Part One
The Work-Up.

HMS LEOPARD was Commissioned on 30 September 1958.
Monday 6th October 1958. Leopard put to sea for the first time. The first days sea trials went well, with kind weather and not to bad a sea. This was short lived as the second day, and many days thereafter, were a severe test for those tender bellies unused to small ships or delicate from to many years shore based. Sea legs were soon found, which was just as well, for much rougher weather would soon be met when we headed to the South Atlantic.

October. The most part of which was spent at sea around the Isle of Wight, anchoring each night at Spithead to disembark dockyard and contract personnel who had joined us each morning for the acceptance trials.
November. We are back alongside in No 2 basin in the dockyard. During this time a ships company dance was held in the NAAFI Club. Was this a ploy by the Captain to butter us up for harder times ahead? Landing parties were trained during this damp cold month, together with survival courses and any other course that could be thought up.

December continued with more ratings from various departments going to the survival school at Lee on Solent. Here we were, a bunch of hairy arsed sailors learning how to survive a bitterly cold month with the help of a parachute, a knife and compass. Talk about the cold war. The New Forest proved to be a very hard training ground. All survived to tell the tale. Surely we won't have to do this for real!

10th December. Enough fun and games, it was time was sea. We slipped a cold Pompey dockyard for further trials, returning on the 17th, the ships company to start a well earned Christmas leave. There were a series of visits to the ship by various dignitaries, and on Friday 19th we enjoyed the company of the First Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Mountbatten of Burma. No doubt his visit proved successful and he was able to reassure his colleagues, for we saw nothing of them after that. 
That same afternoon the Captain in the presence of his officers, signed for the ship, having been received from the dockyard sound in wind and limb. The eighth Leopard had now officially joined the Royal Navy.

January and February, see no let up in the training. Almost every day parties were landed to play soldiers at Tipner, gunners to Fraser Gunnery Range at Eastney or the poor odd sole who could not swim to learn at Flathouse. No one was to escape this continuous hard, forced training. Even the cooks were sent across to Tipner to set up a field kitchen so as to serve up a decent bit of grub for the Landing Party training lads, a change from the eternal oggie. Lectures on first aid and damage control abounded. Radar plotters went to Harrier for a bit of directional training whilst the Anti submarine warfare lads did their bit on Grafton, down at Portland; and the boarding party were sent away in a whaler to return, and seize their own ship. Then, before we knew where we were an early Easter leave had started.

March. The leave period finished on 18th March and on 24th and 25th our final and wholly successful sea trials took place. After a swift "forty eight" to each watch, on a sunny Easter Monday we slipped our berth on HMS GAMBIA,(PHOTO) headed up harbour, turned, and sped down-harbour and out to sea watched by a throng of Navy Days visitors. We were on our way to the long awaited and half dreaded work-up at Portland.
That same evening saw us anchored in Weymouth Bay. Next morning we entered Portland. The afternoon consisted of Divisions and a walk round of the ship by Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) Rear Admiral Crawford. 

Next morning, the courtesies all over the gloves off, we sailed for hectic days of "action stations", gunnery drills, boarding parties, which set the pattern for the weeks to follow. The date, 1st April, April fools day!

April. Guns fired at aircraft towed drogues, Targets towed by tugs and many other objects that were put in our sights. Squid fired, grenades dropped to suggest a direct hit on a submarine. Ops plotters plotted, Directors and radar turned, turrets elevated and spun; and of course our landing party landed.
The signal was received that a party of guerrilla saboteurs, Wonga Wonga tribesman had been operating in the LULWORTH COVE area and Naval Intelligence reported that they were using an old ruined barn to the northeast of the cove as their head quarters. In a shallow valley and well covered by trees and bushes, it afforded a reasonable good defensive position due to the nature of the two ridges, one to the south and the other to the north of the barn.

Lulworth Cove, (PHOTO) who’s beaches and beer supply being thoughtfully reconnoitered by the Gunnery Officer and the Gunner, the previous weekend.
The Battle of Lulworth Cove took place at 1645hrs on 14th April, the seabourne assault being made by one company of ratings from LEOPARD and BATTLEAXE. The company would be made up of one Platoon and Company HQ from LEOPARD and two Platoons from Battleaxe. Lt Lennox, Gunnery Officer of Leopard was to be the Company Commander.

