US 5th Fleet (Gulf) or 6th Fleet (Mediterranean) area of operations, as the USS Enterprise had been sent at short notice from Arabian waters to the South China Sea following missile firings by North Korea. Defence sources were saying that an Atlantic Fleet nuclear-powered carrier could also be sent to the eastern Med to provide more cover for any evacuation of US and European nationals from the Levant. While various naval units were heading into the danger zone, as soon as the fighting erupted on July 13 the US Navy had ordered the withdrawal of the civilian-crewed, and unarmed, diving ship USNS Apache from the Israeli Navy base at Haifa, a wise precaution in light of the later missile attack on an IN corvette. As the crisis evolved, with claims of hands-on Iranian involvement in the conflict, the spectre of a region-wide conflict hovered over the Middle East.
• For more reports on the Lebanon Crisis, see WARSHIPS IFR magazine.