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Alexander Volchkov (jurist)

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Fyodorovich Volchkov (Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Волчко́в; August 10, 1902 – 1978) was a judge during the Nuremberg trials after World War II. He was the alternate Soviet judge during the proceedings. Before taking up the practice of law he had worked in the film business.

Life
As Arkady Poltorak writes in his book The Nuremberg Epilogue, Alexander Fedorovich was his colleague in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Volchkov worked for many years in the public prosecutor's office and also worked in the Soviet embassy in Great Britain. As he dealt with issues of international law, he also worked as a lecturer in the pre-war years and, like Poltorak, found himself in the role of an enforcer of military justice during the Second World War. Thanks to his knowledge of international law and his command of English, Volchkov was appointed Deputy Representative of the Soviet Union at the International War Tribunal in Nuremberg.

title: Alexander Volchkov (jurist)


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Centaur-class aircraft carrier

The Centaur class aircraft carrier was the final iteration of the 1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier developed by the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. They were designed in 1943 to operate higher-performance aircraft than the preceding Majestic-class aircraft carrier. Four ships were laid down in 1944-1945 and completed in 1953-1959. Rapid developments in carrier warfare and technology overtook the ships even as they were under construction, and the associated costs of modernization led to ships being completed to different specifications. Only the last ship, HMS Hermes (R12), was fitted as a modern fixed-wing carrier; she was also the last of the class to retire in 2017 as INS Viraat.

Development
Britain hoped to order eight light fleet carriers in 1943 to supplement the Malta-class aircraft carrier. Matters were complicated by the demand to operate larger and higher performing aircraft; at the end of 1942, the Joint Technical Committee recommended that carriers be able to operate 30,000 lbs aircraft with a landing speed of 75 kn. A new light carrier design was required as the Majestic-class aircraft carrier could not be modified to handle the new requirements; it became the first British carrier design to be dominated by aircraft operations. A sketch design was prepared by the end of May 1943, and the final design was approved in March 1944; it was revised in 1947.

Eight of the new light carriers were ordered in 1943. It quickly became apparent that wartime demands on shipyard capacity made it impossible to complete the ships in 1946. Only three - Albion, Centaur, Elephant - started construction in 1944; Bulwark started in 1945; the remainder were cancelled on 15 October 1945 with Elephant being renamed Hermes after one of the cancelled ships. The remainder were completed in the 1950s

The cost of modernization saw the ships diverge in capability even before completion. Albion and Bulwark were completed with interim angled flight decks and hydraulic catapults. They were not modernized to operate modern aircraft, instead being converted into helicopter assault ships ("commando carriers"). Centaur was partially modernized with steam catapults shortly after being commissioned and limited to operating mainly de Havilland Sea Vixen fighters until retirement in 1965. Hermes was the last ship completed - in 1959 - and the only one to be fully modernized. Her career as a conventional carrier ended in 1970 while operating Sea Vixens and Blackburn Buccaneers; afterwards, she served as a helicopter carrier and then as a V/STOL carrier operating Sea Harrier fighters. Hermes was sold to India as INS Viraat, and continued to operate Sea Harriers from 1987 until retiring in 2017.

Design
The 1942 light fleet carrier was conceived as a wartime expedient to respond to the Royal Navy's desperate need for fast carriers. The design was ruthlessly simplified to reduce cost and construction times; the hull was unarmoured and built to merchant standards, armament was limited to light anti-aircraft guns, and it used existing cruiser machinery. During requirements discussions, it was suggested that durability was needed for just three years of service.

From the initial 1943 sketches, the Centaur was designed for longer post-war careers to a hybrid of merchant and warship standards. The flight deck, longitudinal protective bulkhead, middle deck over the machinery, and lower decks over aviation fuel were constructed with hardened steel. The magazines and bomb rooms were covered by 2-inch non-cemented armour. The remainder of the hull was made of mild steel. The hull was enlarged to accommodate larger aircraft; the 1-inch hardened steel construction of the flight deck also supported heavier aircraft. The axial flight deck included one catapult. The machinery was half the set used on the Audacious-class aircraft carrier for 76,000 shaft horsepower on two shafts; there was no capacity to develop new machinery. Armament neared fleet carrier standards with 4 twin 4.5-inch BD guns.

The design was modified in 1947. Living arrangements were upgraded to peacetime standards and to include centralized messing; the aft hangar was converted into additional living space. The addition of a second catapult may have also contributed to the hangar length being reduced from 501 ft to 381 ft. The 4.5 inch guns were removed. The island was redesigned to add the new two-deck configuration for the action information organization. The intended radar suite was an air warning Type 980, a gunnery air search Type 293, and two pairs of air control Type 277Q; none of these were actually used.

Hermes (cancelled)
Hermes was the original name-ship of the class. She was ordered from Cammell Laird of Birkenhead on 12 July 1943. No work had been done when construction was ordered to be deferred in early 1944. The ship was cancelled on 15 October 1945. The name was transferred to Elephant.

Centaur
Centaur was the first ship completed and the only one completed to the original design. She was ordered from Harland & Wolff on 12 July 1943 and laid down on 30 May 1944. Construction was halted for two years. The ship was completed on 1 September 1953 and commissioned on 17 September. An interim 5.5-degree angled deck was fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard from October 1953 to May 1954. Centaur underwent a limited modernization refit from September 1956 to September 1958 during which the hydraulic catapults were replaced by BS-4 steam catapults; features required to operate modern strike aircraft, like a fully angled flight deck, were not fitted due to yard capacity issues. Afterwards, she was limited to mainly Sea Vixen fighters and Fairey Gannet anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft.

Centaur operated as an aircraft carrier and a helicopter assault ship during the suppression of the Tanganyika Rifles in 1964. She decommissioned for the last time on 27 September 1965 and became an accommodation ship for the remainder of her life. Plans to convert the ship into a helicopter carrier were cancelled in 1966. The hulk was sold for scrapping on 11 August 1972.

Albion
Albion was ordered from Swan Hunter on 12 July 1943 and laid down at Wallsend-on-Tyne on 23 March 1944. Work slowed after 1945. The hull was launched on 6 May 1947 and then laid-up with machinery installed; construction resumed after August 1949. She was commissioned on 26 May 1954 as the first carrier ever to be completed with both an angled flight deck - an interim 5.5-degree one - and mirror landing aids. She participated in Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Albion was to have been modernized with steam catapults after Centaur, but this was cancelled after the 1957 defence policy review. Instead, she became the second ship of the class - after Bulwark - to be converted into a helicopter assault ship; the refit was done at Portsmouth Dockyard from February 1961 to July 1962. Albion could carry 900 troops, a greater number than her sister's due to a more extensive conversion; Bulwark was later refitted to a similar standard. Another defence review in 1973 led to Albion being discarded - rather than being refitted - to pay for HMS Invincible (R05). She was decommissioned for the last time on 2 March 1973, to be replaced by HMS Hermes (R12) when the latter's conversion to a helicopter assault ship was completed in August 1973. Albion was sold on 22 October 1973 to be converted into a heavy-lift crane to support the North Sea oil industry; the scheme fell through and the hull was sold for scrapping a few weeks later.

Bulwark
Bulwark was ordered from Harland & Wolff on 12 July 1943, but deferred in early 1944. She was laid down on 10 May 1945, becoming the fourth ship of the class instead of Monmouth which Fairfield had been unable to start construction of in 1944. Work slowed after the war. The carrier was commissioned on 29 October 1954, and was completed with an interim 5.5-degree angled flight deck on 4 November. Bulwark served as a trials and training carrier in 1955 and 1956, replacing HMS Illustrious (87) which was laid up in December 1954 and sold for scrapping in November 1956. The carrier returned to operational status in August 1956 and participated in Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis in November.

The 1957 defence policy review led to Bulwark being converted into a helicopter assault ship rather than being modernized for fixed-wing aircraft. The initial conversion was done at Portsmouth Dockyard from January 1959 to January 1960, with another refit occurring in 1963 to match the more extensive conversion of Albion. In June 1968, she demonstrated - for the first time - the reinforcement of Norway by assault carriers during NATO Exercise Polar Express.

The carrier was reduced to reserve in April 1976. In 1978, HMS Ark Royal (R09) was retired before the Invincible-class aircraft carriers entered service; Bulwark was refitted in 1977-1979 and returned to service on 23 February 1979 to fill the gap. The ship suffered a boiler room fire in March 1980; the damage was not fully repaired and her maximum speed was decreased. Another major fire, coupled with the ship's poor material state, led to her retirement six months earlier than planned; she decommissioned for the last time on 27 March 1981. The hull was used for demolitions training by the Royal Marines. A proposal to convert the hull into an aircraft maintenance carrier for the Falklands War was rejected due to her poor condition and insufficient equipment. Bulwark was sold for scrapping in 1984.

Hermes (ex-Elephant)
Elephant was ordered from Vickers-Armstrongs on 12 July 1943 and laid down at Barrow-in-Furness on 21 June 1944. She was renamed as Hermes on 5 November 1945 following the cancellation of the name-ship of the class. Construction was protracted due to work on the higher-priority HMAS Melbourne (R21) and major design revisions. The ship was launched in 1953 only to undergo full modernization that required partial disassembly and reconstruction; steam catapults, a full 8-degree angled flight deck, a side lift instead of a forward centerline lift, the Comprehensive Display System (CDS), and the Type 984 radar were installed. Hermes completed builder's trials on 18 November 1959 and was commissioned on 25 November.

Hermes was converted into a helicopter assault ship at Portsmouth Dockyard from 1 March 1971 to 14 August 1973; the steam catapults, arrestor gear, CDS, and the Type 984 were removed. She was refitted as an ASW carrier in 1977. The carrier trialled the Sea Harrier in 1977-1978. From May 1980 to 9 May 1981 she was refitted at Portsmouth into a general-purpose carrier operating Sea Harriers, and ASW and air assault helicopters; a 12-degree ski-jump and Ferranti 1600E computer were installed. She was the flagship of the British task force during the Falklands War in 1982.

Hermes paid off for the last time on 22 November 1983 and sold to India after the completion of HMS Ark Royal (R07). She was refitted at Devonport Dockyard for a year and then commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Viraat on 12 May 1987. Viraat decommissioned on 6 March 2017, and scrapped starting in 2020.

