Corvettesprofiles the Royal Navy's

[Music] a Corvette is launched [Music] when it became apparent that Nazi Germany was pinning our hopes on making the seas around Britain impossible for our supply ships the admiralty gave orders to every available British Shipyard to build this new class of Warship to counter the threat and today in ever increasing numbers new Corvettes are going down the slipware the first Corvettes were built before the war broke out and all bore the name of seabirds Puffin pintail shelrick they looked like miniature destroyers and were in fact built inal yards but more and more were needed and civilian yards had to be used so another class was designed the fower class the stship Primrose delini this class can be turned out quickly and in large numbers built on the whale catcher lines they can stand up to the worst Atlantic weather their job is to protect convoys here is one of the flow class taking in final and most important stores as she sets out on anything up to 3 weeks at Sea with a [Music] convoy the chips must be fed as well as M and the Corvette comes alongside the oil tanker to take in [Music] fuel every minute day or night the crew must be prepared for instant action against the determined and ruthless enemy so one of the first jobs is to inspect guns and offensive equipment look right ahead in the distance on the horizon what a grand sight that's what we've been waiting to see there the Convoy this Corvette has been detailed to escort when we draw nearer you'll see a mly collection of ships all shapes and sizes besides British there are Dutch Greek polish Norwegian and all helping in the Allied cause there are long periods of monotony in the daily life of the crws but this monotony is lightened by one or two important functions the crew's daily rum rash and while we're on the subject of drinks the mother of these three tendale kittens went to shore to look up a friend and missed her ship the crew gladly became Foster mothers and decided to milk Feed the Children with a fountain penilla a bit of fresh fish is welcome so hopeful ratings are always ready to try their luck over the rail one never knows when enemy ears may be lurking a around so any very important secret messages are passed in this way when weather permits but calm conditions like this are the exception rather than the rule and the Corvette is able to look after herself in the worst the Atlantic can do though life aboard can be remarkably uncomfortable when really dirty weather is about [Music] oh [Music] when meal times come around transporting food from the gley is quite a balancing act but it arrives safely to the hungry wardrobe if that empty Roth could speak it would have a storage to tell perhaps of a traged perhaps of a nick of time rescue a floating mine in its present State it's a danger to shipping so the crew proceed to dispatch it with machine gun fire occasionally a mine will explode when it hit more often it sinks to the bottom like this one and Under the Sea there's another lurking danger the ubot one of the escorting warships detected something on her anti submarine instruments this is where the Corvette comes into her ear she was built for just such an occasion and the vast explosions of her death charges seal the fate of any ubo in the [Music] vicinity but mines and UB boats are not the only danger this Convoy is an important one and the enemy launches his attack from the air as well as from the sea a message has just been flashed to warn us that hostile aircraft have been shadowing us and are now now coming into attch every man knows his essential function and gets about his job here the blighters come not many of them but quite enough now you'll see what a bombing attack looks like at [Music] see [Music] [Music] that's typical of life in the Corvettes many hours with nothing happening at all and when it does or nothing decisive to show for it except the one vital fact the Convoy gets through no wonder these men feel able to deal with any problem they'll call on to face except of course downright [Music] magic and one other problem they couldn't solve the storm proved too strong for all their efforts at Foster mothering and this so Survivor is left to become the ship's Mas the work of the Corvette goes on week in and week out doing their vital bit to help win the battle of the Seas for those Nations that have pledged themselves to fight for freedom in this life and death struggle there are many types of British warships out there playing their part there is none more important than the [Music] [Applause] Corvette