The plan was to land the major part of the assault force in Lulworth Cove at 1645hrs in ships boats, under gunfire from LEOPARD; then to capture the high ground to the east and southeast of the beachhead, clear the wooded and scrub covered cliff, dig in and wait the remainder of the force, also brought in by ships boats. The capture of the rebel headquarters was to be achieved by the simultaneous flanking maneuvers; by 3 Platoon moving along the seaward (southerly) ridge and by 1 Platoon along by the higher ridge to the north of the barn. Prominent points above the rebel stronghold were to be over-run and a covering fire laid down from here while 2 Platoon made a platoon attack straight up the valley, taking the barn by "coup de main".

That was the plan, then; and Platoon Commanders, Platoon Petty Officers and Section Leaders were called to a briefing on LEOPARDS bridge at 1430 hrs, 13th April, in Portland Harbour. The operation was discussed in detail, suggestion and comments, called for, times and final plans laid down. LEOPARD and BATTLEAXE sailed from Portland at 0800hrs on Tuesday arriving off Lulworth Cove at 1600. Both ships hove to about 4000 yards offshore, boats were lowered and manned and the assault was on!

Unfortunately the boats got separated on the way inshore (due to different speeds of boats) and Lt Lennox had difficulty in getting his command together before the entrance to the cove was reached. No sooner was all in order, when the boats came under heavy fire from light machine –guns on the cliff above the eastern entrance to the cove (these were REAL bullets too).

The company GI was among the first to realize that the dreaded enemy were using live ammo and he reports he was sore dismayed, he spent the rest of the journey among the bottom boards of the boat. Most of the other occupants of the boat were all for going back and asking the navigating officer to check his "****in" charts again!
In the end both LEOPARDs and BATTLEAXEs (PHOTO) boats reached shore at about the same time. The beach was under fire from mortars and light machine-gun by this time, but Sub Lt Frere ( later to become Admiral), the beachmaster, armed with flags and flares, established himself in the midst of this inferno and started to flag the other boats in.

Just before the first boat hit the beach, fate stepped in and and struck two severe blows! The first was the premature dropping of the motor boats kedge anchor. This meant that the kedge-rope would have to be tailed and during this operation the boats coxswain, Leading Seaman Scott, sustained a serious injury to one of his fingers. This resulted in him being taken ashore for first aid, but not before he had successfully beached his boat and therefore allowing his "troops" to get ashore. We are now left with a perfectly good boat without a coxswain. The poor old motor boat stoker tried to assist but was unable to stop the boat being thrown up onto the beach. Meanwhile the motor whaler coming in astern from the motor boat, had run over the motor boats kedge-rope, got it caught firmly around its screw, and was firmly anchored 100yds offshore. By this time the motor boat has been re-floated and under command of the Company GI and the luckless occupants of the whaler transferred to the motor boat and taken ashore.

During this phase of the operation it was interesting to observe PO "Castro" Blackwell, 3 Section leader (stands 6 foot plus) up to his chest in water, and others, not realizing who he was ( he being garbed in battle order) and seeing him only this far immersed in the icy waters of the cove, stepping blithely out of the boat into what they fondly believed to be shallow water, only to disappear beneath the waves, fully booted and spurred!

However all made it ashore. The beach was captured and the Company was advancing, by two routes, through the thick brush, up the steep of the cove cliffs . They pressed on and the top was reached with Company HQ being established alongside an old chapel, at the corner of the wood, which was just below a rise at the end of the valley containing the ruined barn. From here patrols were sent out to reconnoiter the wood and establish contact with the mortar detachment and 3 Platoon, who had followed the more southerly route to establish themselves on the high ground above the eastern entrance to the cove. Enemy patrols and snipers were active and our own section activity was very brisk, kept on our toes by the wily foe.

At this time the Bren Gun group of 1 Section reported to 1 Platoon Commander (Lt Smith) that they had marked the position of a group of the enemy and that with some help they could capture it. They were reinforced by the rest of their section and ordered to make the capture. This they endeavoured to do, and Able Seaman "Reg" Groom frightened the daylights out of Petty Officer "Joe" Mercer, Able Seaman "Jackie" Hobbs and Ordinary Seaman Lewis by leaping out of the woods with his Bren at the ready and giving vent to a yell that made one of them "spill his baccy". 1 Section had successfully captured our own mortar detachment!

Patrol activity on both sides was pretty fierce but all objectives were taken by the time that the rest of the force joined up, somewhat depleted owing to LEOPARD being a boat short and therefore unable to bring off all of 1 Platoon. However in spite of this Lt Lennox pressed on.
The flanking moves got off to a good start, as little black dots on the seaward horizon testified. The men had failed to get far enough down the cliff to prevent themselves being silhouetted.