Arrogant
Arrogant was ordered from Swan Hunter on 12 July 1943, deferred in early 1944, and then cancelled on 15 October 1945. No work appears to have been done. She was to be built at Wallsend-on-Tyne.

Monmouth
Monmouth was ordered from the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company on 12 July 1943. She was to have been one of the four ships to start construction in 1944, but Fairfield was too overloaded to do so; Bulwark replaced Monmouth as the fourth ship in 1945. Monmouth was cancelled on 15 October 1945 with no work apparently having been done.

Polyphemus
Polyphemus was ordered from Devonport Dockyard on 11 August 1943, to be constructed after HMS Terrible. Construction was deferred in late 1943 and cancelled on 15 October 1945. Parsons Marine Engineering received orders for machinery before the deferral; the orders were cancelled before the ship was. The slipway would have required a slight extension to build the carrier; Fore Street was purchased to make room and walled off, and was only returned to Plymouth in 2005.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Centaur-class aircraft carrier


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Gideon Sa'ar

Gideon Moshe Sa'ar (גדעון משה סער; born 9 December 1966) is an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Justice between 2021 and 2022. Sa'ar was previously a member of the Knesset for the Likud between 2003 and 2014, Deputy Prime Minister for a brief spell in 2021, as well as holding the posts of Education Minister (2009–2013) and Minister of the Interior (2013–2014). In 2019 Sa'ar returned to the Knesset and unsuccessfully ran against longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu for the leadership of the Likud; he left the Knesset the following year after establishing a new party called New Hope.

Biography
Gideon Moshe Serchensky (later Sa'ar) was born in Tel Aviv. His mother Bruriah is a Mizrahi-Bukharan Jew who is the 7th generation of her family in Israel. His father Shmuel is an Ashkenazi Jew who was born in Ukraine and moved to Argentina as a child before immigrating to Israel. He has two siblings, a brother and a sister. His father was a doctor. Sa'ar grew up primarily in Tel Aviv, but as a child, he lived for a number of years in Mitzpe Ramon, where his father worked as a pediatrician, and in kibbutz Sde Boker, where he was the kibbutz doctor. At the time, Sde Boker was the residence of Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. His father was frequently in contact with Ben-Gurion as the kibbutz doctor, and the young Gideon Sa'ar met Ben-Gurion numerous times when accompanying his father on visits to his home, during which Ben-Gurion gave him geography quizzes. After serving in the Israel Defense Forces as an intelligence NCO in the Golani Brigade, Sa'ar studied political science at Tel Aviv University and then went on to study law at the same institution.

In May 2013 Sa'ar married Israeli news anchor Geula Even, with whom he has two children, David and Shira. Geula was born to Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union. Sa'ar has another two children, Alona and Daniela, from his first wife Shelly, as well as one grandchild.

Political career
Sa'ar worked as an aide to the Attorney General between 1995 and 1997, and then as an aide to the State Attorney until 1998. Sa'ar was appointed cabinet Secretary in 1999 and again from 2001–2 after Likud's Ariel Sharon won a special election for Prime Minister. In the 2003 elections he won a seat in the Knesset on Likud's list, and was appointed Likud Parliamentary Group Chairman as well as Chairman of the Coalition. He was opposed to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, and attempted to pass a bill demanding a referendum on the subject.

After retaining his seat in the 2006 elections he was reappointed Group Chairman and also became a deputy Knesset speaker.

While in the Knesset, Sa'ar proposed bills to jail employers who fire pregnant women, (he chaired the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women) and to ban cosmetics testing on animals.

In December 2008 Sa'ar won the Likud primaries for its list going into the 2009 elections, giving him second place on the Likud list after leader Benjamin Netanyahu. He retained his seat, and was appointed Minister of Education on 31 March.

In 2012, he again gained the most votes in Likud primaries, and entered the 19th Knesset.

In September 2014, Sa'ar announced that he would be resigning his post before the next election; with rumors of an alleged sexual harassments background for his sudden resignation. He said he would still remain a member of the Likud. On 17 September, he took a hiatus from politics. He left the Knesset on 5 November, and was replaced by Leon Litinetsky.

On 3 April 2017 Sa'ar announced his return to politics and intention to run in the next Likud primaries. He was seen as a potential candidate for party leadership and eventually prime minister.

In September 2017, The Jerusalem Post ranked him 5th on its "50 most influential Jews" list, calling him the "heir apparent to the Likud throne". In September 2018, he was ranked 25th along with fellow Likud members Yisrael Katz and Gilad Erdan.

Likud leadership run
In October 2019, amid coalition talks, Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated he was considering holding a snap election for party leadership. In a terse tweet, Sa'ar responded "I'm ready." After Netanyahu decided against holding a leadership election, Sa'ar confirmed he would run in the next election and would support Netanyahu until then.

On 24 November 2019, Sa'ar asked the Likud Central Committee to schedule a party leadership race within two weeks, allowing the winner to try to form a coalition government before the Knesset would be dissolved which would trigger new Knesset elections, the third in a year. After the Knesset was dissolved and elections set for 2 March 2020, leadership elections were set for 26 December 2019. Sa'ar received the endorsement of a few Likud Members of Knesset, including Haim Katz, the powerful head of the Likud central committee. Netanyahu was endorsed by Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan while Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein declined to endorse either candidate.

During the campaign, Netanyahu's campaign slammed Sa'ar on Twitter saying he "has aligned with the Left and the media in order to remove the prime minister from the leadership of the state". At a conference the week before, Sa'ar had spoken against the "two state illusion" and criticized Netanyahu for offering territorial concessions to the Palestinians despite them being uninterested in peace talks, saying, "Around the world, the words 'two-state solution' remain a kind of certificate of acceptance. I have to tell you this is not a helpful position."

As widely expected, Netanyahu won handily with 72.5% to Sa'ar's 27.5%.

New Hope
In December 2020, Sa'ar announced that he would leave Likud and will form his own party, called New Hope. He submitted his Knesset resignation on 9 December, which went into effect on 11 December. The party contested the 2021 Israeli legislative election, with the intent of forming a governing coalition, and removing Netanyahu from office. He regained his seat in the Knesset, as New Hope gained six seats at the elections. Following the election, Sa'ar became Minister of Justice in the thirty-sixth government of Israel.

On July 10, 2022, Sa'ar announced that New Hope would form an electoral alliance with Benny Gantz's Blue and White, to be named National Unity. Sa'ar was second on the list. National Unity contested the 2022 Israeli legislative election, where it placed fourth with 12 seats and did not join the thirty-seventh government.

Following the outbreak of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Sa'ar was one of five members of National Unity to join the emergency war government. Sa'ar was sworn in as a minister without portfolio on 12 October 2023. On March 12, Sa'ar announced that New Hope would leave the National Unity alliance. On 16 March, Sa'ar threatened to withdraw New Hope from the coalition if Prime Minister Netanyahu did not appoint him to the war cabinet; Netanyahu did not do so, and nine days later, Sa'ar and the rest of New Hope left the government.

Views and opinions
Sa'ar has stated that he is opposed to a two-state solution, arguing "There is no two-state solution; there is at most a two-state slogan", and that it would be "a mistake to return to the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria as a solution to the conflict." He has expressed support for a long-term solution involving Jordan. He supported annexation of the West Bank, and supported the idea of Palestinian autonomy in a federation with Jordan. In 2020 he declared "Between the Jordan River and the sea there won’t be another independent state". As a teenager, Saar joined the ultra-nationalist Tehiya movement protesting the 1982 evacuation of Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula as per the Egypt–Israel peace treaty.

On 14 October 2023, in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 News, Sa'ar said that the Gaza Strip "must be smaller at the end" of the war between Israel and Hamas, stating "Whoever starts a war against Israel must lose territory."

title: Gideon Sa'ar


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Robert Falco

Robert Falco (26 February 1882 – 14 January 1960) was a French judge at the Nuremberg trials, who later sat in the Cour de Cassation.

Biography
Falco was born in Paris into a Jewish family. His great-grandfather was decorated by Louis Philippe in 1831, and his maternal grandfather Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe worked as an architect for Leopold II of Belgium and Gustave de Rothschild. His father fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, for which he was made a member of the Légion d'honneur, and later became the President of the Paris commercial court.

After the end of his legal studies Falco worked from 1903 as a barrister. In 1907 he gained his doctorate with a work on the Duties and Rights of Theatre Audiences and then worked as a judge at the court of chancery, but continued to plead until 1919.

He was later appointed to the Paris Court of Appeal. He was dismissed from this post in 1940 because of his Jewish origin. During the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials in June 1945 in London at the International Conference on Military Trials he represented France together with André Gros, professor of international law, and was one of the main authors of the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal, defining the procedures and protocols observed during the Nuremberg Trials, where he was one of the two French judges, as the alternative to Henri Donnedieu de Vabres.

On the basis of his work during the trials he was elected an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn in 1946.

In 1947 Falco was reinstated in the French judiciary, at the Cour de Cassation.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and made a Commander of the Légion d'honneur. He died in Paris in 1960.

Memoirs
During the year he spent in Nuremberg, Falco kept notes which he later used in his memoirs of the trials. These memoirs remained unpublished for decades, but, illustrated with sketches by Jeanne Falco, the judge's second wife, who accompanied him throughout the trials, are due to be published in September 2012 under the title Juge à Nuremberg by Editions Arbre bleu, with a preface by the historian Annette Wieviorka and an introduction by Guillaume Mouralis, an historian specialising in the history of international penal justice.

Sources and external links

 * DER AUGENZEUGE Falco als Richter in Nürnberg
 * Courdecassation.fr Short biography

title: Robert Falco


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HMS Bulwark (R08)

The sixth HMS Bulwark of the Royal Navy was a 22,000 ton Centaur-class aircraft carrier light fleet aircraft carrier. Initially commissioned as a light aircraft carrier in 1954, the ship was converted into a commando carrier in 1958 and recommissioned as such in 1960. Bulwark remained in this capacity until 1979 following failed efforts to sell the ship, Bulwark re-entered service as an anti-submarine warfare carrier and remained as such until being decommissioned in 1981. The ship was scrapped in 1984.

Construction and career
Bulwark was laid down by the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast on 10 May 1945. She was launched on 22 June 1948, but was not commissioned into the Royal Navy until 4 November 1954.

