RFA Sir Tristram (L3505)
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The RFA Sir Tristram (L3505) was a landing ship of the British Royal Navy . The ship of the round table class was named after the knight Tristram (Eng. Tristan ), a knight of the round table in the Arthurian legend .
history
The Sir Tristram entered service with the British Army in 1967, like all British DropShips at that time . In 1970 they were placed under the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. In the first few years she was mainly assigned to the Ocean Wave Fleet stationed in Hong Kong and accordingly operated mainly in the Pacific .
At the beginning of the Falklands War , she was sent to the Falkland Islands in 1982 . On June 8 , just before British troops began to land in the bay off Port Pleasant , the Sir Tristram was attacked by Argentine fighter planes that used their on-board cannons against the ship's deck, killing two crew members. In addition, the ship was hit by a bomb, which detonated several hours later, so that the crew had enough time to leave the ship. The sister ship RFA Sir Galahad was also hit during the attack , killing 48 soldiers. In contrast to the Sir Galahad , which was towed out to sea due to the severe damage and sunk by the HMS Onyx , the Sir Tristram was towed to Port Stanley and served there as temporary accommodation for British soldiers until the beginning of 1984. It was then transported to England on board a semi-submersible ship , where it was subjected to extensive repairs that lasted almost a year.
In the 1990s it was used in the Second Gulf War and during the Yugoslav Wars . In 2003 she took part in the Iraq war. The Sir Tristram was officially decommissioned on November 17, 2005. The successors to the ships of the round table class are the larger dock landing ships of the bay class , which were put into service in 2006 and 2007. The Sir Tristram was supposed to be scrapped in 2007, but the Department of Defense decided to keep the ship and station it as a training ship for the Royal Marines in Portland . In September 2007, Sir Tristram replaced the over 60-year-old HMS Rame Head in this role.
construction
The Sir Tristram was one of six round-table class dropships. These were officially classified as Landing Ship Logistic (LSL) , so that they did not have a well deck and therefore did not have their own landing craft. These had to be provided by the larger dock landing ships of the Fearless class . For landing in the high seas, they only carried Mexeflotes , motorized pontoons, which, however, could only be used in light seas. Due to its shallow draft, however, it was able to land troops directly on the coast via its bow and stern ramps.
The Sir Tristram was the penultimate ship in the round table class. During her repairs after the Falklands War, the ship was significantly modified and lengthened by almost ten meters, increasing the tonnage by around 1,000 tons. Something similar happened in 1994 with the sister ship RFA Sir Bedivere .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sir Tristram conversion completed early , Falmouth Packet. August 23, 2007.