6th Frigate Squadron at Play, 1961
After covering the “Crazy Y” during the Falklands last week, where she was the oldest of two dozen RN frigates and destroyers in the liberation task force, here is a glimpse back to when she was young, new, and beautiful.
Check out these images of the 6th Frigate Squadron off Malta in November 1961, steaming for a photoex after spending a year deployed to the Med, prior to leaving for home. They include HMS Yarmouth (F 101), HMS Blackpool (F 77), and HMS Llandaff (F 61). At the time, Yarmouth was just 20 months old, commissioned in March 1960, and had spent most of those forward deployed.
IWM A 34560
IWM A 34559
IWM HU 130051
Both Yarmouth and Blackpool were Type 12 anti-submarine frigates, with the latter being a Whitby-class vessel commissioned in 1958. LLandaff was a Salisbury-class radar picket (AD in British parlance), commissioned the same year as Blackpool.
The squadron was commanded at the time by Capt. Henry R. Hewlett aboard Yarmouth, his flagship, before he was appointed Director, Maritime Tactical School. Note the “6” squadron flagship marker on Yarmouth’s funnel. IWM (MH 27578)
Yarmouth would survive them all in RN service, with Llandaff transferred to the Bangladeshi Navy in December 1976 as BNS Umar Farooq (later scrapped in 2016), while Blackpool, leased to the Royal New Zealand Navy, was scrapped in 1978.