1950s
In 1956, Bulwark took part in her first combat operation, during the Suez Crisis, when she launched up to 600 sorties in what was then known as Operation Musketeer. On 13 September 1958, Bulwark was exercising with the frigate HMS Loch Killisport (K628) in the Gulf of Oman when the tankers SS Melika and Fernand Gilabe collided in the Persian Gulf and caught fire, the tankers' crews abandoning ship. Bulwark went to the aid of the two blazing tankers, with her helicopters landing fire fighting parties onto the tankers. Bulwark, with the aid of the frigate HMS Puma (F34), towed Melika, to Muscat. Bulwark's Whirlwind helicopter squadron, 845 Naval Air Squadron, was awarded the Boyd Trophy for the squadron's role in the rescue.

The final fixed wing complement, as embarked in 1957 (the Gannet squadron was dropped in 1958), was as follows:

801 Naval Air Squadron - 8 Sea Hawk FGA6 fighter-attack

898 Naval Air Squadron – 8 Sea Hawk FGA6 fighter-attack

891 Naval Air Squadron – 8 Sea Venom FAW21 night/all-weather fighter

820 Naval Air Squadron – 6 Gannet AS4 anti-submarine warfare

849 Naval Air Squadron – D flt. 4 Skyraider AEW1 airborne early warning

845 Naval Air Squadron – 5 Whirlwind HAS7 helicopter anti-submarine warfare

Ships Flight 1 Dragonfly HR5 helicopter search and rescue

In 1958 she paid off at Portsmouth for conversion into a commando carrier. Her sister ship, HMS Albion (R07), did likewise in 1961.

1960s
In 1960, Bulwark was recommissioned with 42 Commando Royal Marines and 848 Squadron attached to the carrier. In 1961, due to an increasing threat of invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Bulwark landed 42 Commando in Kuwait. In the same year, she became the first Royal Navy warship since the Second World War to commission outside the UK, commissioning instead in Singapore. She also took part in the campaign against Indonesia, during the Indonesian Confrontation. In June 1966 she carried out sea trials with the Kestrel: the forerunner of the Harrier fighter aircraft made famous during the Falklands War.

In 1967, she again commissioned in Singapore Naval Dockyard (HMS Sembawang), and following her work up, proceeded to Aden to cover the withdrawal and relieve Albion. By this time, Bulwark's nickname "The Rusty B" had become firmly established.

In 1968, after service in the Arctic with 45 Commando embarked for Exercise Polar Express, the ship spent some time in dry dock in Portsmouth Dockyard for a refit. For the duration of the refit, the ship's company was accommodated in HMS Centaur (R06).

In Spring 1969, with commanding officer Captain J.A. Templeton-Cotill (who would later become a rear admiral and Flag Officer Malta), Bulwark left for the Mediterranean Sea and Exercise Olympic Express in the Aegean, with visits to Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Salonica, Venice, Villefranche, and Toulon. For the later part of this voyage, a TV crew embarked to shoot a documentary 'Captain R.N.'. She returned to Devonport Dockyard to decommission in August 1969 for a four-month refit.

1970s and 1980s
In January 1970, Bulwark recommissioned and sailed to Singapore via Gibraltar, Cape Town, Gan, and Brunei. After a minor refit in Singapore Naval Dockyard (to repair damage sustained in Tropical Storm Diane after leaving Cape Town), the ship sailed for Kobe, Japan (EXPO 70), Hong Kong, Jakarta and Perth Australia before returning to Plymouth.

The ship visited Liverpool from 1 July to 7 July 1971.

In September 1971 Bulwark took part in exercises in the eastern Mediterranean with 845 Squadron embarked. Whilst at anchor off Trieste she suffered a boiler room fire, in 'B' boiler room, and limped home on one set of boilers. The repairs were started in Plymouth by the dockyard but were then completed in Malta by the ships own company while involved in Operation Exit between January and end of March 1972.

In 1972, Bulwark, like her sister ship Albion, was involved in withdrawals across the declining empire. In 1972 she was headquarters ship for Operation Exit, the withdrawal from Malta, an emotional withdrawal for the Royal Navy. Bulwark lay in Grand Harbor for 11 weeks and flew more than 1,000 missions.

Later in 1972 she took part in exercises in the Caribbean Sea and visited Florida with 845 Squadron embarked. On the return journey, Bulwark had to discharge all remaining aviation fuel and transfer on to accompanying Royal Fleet Auxiliaries all ammunition to prepare to move in to dry dock after entering Plymouth. The spell in dry dock was extended due to dock yard strikes and she did not sail again until October.

In the January 1973 Bulwark sailed for exercises in the Caribbean Sea and suffered damage due to heavy storms during the 10-day crossing of the Atlantic. The first port of call was a 10-day visit to Charleston, South Carolina, which meant sailing under the Cooper Bridge. Bulwark became the largest warship to have sailed under that bridge. The following day brought a snow storm, the worst in this area for more than 80 years, which did not stop for about eight days. After the visit came the exercises in the Caribbean, with visits in between to Viaques and Puerto Rico.

Under the command of Captain Derek Bazalgette, she saw service in the Mediterranean in 1973 visiting Malta, Piraeus, Istanbul, Gibraltar and, in December 1973, Travemünde, the port of Lübeck. Owing to a delayed start date for refit, she embarked a company of Netherlands Marine Corps and spent early 1974 in the Dutch Caribbean, also visiting Cartagena, Colombia; she suffered damage during the storms of January 1974 in the eastern Atlantic. The 1974 refit was undertaken in Devonport Dockyard, during which time command transferred to Captain Johnnie R C Johnston. In 1975 she returned to the Mediterranean, visiting Gibraltar, Villefranche and Malta before returning to her home port of Plymouth in July.

In March 1976, Bulwark was withdrawn from service and placed in Reserve. Also during this year the Ministry of Defence offered Bulwark to the Peruvian Navy. After two years of negotiations finally the Royal Navy decided to keep the ship. Furthermore, she underwent a refit at Portsmouth in 1978, and was recommissioned as an anti-submarine warfare carrier on 23 February 1979, due to delays with the new aircraft carrier HMS Invincible (R05).

On 28 June 1979, Bulwark was involved in exercise Whiskey Venture, with 820 Squadron (flying Sea Kings) and 45 Royal Marine Commando embarked. Also during 1979, Bulwark was involved in trials of the Sea Harrier. At the start of 1980, Bulwark visited the United States of America; participating in Exercise Safe Passage off the east coast of the United States in late February. On 15 March, while alongside in Philadelphia, a fire destroyed one boiler, which could not be repaired to operational status. The carrier returned to Portsmouth on 2 April, and on 15 April embarked 45 Commando for Exercise Dawn Patrol off Sardinia. In August, Bulwark was involved in Exercise Teamwork 80 off Norway. On 9 November, a major fire damaged the forward hangar and some messdecks. Minimal repairs were performed to both areas in order for her to stay in service until HMS Invincible was commissioned in the spring of 1981.

Decommissioning and fate
On 27 March 1981, Bulwark returned to Portsmouth for the final time in her career. She was decommissioned into unmaintained reserve without any repairs being attempted to the damaged boiler or other fire damage. The carrier would however, remain intact for the next two years. During the early stages of the Falklands War it was announced that Bulwark would be reactivated and sent south to support the fleet, and then remain as a headquarters hulk at Port Stanley following the war. A rapid ship survey, however, determined that in addition to the only minimally repaired fire damage suffered in 1980, her machinery and structure had deteriorated such that it would have taken as much as eight months and a significant amount of funds to get her minimally seaworthy.

She was finally declared for disposal in April 1983 and some material was removed as potential spares for HMS Hermes (R12). She remained anchored in harbour until she was towed from Portsmouth to Cairnryan to be scrapped in April 1984.

title: HMS Bulwark (R08)


text:
HMAS Melbourne (R21)

HMAS Melbourne (R21) was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1955 until 1982, and was the third and final conventional aircraft carrier to serve in the RAN. Melbourne was the only Commonwealth naval vessel to sink two friendly warships in peacetime collisions.

Melbourne was laid down for the Royal Navy as the lead ship of the Majestic class in April 1943, and was launched as HMS Majestic (R77) in February 1945. At the end of the Second World War, work on the ship was suspended until she was purchased by the RAN in 1947. At the time of purchase, it was decided to incorporate new aircraft carrier technologies into the design, making Melbourne the third ship to be constructed with an angled flight deck. Delays in construction and integrating the enhancements meant that the carrier was not commissioned until 1955.

Melbourne never fired a shot in anger during her service career, having only peripheral, non-combat roles in relation to the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation and the Vietnam War. She was, however, involved in two major collisions with allied vessels; though Melbourne was not found to be the primary cause of either incident. The first collision occurred on the evening of 10 February 1964, in which Melbourne rammed and sank the RAN destroyer HMAS Voyager (D04), when the latter altered course across her bow. 82 of Voyager's personnel were killed, and two Royal Commissions were held to investigate the incident. The second collision occurred in the early morning of 3 June 1969, when Melbourne also rammed the United States Navy (USN) destroyer USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) in similar circumstances. 74 American personnel died, and a joint USN–RAN Board of Inquiry was held. These incidents, along with several minor collisions, shipboard accidents and aircraft losses, led to the belief that Melbourne was jinxed.

Melbourne was paid off from RAN service in 1982. A proposal to convert her for use as a floating casino failed, and a 1984 sale was cancelled, before she was sold for scrap in 1985 and towed to China for breaking. The scrapping was delayed so Melbourne could be studied by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) as part of a secret project to develop a Chinese aircraft carrier and used to train PLAN aviators in carrier flight operations.

Construction and acquisition
Melbourne was constructed by Vickers-Armstrongs at their Naval Construction Yard in Barrow-in-Furness, North West England. The ship was laid down as HMS Majestic on 15 April 1943, and was launched on 28 February 1945 by Lady Anderson, the wife of Sir John Anderson, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer. Following the end of World War II, the Admiralty ordered the suspension of many British shipbuilding projects, including the fitting out of Majestic and her five sister ships. Construction resumed in 1946, and major modifications to the design were incorporated.