About this time a large blue hump was observed travelling at high speed up the left flank. Investigation proved this to be "Castro" Blackwell, the redoubtable character of 3 Section, who was informed that " bent double" for everyone else would mean "hands and knees" for him. Casualties began to mount, Leading Seaman Withers (1 Section Leader) among the first to fall. Advancing through thick shrub to the north of the barn AB Williams, Bren number 1 of 2 Section, was confronted by a rebel who he ordered to surrender, the reb’s reply was a bona fide .303 round, "…. About ‘alf inch from my starboard ear’ole," said Williams. Thus ended the life of yet another stalwart mariner.

Covering fire was laid down from the ridges above the barn and 2 Platoon made it’s attack having advanced, under heavy fire, to a position at the top of the rise at the head of the valley. As soon as 2 Platoon had reached a position where they were in danger of coming under fire from their own troops on the ridges, these worthies rose up and yelling like maniacs, descended on the barn from both sides. Thus the barn was hit from three directions at once. Some fierce hand to hand (and boot to head) fighting ensued before the position was over-run. During the struggle at the barn, one of the rebels, was apprehended by some men from 1 Section, and Ordinary Seaman Ellis was ordered to "hold him!". Ellis’s reaction to this order was to drop his musket and launch himself from the small mound on which he had been standing and land in a bunch of arms and boots on the back of the luckless guerrilla. This caused the poor fellow to collapse completely and from then on he was the most docile of prisoners.
Eventually all the band was either killed or captured, their leader under close arrest, and the exercise declared over. Platoons were gathered together and a post mortem was held. All had gone fairly well but, as was only to be expected from a Company suddenly thrown together from two ships and hurled into an entirely new field of conflict, mistakes and errors of judgment had occurred. One of the major difficulties was in getting a large body of men ashore from a ship – or more than one ship – using only the small, slow ships boats.

The post mortem over a small demolition exhibition was put on by the TAS world all the hands embarked in the ships boats (LEOPARDS whaler being serviceable again by this time) and returned to their ships wet and thoroughly weary.
Three weeks after the start of the work-up, a Friday night found us rounding Lands End making for Milford Haven. At 0200hrs on Saturday we were suddenly confronted, after all our exercises and make believe, with a real emergency. A small Dutch motor vessel, the MARJAN, had had her engine-room flooded and was in danger of drifting onto the Cornish coast. The motor ship MALTASIAN had taken her in tow, but when this parted at 0205 hrs LEOPARD tackled the task.

It was not an easy one, with a twenty- knot wind and a short, steep sea which caused the hapless MARJAN, her bows well out of the water, to roll heavily. A line was successfully shot but the messenger parted at 0320hrs. A second attempt resulted in a 4 1/2 inch manilla being passed and on this the MARJAN was eventually taken in tow. As the grey light of dawn grew the salvage tug "ENGLISHMAN" appeared and, when she had passed on her own tow, we slipped at let her finish the task we had started. Salvage/Prize money was paid out to us some years later, I think I was paid less than a pound., the captain getting the lions share, I doubt if he got very much though.

We duly arrived at Milford Haven at noon. After a couple of days here we returned to Portsmouth for a busy time ammunitioning ship and storing before our return to Portland for the final leg of our work-up.

The mixture of the workup continued as before, till after an early dinner on the 4th May 1959 we sailed, closed up at action stations, for our passing out exam, otherwise known as Exercise "Squarebash". Intelligent anticipation ensured that a sneak attack from the air as we left the jetty was dealt with as it deserved; and then thereafter we suffered three days and three nights of every conceivable sort of warfare as we battled our way to Milford Haven and back again. It wasn’t fun- how could it be. But it bore a close resemblance to the real thing and we like to think our determination not to be caught napping throughout those sleepless 80 hours also bore a resemblance to the wartime spirit. At any rate the Flag Officer Sea Training, who spent the last weary day with us aboard LEOPARD, had some flattering things to say about our alertness and efficiency after all we’d been through.

But for all that, sleep was the first thought when we secured alongside during the dogs on Thursday 7th May. Today was also my anniversary, It was only two years ago that I was walking through the gates of HMS St VINCENT to start my Naval career, a fresh faced 15 year old. Today I feel old and haggard thanks to the dreaded "Portland Work-Up".

The next evening we arrived back at Portsmouth and, while one watch went on leave, the other watch buckled down in an almost un-English heat to store ship and take on ammunition in preparation for a 365 day away from home and for most of the time the sole British Warship of the South Atlantic Squadron.