A review by the Australian Government's Defence Committee held after World War II recommended that the post-war forces of the RAN be structured around a Task Force incorporating multiple aircraft carriers. Initial plans were for three carriers, with two active and a third in reserve, although funding cuts led to the purchase of only two carriers in June 1947: Majestic and sister ship HMS Terrible, for the combined cost of AU£2.75 million, plus stores, fuel, and ammunition. As Terrible was the closer of the two ships to completion, she was finished without modification, and was commissioned into the RAN on 16 December 1948 as HMAS Sydney (R17). Work progressed on Majestic at a slower rate, as she was upgraded with the latest technology and equipment. The Colossus-class carrier HMS Vengeance (R71) was loaned to the RAN from 13 November 1952 until 12 August 1955 to cover Majestic's absence.

The Majestic experienced delays in its construction due to labour difficulties, late delivery of equipment, additional requirements for Australian operations and the prioritisation of the construction of merchant ships. Incorporation of new systems and enhancements caused the cost of the RAN carrier acquisition program to increase to AU£8.3 million. Construction and fitting out did not finish until October 1955. As the carrier neared completion, a commissioning crew was formed in Australia and first used to return Vengeance to the United Kingdom.

The completed carrier was commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Majestic on 26 October 1955. Two days later, the ship was renamed Melbourne by Lady White, the wife of Sir Thomas White, the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and recommissioned.

Design
As the lead ship of the Majestic-class of light aircraft carriers, Melbourne was conceived as a modified version of the Colossus-class carrier, incorporating improvements in flight deck design and habitability. Majestic- and Colossus-class carriers were almost identical in hull design and both were considered subclasses of the "1942 design" light aircraft carrier program. These carriers were intended as "disposable warships": to be disposed of at the end of World War II or within three years of entering service.

Melbourne had a standard displacement of 15740 long ton, which increased to 20000 long ton at full load. At launch, the carrier was 213.97 m long overall, but this was increased by 2.43 m during a refit in 1969. She had a beam of 24.38 m, and a draught of 7.62 m. Melbourne's two propellers were driven by two Parsons single-reduction geared turbine sets providing 40,000 shp, which were powered by four Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The carrier could achieve a top speed of 24 kn, and a range of 12000 nmi at 14 kn or 6200 nmi at 23 kn. The size of the ship's company averaged 1,350 officers and sailors, including 350 personnel from the embarked Fleet Air Arm squadrons.

Modifications during construction
Following the recommencement of construction, modifications were made to the ship, based on wartime experience and Britain's post-war carrier warfare technology and innovations. These included an angled flight deck, steam catapult and a mirror landing aid, making Melbourne the third aircraft carrier (following HMS Ark Royal (R09) and USS Forrestal (CV-59)) to be constructed with these features, instead of having them added later.

The main modifications centred around the need to operate jet aircraft, which were larger and heavier than those propeller-driven aircraft that the carrier was originally designed for. The flight deck was angled 5.5 degrees left of the carrier's centreline, to allow for the simultaneous launch and recovery of aircraft. Despite an increase to approximately one acre (4,000 square metres, 4,800 square yards) in area, the deck was still significantly smaller than other Cold War era carriers; S-2 Trackers, with their 22.12 m wingspan, had less than a metre's clearance for their starboard wingtip when landing, and pilots from other navies often refused to attempt landing. Water rationing was required in the early years of the carrier's operation, as the ship's fresh water supply was insufficient to freely provide for the steam catapult, propulsion turbines and crew. The flight deck, hangar deck and aircraft lifts were strengthened, and reinforced arrestor cables were installed. Flight direction radar was included, making Melbourne the only military airfield in the Australasian region at the time capable of operating aircraft at night and in poor weather.

Refits
Early in her career, Melbourne underwent a series of short annual refits, commencing in September and ending in January or February of the next year. As time passed, the refits increased in duration or were replaced by major upgrades or overhauls.

Melbourne's first major refit started in December 1967 and continued until February 1969, during which she was upgraded to operate S-2 Tracker and A-4 Skyhawk aircraft. The modifications cost A$8.5 million, and included an overhaul of the hull and machinery, strengthening of the flight deck, improvements to the catapult and arrestor cables, modification of the aviation fuel systems and flight control arrangements, and upgrades of the navigational aids and radar. Air conditioning systems and a liquid oxygen generation plant were also installed. Melbourne re-entered service at the conclusion of the refits on 14 February, and performed sea trials in Jervis Bay from 17 February until 5 May. This was the largest project undertaken by Garden Island Dockyard to that date.

The next major refit was required in 1971 for the scheduled rebuilding of the catapult, which was only possible after components were sourced from HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22) and USS Coral Sea (CV-43). The flight deck was again reinforced and strengthened, and attempts were made to increase the effectiveness of the air conditioning system installed in 1969. Melbourne had been designed to operate in North Atlantic and Arctic climates, and the original ventilation systems were inappropriate for her primary operating climate, the tropics. The 1969 and 1971 refits did improve conditions, although there was little scope for upgrade, and the system was still inadequate: temperatures inside the ship continued to reach over 65 C, and on one occasion a hold reached 78 C. The refit took seven months to complete, and cost A$2 million.

More large-scale refits occurred throughout the rest of the 1970s. Melbourne was back in dock from November 1972 until August 1973, with further work done to her catapult. The next major refit ran from April 1975 to June 1976, and was intended to increase the operational lifespan of the carrier to at least 1985. The refit was lengthened by industrial action at the dockyard. Melbourne underwent another refit from late 1978 until August 1979. A refit scheduled to begin in late 1981 was postponed in September until a decision regarding the new carrier was made, then cancelled in January 1982, after the announcement that the RAN would be acquiring HMS Invincible.

Armament
Melbourne carried a defensive armament of anti-aircraft guns and an air group comprising both attack and anti-submarine aircraft. As the ship was never directly involved in a conflict, her weapons and embarked aircraft did not fire a shot in anger.

Weapons and systems
Melbourne's initial armament included 25 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns: six twin and thirteen single mountings. The radar suite consisted of three Type 277Q height-finding sets, a Type 293Q surface search set, and a Type 978 navigational set. Between entering service and 1959, four of the single Bofors were removed.

During the 1967–1969 refit, thirteen Bofors were removed, leaving four twin and four single mountings. The three 277Q radars were replaced with updated American and Dutch designs: a LW-02 air search set and a SPN-35 landing aid radar. A TACAN aerial and electronic countermeasures pods were also installed during this refit. The four Bofors twin mountings were removed in 1980.

Aircraft
Melbourne carried three Fleet Air Arm squadrons. Initially, she had up to 22 fixed wing and 2 rotary wing aircraft embarked at any time. The number of aircraft gradually increased until 1972, when the air group peaked at 27 aircraft. Approximately 350 Fleet Air Arm personnel were stationed aboard the carrier.

Initially, two types of fixed-wing aircraft were operated from Melbourne. de Havilland Sea Venom FAW.53 fighter aircraft were flown by 805 Squadron RAN and 808 Squadron RAN, while Fairey Gannet anti-submarine strike aircraft were operated by 816 Squadron RAN and 817 Squadron RAN. At the time of their arrival, the Sea Venoms were the only radar equipped and all-weather combat aircraft in the Southern Hemisphere. At Melbourne's commissioning, the standard air group consisted of eight Sea Venoms and two squadrons of eight Gannets, with two Bristol Sycamore search-and-rescue helicopters added shortly after the carrier entered service.

These aircraft were due to become obsolete in the late 1950s, and the RAN considered purchasing modern aircraft of French or Italian design, which were better suited to light carrier operations than equivalent British aircraft, or replace Melbourne with a larger carrier. Instead of pursuing either alternative, the Australian government announced in 1959 that Melbourne would be reconfigured during her 1963 refit to operate as a helicopter carrier. The fixed-wing aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm were marked for replacement by 27 Westland Wessex anti-submarine helicopters. A reduction of embarked plane numbers to four Sea Venoms and six Gannets, along with regular rotation and careful use of the aircraft, extended their service life until the mid-1960s, while the size of the air group was maintained by carrying up to ten Wessex helicopters. The decision to retire the fixed-wing component of the Fleet Air Arm was rescinded in 1963, and on 10 November 1964, a AU£212 million increase in defence spending included the purchase of new aircraft for Melbourne.

The RAN planned to acquire 14 Grumman S-2E Tracker anti-submarine aircraft, and modernise Melbourne to operate the aircraft. The acquisition of 18 Douglas A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers was also suggested, but these were dropped from the initial plan. A separate proposal to order 10 A-4G Skyhawks, a variant of the Skyhawk designed specifically for the RAN and optimised for air defence, was approved in 1965. Both aircraft types entered RAN service in 1968, with the Trackers operated by 816 Squadron RAN and 851 Squadron RAN, and the Skyhawks by 805 Squadron RAN and 724 Squadron RAN. The aircraft did not fly from Melbourne until the conclusion of her refit in 1969. In 1969, the RAN purchased another ten A-4G Skyhawks, instead of the proposed seventh and eighth Oberon-class submarines. Melbourne operated a standard air group of four Skyhawks, six Trackers, and ten Wessex helicopters until 1972, when the Wessexes were replaced with ten Westland Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters and the number of Skyhawks doubled. Although replaced by the Sea King, up to three Wessex helicopters could be carried as search-and-rescue aircraft.

On 5 December 1976, a fire at the Naval Air Station HMAS Albatross (air station) destroyed or heavily damaged 12 of the Fleet Air Arm's 13 S-2E Trackers. The carrier was sent to the United States in 1977 to transport back 16 S-2G Tracker aircraft as replacements.

Over the course of her career, over thirty aircraft were either lost or heavily damaged while operating from Melbourne. The majority of the aircraft ditched or crashed over the side, but some losses were due to catapult or arrestor cable failures. After Melbourne was decommissioned, the Fleet Air Arm ceased fixed-wing combat aircraft operation in 1984, with the final Tracker flight saluting the decommissioned carrier.

Role
Melbourne was the third and final conventional aircraft carrier to operate with the RAN. Following the first decommissioning of sister ship HMAS Sydney (R17) in 1958, Melbourne became the only aircraft carrier in Australian service. Melbourne was unavailable to provide air cover for the RAN for up to four months in every year; this time was required for refits, refuelling, personnel leave, and non-carrier duties, such as the transportation of troops or aircraft. Although one of the largest ships to serve in the RAN, Melbourne was one of the smallest carriers to operate in the post-World War II period. A decision was made in 1959 to restrict Melbourne's role to helicopter operations only, but was reversed shortly before its planned 1963 implementation.

As well as an operational aircraft carrier, Melbourne was Flagship of the RAN, a role she received almost immediately following her 1956 arrival in Australia, and fulfilled until her decommissioning in 1982. During her service, the carrier was deployed overseas on 35 occasions, visited over 22 countries, and was seen as the physical and psychological centrepiece of the RAN fleet.

As Melbourne was the only ship of her size (both in dimensions and ship's company) in the RAN, the carrier underwent a regular rotation of commanding officers to give them experience. Commanding officers were changed on average every fifteen months, with few remaining on board for more than two years. The majority of Melbourne's commanders later reached flag rank. The carrier was also called on to perform underway replenishments and command and control functions.

1955–1964

Following a working-up period in British waters, Melbourne departed Glasgow on 11 March 1956 on her maiden voyage to Australia via the Suez Canal. Aboard were the 64 aircraft of RAN squadrons 808, 816, and 817, as well as the racing yacht Samuel Pepys (named after the English naval administrator and diarist), which was a gift to the RAN Sailing Association from the Royal Navy. The ship visited Gibraltar, Naples, Malta, Port Said, Aden, and Colombo, before arriving in Fremantle on 24 April 1956. Melbourne sailed east via the Great Australian Bight, meeting sister ship HMAS Sydney (R17) near Kangaroo Island a week later. After visiting Melbourne and Jervis Bay, where the aircraft were offloaded and sent to Naval Air Station HMAS Albatross (air station), the carrier concluded her maiden voyage in Sydney on 10 May. The role of flagship was transferred from Sydney to Melbourne three days later. The carrier immediately underwent a two and a half-month refit, allowing for the inspection of machinery and repair of defects detected during the maiden voyage. Melbourne spent from September to November in Southeast Asian waters, during which she participated in Exercise Albatross and received an official visit by Philippines president Ramon Magsaysay. On return to Australia in mid-November, the carrier visited Melbourne for the 1956 Olympics, where 200 of Melbourne's complement were provided to work as signallers, event marshals, carpenters, and medical workers.

In February 1957, Melbourne was sent to the Royal Hobart Regatta. Following this, she travelled to New Zealand, where she participated in exercises with HMNZS Royalist and visited several New Zealand ports. The first of several annual three-month deployments to Southeast Asia as part of the Far East Strategic Reserve began in April, with Melbourne returning to Darwin at the end of June. The carrier spent the rest of the year visiting Australian ports for open inspections by the public. During the visit to Port Adelaide, on 28 October 1957, Melbourne was slightly damaged when she was struck by MV Straat Lanka—the first of several minor collisions the carrier would experience throughout her career. Operations for the year concluded with participation in Exercise Astrolabe off Lord Howe Island, with ships from the RAN, Royal Navy, and Royal New Zealand Navy, before returning to Sydney on 13 December.

From February until July 1958, Melbourne was deployed on a 25000 nmi flag-showing cruise. During this cruise the carrier participated in four inter-fleet exercises and visited Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Pearl Harbor and Fiji. On return to Sydney, Melbourne entered a short refit, which concluded on 13 October and was immediately followed by a visit to Port Phillip, where the carrier was displayed to Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force officer cadets before the carrier returned to Sydney. At the start of 1959, Melbourne spent four days in her namesake city, where she was used for the filming of On The Beach, based on Nevil Shute's post-apocalyptic novel of the same name. After filming concluded, the carrier participated in a demonstration exercise off the coast of Sydney before embarking on a Far East Strategic Reserve deployment from March until May. The rest of the year was spent visiting Australian and New Zealand ports.

The following year, 1960, was a bad year for the carrier's air group, with four Sea Venoms and two Gannets damaged in separate incidents aboard Melbourne. All four Sea Venom incidents occurred in March, with three attributed to aircrew error and one to brake failure. The year began with exercises en route to Adelaide, followed by a visit to the Royal Hobart Regatta. The carrier's Strategic Reserve deployment ran from April to June, and was followed by manoeuvres along the east coast of Australia until September. In the lead up to Melbourne's 1961 deployment to the Strategic Reserve, the carrier visited Bombay, Karachi, and Trincomalee. It was the first time a flagship of the RAN had entered Indian waters. Melbourne returned to Australia in June, and on 15 June led several ships in a ceremonial entry to Sydney Harbour to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the RAN. In August, Melbourne was called upon to lead Exercise Tuckerbox, in the Coral Sea. Following the conclusion of Tuckerbox, the carrier visited several New Zealand ports before returning to Sydney for demonstration exercises and public relations activities.

In 1962, Melbourne began the year's activities at the Royal Hobart Regatta, before sailing to her Strategic Reserve deployment, by way of Adelaide and Fremantle. After Strategic Reserve duties were completed, the carrier visited Japan, Guam, and Manus Island before returning to Sydney in late July. In September, Melbourne reprised her role as the leader of Exercise Tuckerbox II. The 10,000th catapult launch from Melbourne occurred in late 1962. The carrier's annual refit began in Sydney on 1 October. At the beginning of 1963, Melbourne again visited to the Royal Hobart Regatta, which was immediately followed by a deployment to the Strategic Reserve, including involvement in SEATO Exercise Sea Serpent. The 20,000th landing on Melbourne was performed in April by a Gannet, and in September, Melbourne participated in Exercise Carbine near Hervey Bay, Queensland.

Voyager collision
On 10 February 1964, Melbourne was performing trials in Jervis Bay under the command of Captain John Robertson, following the annual refit. The Daring-class destroyer HMAS Voyager (D04) was also present, undergoing her own trials following refit, under the command of Captain Duncan Stevens. The trials involved interactions between both ships, and when Melbourne performed night-flying exercises that evening, Voyager acted as the carrier's plane guard escort. This required Voyager to maintain a position 20° off Melbourne's port quarter at a distance from the carrier of 1500 to 2000 yd.

Early in the evening, Voyager had no difficulties maintaining her position during the manoeuvres both ships performed. Following a series of turns intended to reverse the courses of both ships beginning at 8:40 pm, Voyager ended up to starboard of Melbourne. At 8:52 pm, Voyager was ordered to resume the plane guard station. The procedure to accomplish this required Voyager to turn away from Melbourne in a large circle, cross behind the carrier, then take position off Melbourne's port side. Instead, Voyager first turned to starboard, away from Melbourne, then turned to port without warning. It was initially assumed by Melbourne's bridge crew that Voyager was conducting a series of tight turns to lose speed before swinging behind Melbourne, but Voyager did not alter course again. At 8:55 pm, with Voyager approaching, Melbourne's navigator ordered the carrier's engines to half astern speed, with Robertson ordering an increase to full astern a few seconds later. At the same time, Stevens, having just become aware of the situation, gave the order "Full ahead both engines. Hard-a starboard.", before instructing the destroyer's Quartermaster to announce that a collision was imminent. Both ships' measures were too late to avoid a collision; Melbourne hit Voyager at 8:56 pm.

Melbourne struck Voyager just aft of the destroyer's bridge, rolling the destroyer to starboard before cutting her in half. Voyager's forward boiler exploded, briefly setting fire to the bow of the carrier before it was extinguished by seawater. The destroyer's forward section sank quickly, under the weight of the two 4.5 in gun turrets. The aft section did not begin sinking until half an hour after the collision, completely submerging just after midnight. Messages were immediately sent to the Fleet Headquarters in Sydney, although staff in Sydney initially underestimated the extent of the damage to Voyager. Melbourne launched her boats to recover survivors, and the carrier's wardroom and C Hangar were prepared for casualties. At 9:58 pm, Melbourne was informed that search-and-rescue boats from HMAS Creswell, helicopters from HMAS Albatross (air station), and five Ton-class minesweepers had been despatched to assist in the search.

Melbourne arrived in Sydney with the survivors on 14 February, and after spending time alongside at Garden Island, was moved to Cockatoo Island Dockyard on 25 March, where repairs were undertaken; the damaged section of the bow was cut away and repairs to the ship's internal structure were undertaken in drydock, while a 40-ton prefabricated bow was constructed. Once this was completed, Melbourne was removed while the new bow was put in place in the drydock. The work was completed on 27 April, with the shipyard receiving a commendation.

Of the 314 personnel aboard Voyager at the time of the collision, 14 officers, 67 sailors, and 1 civilian dockyard worker were killed, including Stevens and all but two of the bridge team. A Royal Commission into the events of the collision was held in 1964, and found that while Voyagers crew was primarily at fault for neglecting to maintain an effective lookout and awareness of the larger ship's location, Melbournes bridge crew was also at fault, for failing to alert Voyager and not taking measures to avoid the collision. Robertson was posted to the training base HMAS Watson—a move that he and the Australian media saw as tantamount to a demotion—but resigned instead. The Royal Commission and its aftermath were poorly handled, and following pressure from the public, media, and politicians, combined with revelations by Voyager's former executive officer that Stevens may have been unfit for command, a second Royal Commission was opened in 1967. This is the only time in Australian history two Royal Commissions have been held for a single incident. The second commission found that Stevens was medically unfit for command and that some of the findings of the first Royal Commission were therefore based on incorrect assumptions. Robertson and the other officers of Melbourne were absolved of blame for the incident.

1964–1969
Melbourne spent ten weeks at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, having her new bow fitted. Following the repairs, Melbourne was involved in Strategic Reserve deployments and exercises in Southeast Asia from June until September 1964. During this deployment, the carrier visited Subic Bay, where the RAN performed flight deck trials with S-2 Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and A-4 Skyhawk attack fighters. The success of the trials, along with the discovery that Melbourne was able to operate both aircraft with relatively minor modification, led the Australian Government to approve the purchase of these aircraft.

From March 1965 until mid-1967, Melbourne underwent a regular pattern of deployments to Southeast Asia, exercises, and flag-showing visits to nations in the Asia-Pacific region. Several of the Southeast Asian deployments were related to the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, and involved participation in show of force exercises off the coast of Malaysia. During 1965 and 1966, Melbourne escorted sister ship HMAS Sydney (R17), which had been recommissioned as a troop transport, for short periods during the latter's first, third, and fourth transport voyages to Vietnam. Despite the carrier being the centrepiece of several plans to involve Australian forces in the Vietnam War, the escort runs were the extent of Melbourne's participation in the conflict, and the carrier remained outside the Market Time area while Sydney and her other escorts proceeded to Vũng Tàu. As the carrier was optimised for anti-submarine warfare, there was little need for her at the start of the war. Utilising the carrier was suggested again by RAN officials in March 1966, when the United States Seventh Fleet was having difficulties maintaining anti-submarine patrols around Yankee Station, but Melbourne could only remain on station for a single, ten-day period, a third of the time that US carriers were operational for on rotating deployments. Seventh Fleet staff suggested in April 1967 that Melbourne deploy in the anti-submarine role, but nothing came of these talks. Consideration was also given to using Melbourne as a floating helicopter base, but only ten Wessex helicopters could be provided, and modifications were required for them to operate as troop carriers. Both options were made more prohibitive by the need to supply at least two escorts for the carrier at a time when the RAN was having difficulty meeting deployment commitments with the available destroyers and destroyer escorts.

In September 1967, Melbourne travelled to the United States to collect new aircraft: 14 Trackers and 10 Skyhawks. To operate the new aircraft, the carrier received a major refit on her return to Sydney, which began in December 1967. In May 1967, it was proposed that while Melbourne was out of service, A-4 Skyhawk pilots and maintenance personnel could be attached to a United States Marine Corps Skyhawk squadron in South Vietnam. Australian aircraft were not to be provided, as the A-4G Skyhawks used by the RAN were optimised for air defence, not the fighter-bomber role performed by the Marines, and would have suffered heavy losses from North Vietnam's heavy anti-aircraft defences. This deployment did not occur; the Skyhawk pilot training program was experiencing delays because US squadrons were being shipped training equipment and replacement parts in priority to the RAN, and sending qualified pilots overseas would have caused further holdups with the program, while also disrupting Melbourne's post-refit reactivation. Melbourne re-entered service at the conclusion of the refit on 14 February 1969. She performed sea trials in Jervis Bay from 17 February until 5 May, then sailed for Subic Bay, Philippines, to participate in SEATO Exercise Sea Spirit.

Frank E. Evans collision
Melbourne's commanding officer during the SEATO exercise was Captain John Phillip Stevenson. Rear Admiral John Crabb, the Flag Officer Commanding Australian Fleet, was also embarked on the carrier. During Sea Spirit, Melbourne was assigned five escorts: US Ships USS Everett F. Larson (DD-830), USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754), and USS James E. Kyes (DD-787), HMNZS Blackpool, and HMS Cleopatra (F28). Stevenson held a dinner for the five escort captains at the start of the exercise, during which he recounted the events of the Melbourne–Voyager collision, emphasised the need for caution when operating near the carrier, and provided written instructions on how to avoid such a situation developing again. Additionally, during the lead up to the exercise, Admiral Crabb had strongly warned that all repositioning manoeuvres performed by the escorts had to commence with a turn away from Melbourne. Despite these warnings, a near-miss occurred in the early hours of 31 May when Larson turned towards the carrier after being ordered to the plane guard station. Subsequent action narrowly prevented a collision. The escorts were again warned about the dangers of operating near the carrier and informed of Stevenson's expectations, while the minimum distance between carrier and escorts was increased from 2000 to 3000 yd.

On the night of 2–3 June 1969, Melbourne and her escorts were involved in anti-submarine training exercises in the South China Sea. In preparation for launching a Tracker, Stevenson ordered Evans to the plane guard station, reminded the destroyer of Melbourne's course, and instructed the carrier's navigational lights to be brought to full brilliance. Evans had performed the manoeuvre four times over the course of the night. Evans was positioned on Melbourne's port bow, but began the manoeuvre by turning starboard, towards the carrier. A radio message was sent from Melbourne to Evans' bridge and Combat Information Centre, warning the destroyer that she was on a collision course, which Evans acknowledged. Seeing the destroyer take no action and on a course to place herself under Melbourne's bow, Stevenson ordered the carrier hard to port, signalling the turn by both radio and siren blasts. At approximately the same time, Evans turned hard to starboard to avoid the approaching carrier. It is uncertain which ship began to manoeuvre first, but each ship's bridge crew claimed that they were informed of the other ship's turn after they commenced their own. After having narrowly passed in front of Melbourne, the turns quickly placed Evans back in the carrier's path. Melbourne hit Evans amidships at 3:15 am, cutting the destroyer in two.

Seventy-four of the 273 personnel from Evans were killed in the collision, with the majority of these believed to have been asleep or trapped inside the bow section, which sank within minutes. Melbourne deployed her boats, life rafts, and lifebuoys, before carefully manoeuvring alongside the stern section of Evans, where both ships' crews used mooring lines to lash the ships together. Sailors from Melbourne dived from the flight deck into the water to rescue overboard survivors close to the carrier, while the carrier's boats and helicopters collected those farther out. All of the survivors were located within 12 minutes of the collision and rescued before half an hour had passed, although the search continued for fifteen more hours. After Evans' stern was evacuated, it was cast off, while the carrier moved away to avoid damage. The stern did not sink, and was later recovered, stripped of parts, and sunk for target practice.

Following the collision, Melbourne travelled to Singapore for temporary repairs to her bow, arriving on 6 June. Melbourne departed Singapore on 27 June and arrived in Sydney on 9 July, where the carrier underwent almost identical repairs at Cockatoo Island Dockyard as in 1964 (primarily the installation of a new bow section). However, an industrial dispute amongst the shipyard workers meant that, although the work was completed in early September, the ship remained in the drydock until 11 October.

A Joint RAN-USN board of inquiry was established to investigate the incident, and was in session over June and July 1969. The board found Evans partially at fault for the collision, but also faulted Melbourne for not taking evasive action sooner, even though international sea regulations dictated that in the lead-up to a collision, the larger ship was required to maintain course and speed. It was learned during the inquiry that Evans' commanding officer was asleep in his quarters at the time of the incident, and charge of the vessel was held by Lieutenants Ronald Ramsey and James Hopson; the former had failed the qualification exam to stand watch, while the latter was at sea for the first time. Subsequent to the inquiry, the three USN officers and Stevenson were court-martialled by their respective navies on charges of negligence, with the three USN officers found guilty and Stevenson 'Honourably Acquitted'. Despite the findings, Stevenson's next posting was as a minor flag officer's chief of staff, seen by him as a demotion in all but name. In a repeat of the aftermath of the Voyager collision, Melbourne's captain resigned amid accusations of scapegoating. In December 2012, Stevenson announced that he had received a letter from the Minister for Defence, apologising for his treatment by the RAN and the government of the day.

1970–1976
During the 1970s and early 1980s, replacing parts became an increasing problem. Components were failing due to wear and age, but the companies responsible for manufacturing the parts had gone out of business during the previous twenty years, sometimes immediately after World War II ended. The carrier's engineers often resorted to making replacements from scratch. The ship's catapult was replaced with parts from the decommissioned HMCS Bonaventure in 1970.

In 1970, Melbourne participated in three major inter-navy exercises: Sea Rover with SEATO forces in the South China Sea, Bersatu Padu with British Commonwealth forces off Malaysia, and Swan Lake with the Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy off Western Australia. During this year, the carrier also visited Japan to participate in Expo '70, and was hit by Manly ferry South Steyne while alongside at Garden Island, causing minor damage to both vessels. Melbourne was out of service for most of 1971 while she underwent refits, which concluded in early August. In mid-1971, the Australian military's Joint Planning Committee considered using Melbourne as a transport to help complete the withdrawal of the Australian Task Force from Vietnam before the end of 1971. While the Army supported this proposal, the Navy successfully argued against its implementation, claiming that transporting troops and cargo would be misusing Australia's only active aircraft carrier, and would prevent Melbourne from participating in several major multi-national exercises. The refit concluded in late 1971, with the carrier participating in the first RIMPAC exercise, RIMPAC 71, before the end of the year.

Operations in 1972 commenced with a three-month deployment to Southeast Asia. During this deployment, Melbourne led a fleet of 17 ships from the RAN, Royal Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy, US Navy, Philippine Navy, and Royal Thai Navy in Exercise Sea Hawk. This was followed by goodwill visits to numerous Southeast Asian ports, including Hong Kong, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore, and Surabaya, before Melbourne returned to Sydney at the end of April. The carrier spent May performing exercises off the New South Wales coast, during which she was called on to rescue three fisherman who had been stranded at sea for the previous two days. In August, Melbourne sailed for Hawaii to participate in RIMPAC 72. At the conclusion of this exercise, Melbourne proceeded to Japan on a diplomatic visit, then sailed to the Philippines to exercise with SEATO ships. During this deployment, a fire ignited inside the ship's main switchboard. The carrier returned to Australia on 27 November after 101 days at sea, and underwent a seven-month refit. On 24 August 1973, Melbourne returned to Hawaii to participate in RIMPAC 73. She returned to Australia on 12 October, but sailed out ten days later to participate in Exercise Leadline off Malaysia, before reaching Sydney again in December.

Melbourne began 1974 by transporting 120 Australian soldiers to a temporary assignment with an American infantry battalion based in Hawaii. She then sailed to San Francisco to collect 12 new Chinook and five UH-1 Iroquois helicopters for the Royal Australian Air Force, arriving in Australia with her cargo in April. In June, the carrier took part in Exercise Kangaroo in the Coral Sea, before returning to Sydney in July. On 11 July, the passenger liner SS Australis hit and damaged Melbourne in Sydney Harbour. In November, the carrier took part in disaster relief exercises. These were prophetic, as on the night of 24–25 December 1974, Cyclone Tracy destroyed the city of Darwin. Melbourne's ship's company was recalled immediately from leave, the ship was loaded with supplies, and the carrier departed Sydney on 26 December in the company of HMAS Brisbane (D 41). Melbourne, Brisbane, and eleven other ships were deployed as part of the largest peacetime rescue effort ever organised by the RAN: Operation Navy Help Darwin. Melbourne remained off Darwin until 18 January 1975, acting as operational headquarters and a helicopter base. During this operation, the seven Wessex helicopters embarked on Melbourne performed 2,493 flights, carrying 7,824 passengers and 107 tons of cargo.

Following Navy Help Darwin, Melbourne participated in RIMPAC 75, then returned to Sydney for a fourteen-month refit, which was delayed by industrial action at the dockyard. While moored in Sydney Harbour, on 24 July, Melbourne was struck by Japanese cargo ship Blue Andromeda. While working up following the refit, Melbourne and HMAS Torrens (DE 53) provided assistance to MV Miss Chief off the coast of Bundaberg, Queensland on 16 August 1976. In October, Melbourne participated in Exercise Kangaroo II, before sailing to her namesake city for the carrier's 21st birthday celebrations, then returning to Sydney on 5 November.

1976–1983
On 5 December 1976, a fire deliberately lit at HMAS Albatross (air station) by a member of the Fleet Air Arm damaged or destroyed all but one of Australia's S-2 Trackers. Following participation in RIMPAC 77, Melbourne was sent to San Diego to collect replacement aircraft. Arriving back in Sydney on 5 April, the carrier was sent on a five-month deployment to the United Kingdom on 28 April, accompanied by HMAS Brisbane (D 41) and HMNZS Canterbury (F421). En route, Melbourne lost a Sea King in the Indian Ocean on 9 May, with the aircrew recovered by Brisbane. A Tracker from Melbourne located the disabled Dutch vessel Impala Princess in the Gulf of Aden on 25 May and directed a French destroyer to assist. Two Bofors naval guns were deposited by Melbourne at Souda Bay, Crete on 2 June, marking the first visit of an Australian warship to Crete since June 1941. These weapons were donated to the Australian War Memorial at Stavromenos, in Crete's Rethymno regional unit. The highlight of the deployment saw the three ships represent Australia and New Zealand at the Silver Jubilee Naval Review on 28 June 1977. A two-seat Harrier jump jet demonstrator undertook a series of trial takeoffs and landings aboard Melbourne on 30 June: a trial organised as part of the project overseeing the ship's potential replacement. Following the Jubilee Review and participation in Exercise Highwood in July, Melbourne and her escorts returned to Australia, arriving in Fremantle on 19 September and Sydney on 4 October. Melbourne was docked in Garden Island's drydock on arrival, where she remained until January 1978.

At the end of March 1978, Melbourne left Sydney for RIMPAC 78. During this exercise, Melbourne acquired the nickname 'Little M' after working with 'Big E' USS Enterprise (CVN-65)—the smallest and largest aircraft carriers (respectively) in operation at the time. On return in July, the carrier entered a major refit, which continued until 3 August 1979. During this refit, on 3 March, a boiler explosion caused minor damage to the carrier. The remainder of the year involved participation in three exercises, Tasmanex off Wellington, New Zealand, Sea Eagle I in the Tasman Sea, and Kangaroo III in the Coral Sea. During Tasmanex, Melbourne lost her LW-02 radar aerial and a Skyhawk (N13-154907), both of which fell overboard during heavy seas.

During February and March 1980, Melbourne participated in RIMPAC 80, as the flagship of Battle Group Two. This was immediately followed by a visit to the Solomon Islands in early April. The carrier was in Sydney from mid-April until mid-August, during which the 25th anniversary of Melbourne's service in the RAN was celebrated on 15 August with a cocktail party aboard the carrier, popularly referred to as 'The Night of the Admirals'. On 18 August, Melbourne sailed for Fremantle to participate in Exercise Sandgroper 80. On 8 September, Melbourne, accompanied by HMAS Perth (D 38), HMAS Derwent (DE 49), HMAS Stalwart (D 215), HMAS Supply (AO 195), and HMAS Otama deployed to the Indian Ocean as the Australian Squadron for a flag-showing cruise. During this cruise two Skyhawks were lost: on 2 and 21 October. On 24 October, a Tracker from Melbourne observed Soviet warships Storozhevoy and Ivan Rogov shadowing the squadron. The squadron's return in November 1980 concluded the largest and longest RAN deployment since World War II.

Following her return, the carrier spent six months in Australian waters, before a two-month deployment to Southeast Asia. During this deployment, on 21 June 1981, Melbourne rescued 99 Vietnamese refugees from a disabled fishing vessel in the South China Sea. The carrier's deployments for the second half of the year consisted of two exercises, Sea Hawk and Kangaroo 81. A major refit scheduled to begin in late 1981 was postponed pending the decision on a replacement carrier. After docking at Garden Island in December, the carrier was accidentally flooded by an officer who was impatient to commence leave. In his haste to shut down the carrier, he failed to deactivate the water pumps, and over 180 tons of fresh water were pumped in before a maintenance party discovered the flooding the next day. Melbourne remained in dock at the start of 1982, and did not leave before the decision regarding her replacement was made.

Replacement

A replacement for Melbourne was under consideration as early as 1956, and the question was revisited on several occasions until the 1980s. In every situation, a new aircraft carrier was turned down due to the increases in manpower and operating costs required to operate the ship when compared to Melbourne.

Between 1956 and 1959, the RAN considered acquiring a larger carrier to replace Melbourne, as the Fleet Air Arm was becoming obsolete and the RAN did not believe the ship could be modified to operate newer, heavier aircraft. Under consideration were British carrier HMS Albion (R07) and a ship of the United States' Essex class. Both options were turned down, and it was instead proposed to operate Melbourne as a helicopter carrier.

In 1960, the United States Navy offered an Essex-class carrier to the Australian government, in the interest of improving relations between the two nations and their navies. The only cost to the RAN would have been the modifications required to make the carrier operationally compatible with the RAN's primarily British-designed fleet. In the late 1960s, the British made a similar offer, following a 1966 review indicating that HMS Hermes (R12) was a superfluous naval unit. In 1968, Hermes took part in a combined exercise with the RAN, during which the carrier was visited by RAN and Australian government officials, while RAN Skyhawks and Trackers practised landings on the larger carrier. Both offers were turned down due to operating and manpower costs.

The need to secure a replacement for Melbourne grew as the carrier's age caused the operating costs to increase to over A$25 million per year. In June 1977, the Defence Force Development Committee approved an investigation into acquiring a STOVL/helicopter carrier. By August 1979, the decision was limited to three ships: a modified American Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship, an Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi-class carrier, and a Sea Control Ship design that later became the Spanish Navy's Principe de Asturias. By February 1981, the Iwo Jima class was the preferred option.

HMS Invincible
Plans to replace Melbourne changed in July 1981; the British 1981 Defence White Paper had marked the recently commissioned HMS Invincible (R05) as surplus to requirements, and she was offered to the RAN for the 'bargain' price of GB£175 million (A$285 million). The Invincible class had been considered and discarded during the investigation, but the decreased price and the fact the already-constructed carrier would be ready for RAN service in 1983 prompted the Australian government to announce its intention to purchase Invincible on 25 February 1982 and close the carrier acquisition program. The government also announced that the ship would be renamed HMAS Australia and operated as a helicopter carrier, and that a decision on the purchase of fixed wing aircraft would be made after acquisition.

The deal was put on hold in April 1982, following the outbreak of the Falklands War. The performance of Invincible and other Royal Navy aircraft carriers during the conflict showed that the report which suggested reductions in the size of Britain's carrier fleet—with the follow-on effect of making Invincible available for sale—was flawed, and both sides withdrew from the deal in July. The RAN was again offered HMS Hermes, and again declined due to the carrier's age and manpower requirements. The Australian government began to reconsider the previous contenders for replacement, as well as considering requesting the United Kingdom or United States to build a simple carrier capable of operating F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters, but the issue was suspended at the commencement of the 1983 Australian Federal Election. On 14 March, following the election of Bob Hawke's Labor Government, the announcement was made that Melbourne would not be replaced.

Decommissioning and fate
Following the decision to replace Melbourne with HMS Invincible, the postponed refit was cancelled outright. The Australian carrier was prepared for disposal, and was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 30 June 1982. She was towed to the mooring dolphins near Bradley's Head, where she remained until 1985. Melbourne was capable of being reactivated as a helicopter-equipped anti-submarine warfare carrier within 26 weeks, but was never required to do so. A Sydney-based group proposed in 1984 to purchase Melbourne and operate her as a floating casino moored in international waters off Eden, New South Wales, but nothing came of this. Melbourne's air wing was disbanded at HMAS Albatross on 2 July 1982, with the transfer of 805 Squadron's Skyhawks to 724 Squadron and 816 Squadron being absorbed into 851 Squadron. The Skyhawks remained in service as fleet support aircraft until 30 June 1984, while the Trackers were withdrawn from service on 31 August 1984 after being used as land-based maritime patrol aircraft.

The carrier was initially sold for breaking up as scrap metal for A$1.7 million, although the sale fell through in June 1984. She was sold again in February 1985 to the China United Shipbuilding Company for A$1.4 million, with the intention that she be towed to China and broken up for scrap. Prior to the ship's departure for China, the RAN stripped Melbourne of all electronic equipment and weapons, and welded her rudders into a fixed position so that she could not be reactivated. Her steam catapult, arresting equipment and mirror landing system were not removed. At this time, few western experts expected that the Chinese government would attempt to develop aircraft carriers in the future. The carrier departed Sydney on 27 April 1985, heading for Guangzhou, under the tow of tug De Ping. The journey was delayed when the towing line began to part, requiring the carrier and tug to shelter in Queensland's Moreton Bay, on 30 April. The towing gear broke a day later, requiring a second tug to secure the carrier while repairs were made to De Ping. Three days later, Melbourne ran aground while still in Moreton Bay. Melbourne arrived in China on 13 June. The Australian government received a Telex on this day, reading: "Please be advised that HMAS Melbourne arrived at Port Huangpu, intact and safely afloat, proud and majestic. She has been innocent, never once bowed to the natural or human force, in spite of the heavy storm and the talked about jinx."

The ship was not scrapped immediately; instead she was studied by Chinese naval architects and engineers as part of the nation's top-secret carrier development program. It is unclear whether the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) orchestrated the acquisition of Melbourne or simply took advantage of the situation; Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, a staff member at the National Defence College, has stated that the Navy was unaware of the purchase until Melbourne first arrived at Guangzhou. Melbourne was the largest warship any of the Chinese experts had seen, and they were surprised by the amount of equipment which was still in place. The PLAN subsequently arranged for the ship's flight deck and all the equipment associated with flying operations to be removed so that they could be studied in depth. Reports have circulated that either a replica of the flight deck, or the deck itself, was used for clandestine training of PLANAF pilots in carrier flight operations. It has also been claimed that the Royal Australian Navy received and "politely rejected" a request from the PLAN for blueprints of the ship's steam catapult. The carrier was not dismantled for many years; according to some rumours she was not completely broken up until 2002. A 2012 article in Jane's Navy International stated that the large quantity of equipment recovered from Melbourne "undoubtedly helped" Admiral Liu Huaqing secure the Chinese government's support for his proposal to initiate an aircraft carrier development programme.

Melbourne's service is commemorated with a stained-glass window at the Garden Island Naval Chapel. One of the ship's anchors is incorporated into a memorial to naval aviation at Nowra, New South Wales. Another anchor and the starboard side ship's bell are on display at the RAN Heritage Centre at Garden Island. Memorabilia from Melbourne's voyages with the Fleet Air Arm embarked, and examples of all the types of aircraft deployed on Melbourne, are on permanent static display in the Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross.

Following an overhaul of the RAN battle honours system completed in 2010, Melbourne was retroactively awarded the honour "Malaysia 1965–66" for her service during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation.

title: HMAS Melbourne (R21)


text:
User:Richardchilton

"However desperate the situation and circumstances, do not despair. When there is everything to fear, be unafraid. When surrounded by dangers, fear none of them. When without resources, depend on resourcefulness. When surprised, take the enemy itself by surprise." -- Sun Tzu

One idea I have had for a bit was what would it be like to have a non-Wikipedia wiki where everything was different, from who owned the servers, to what the point of view policies would be, to what the structure of administration would be. I have discovered, via User:Fennec that there are other wikis out there that are more up my alley. Perhaps everything is not 100% the way I would want it on them, but they are definitely more on my wavelength than here.

Anyhow, me exploring these sites (especially one particular one) has taken time away from my campaign here. So now, the time I allot for Wiki activity is now half on other Wikis, on which I get along with the "power structure" better (the power structure being more rank and file, user supported etc.). I am still spending half of my time here however, it just irks me that people are going to go to Google and find a Wikipedia page with some total BS, and hear a claim that it is a supposedly neutral point of view article with "facts" on whatever. I have won some victories "in the open" (e.g. known user names), as I had too much consensus on my side about certain things, and I am happy about these, and am happy about my less well known edits as well.

So that is where I stand now. My time spent here has been halved, which shall be a relief to some. But I am not yet gone. There are certain articles where I am absolutely not going to let some of the BS said be stated as if it were a fact. I would prefer however to be part of a wiki that is (or is more) user-owned, user-run, user-controlled, and watch Wikipedia crumble under the weight of its own authoritarianism, centrality of control, lack of working processes and so forth. In other words, I would prefer, as these alternative wikis become more viable and more popular, to contribute positively to them, have all the sane people slowly leave here (unless things are radically remade), and I myself start abandoning the struggle here so that only the nutcases would take over. In fact, if a user-run alternative to Wikipedia grew to be equal to it, I think I would abandon Wikipedia completely, save for perhaps noting on some frustrated user's web page that there are alternative wikis out there that may be more to their liking. Richardchilton 02:57, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I'm going to put my thoughts on Wikipedia here, as well as some other things. This account is going to be on a hiatus in terms of editting articles, although I may engage in meta-discussions.

Anyhow, when looking at the power distribution of Wikipedia, one may ask, what is the distribution of power? Obviously, the average user currently has a degree of power. Admins have even power. And who has the most power? The person who controls the means of production, Jimbo Wales. Lets start with the users.

If one looks at the demographics of the world, half of human beings in the world get by on less than $2 a day and are either chronically malnourished or have serious concerns over where their NEXT meal is coming from. On the other hand, if you look at Internet user demographics, the most average user would be a white, white collar American man. It can be seen a number of ways on Wikipedia which don't have to be gone into here. Anyhow, this makes for an America-centric, white collar worldview. It is quite obvious to me that this view is sometimes disconnected from reality. I sometimes think of Orwell's ministry of information, where the ally of one day turns into the enemy of the next, and the glowing portraits of them have to be replaced by propaganda caricatures. An example might be Saddam Hussein, whom the US armed, who at one point "gassed his own people"...and kept getting arms from the US! It's quite a wonder how the tragedy of this was not discovered in the US until a few years later. But this is the type of thing you find regularly on Wikipedia, anything friendly to the bourgeoisie is all goodness and light, anything not is a demon who the wildest accusation against deserves a prominent place on their page.

One thing I've noticed is that among the worst enemies of the US elite, even the right to name themselves has been stripped, and some pejorative or propaganda name is stuck on them. For example, the Communist Party of Kampuchea becomes the "Khmer Rouge". The Communist Party of Peru becomes the "Shining Path". Anyone in the popular front (National Liberation Front) fighting against the South Vietnamese government is called "Viet Cong", e.g. Vietnamese communist, whether they are communist or not. It seems to be the case where the most extreme propaganda smearing is going on that the US government and corporate media starts pegging these pejorative names on these groups, despite their protestation. I discussed this on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (common names), that it seemed logical to me to call a group what they call themselves (e.g. the Boy Scouts are called the Boy Scouts, The UK's Labor party is called the labor party and so forth). People came out of the woodwork to say this is not to be the case - the proper place for the name of a group is not from the group itself. The US corporate media, which is controlled by the wealthiest <2% of Americans (who are relatively wealthy themselves) is what is to determine the name of these things. They can get the name from the Pentagon psyops department or the State department or whatnot, disseminate it, and this is what we now must have as our authority of what to call something. Going back to 1984 again, this reminds me of the Newspeak dictionary, where words like freedom become thoughtcrime. Luckily we can still call french fries french fries for now, instead of being required to call them freedom fries (or eventually thoughtcrime fries). Such is Wikipedia.

One thing I've noticed is there seems to be a systematic persecution of left-wing users on Wikipedia. Users who do nothing but make POV right-wing rants like User:Ed Poor get made admin. The only admin who tries to help protect left wing users from persecution, User:172, is himself persecuted (Conflicts_between_users/172, User_talk:172/sysop_status). Other users who might be called left wing like User:Wik are also persecuted (Wikipedia_talk:Requests_for_arbitration/Wik,Conflicts_between_users/Wik).

An interesting thing is that the right-wing users are all ultimately and leveraging their ultimate power - that Wikipedia's servers are owned by "Jimbo" Wales, who controls everything, doled out adminships and so forth. I should note that Jimbo, who controls Wikipedia's capital of servers, is a fan of the far right Ayn Rand. The right-wingers base what they want to do on authority - the authority of adminships, where they can ban users and so forth and so on.

I do not include myself with 172 and Wik because I do not care about the rules of Wikipedia as much as they do. I do have some rules of thumb for doing things though, and one of them is when embarking on something new to always follow the rules in the beginning.

An interesting thing to consider about myself and the effect I will eventually have on Wikipedia, structure more than content, is that I am not a vandal in terms of trying to deny service to Wikipedia, or replace entries with "I RULE" and whatnot, I am just primarily unhappy with some of the propaganda I see passed off here as Encyclopedia fact.

Furthermore as far as "following the rules", currently whether I do this or not is more at my discretion than something that can be forced upon me. Another interesting thing is that admins are given a lot of power, and all I need is one admin to really have it out for me if I'm following the rules, to among other things silence me completely. But their control over me only exists as long as I follow the rules, and I've come to the point where I am less interested in allowing them that control over me. I wanted to see how far things could be pushed and frankly was a little surprised at how authoritarian these people trying to push a certain POV on Wikipedia are. Well, I guess that's how it always is.

It's an interesting thing. User:TimStarling for one realizes that currently whether or not I follow the rules are really just an option for me, so he's gone to work to make Wikipedia more authoritarian, more under tight control and so forth. It's interesting, how limited my functionality is within the system, and how eager some are to expand the authoritarian nature of the system. It took me about five minutes to figure out one way of getting around the rules (proxy servers). It seems quite a lot of time is being spent trying to figure out how to build a wall to prevent this from happening and keep people from breaking the rules. I consider this a victory - if hours of time by the enemy has to be spent to prevent me from doing something I did in five minutes, I consider that I have won. Being as that I've been on the Internet for 15 years so far, and still remember when domain names resolved to sri-nic.arpa, I can tell you that after the hours of effort that will be spent on this is eventually successful, I will simply spend another five minutes and use some other method to mask my IP. I've been reading about dialectic materialism and I see all of this as being natural, I have a demand (that entries stop being so biased), and the power structure is fighting against this.

One interesting note is I faced the same sort of thing myself once. I once had a web site where people could upload anything. People often uploaded warez for others to download. My problems with this in order of importance were: it filled up disk space, it used up bandwidth, and I would get legal letters. On the other hand, I had limited time to fight against it and didn't want to make things too difficult for my normal users. The end result was I tightened things up so that maybe people would go onto the next loose haven to trade warez. But on the other hand, if someone did it on a small scale and cleverly they could usually get away with it, and frankly, as long as it was on something of a small scale and not wrecking my whole operation, I didn't really care. That's how things operate - retail stores could be like Fort Knox to prevent theft, but instead they use a certain amount of security, and as long as things don't go past a certain level they're OK with it.

Personally, although I'm sure this galls some, I consider Wikipedia as much mine as anybody elses, including Jimbo's. I do not see the admins as people trying to maintain balance and NPOV, but rather as commissars making sure people stick to the party line, in this case, whatever is the crap that pours out of the corporate media on television is taken as truth. I consider it my duty to fight against this, using any tools I have in my arsenal, and I'm afraid with the limited amount of ways to do things within the rules, and the ease of working outside of the rules, I choose the latter.

VeryVerily's detective work and accusations are going to matter a lot less now, what are you going to do about someone changing his IP every few minutes? Frankly, I have been a lot less restrained in the past few days. Before I would qualify and modify things I thought were POV. Now I just delete them wholesale and - most of the time no one stops me. I felt the need to go by the NPOV before, but now I don't, and I am a lot more successful in modifying Wikipedia now.

The fact of the matter is, Wikipedia's rules system is biased and unfair, especially taking the human element of it into account. There is not much enforcement power for it though right now, so in many ways it is up to the user whether he wants to follow the rules or not. So I'm going to keep living outside of the rules for a little while and see what happens.

I see that Lancemurdoch and Hectorrodriguez, two of my usernames from this IP address range were found, from detective work to some extent, as well as someone looking at the admin page. I had another name from another IP for a long while, I see that has been discovered, although I no longer use that one. Durruti was found but I went out of my way to show how I could break the rules so I wanted that to be found. I've been editting a lot of pages thusfar, and while I've had some reverts for individual pages, no VV type detectives have popped up on my trail reverting all of my pages yet. We'll see how it goes.

title: User:Richardchilton