Around a dozen Royal Navy sailors have been sampling life aboard the most powerful surface ship in Europe: France’s flagship Charles de Gaulle.
The sailors – some on permanent exchange, others temporarily on loan – joined the aircraft carrier as she provided the aerial punch alongside the RN’s amphibious forces on Exercise Corsican Lion.
Aboard FS Charles de Gaulle, off Toulon
Pictures: Marine Nationale
LET’S go to work… Striding across the flight deck of the most powerful surface ship in Europe, seven Royal Navy exchange officers enjoy the Charles de Gaulle experience.
Around a dozen Royal Navy personnel have been attached to France’s flagship throughout a two-week-long exercise to test the ability of the British and French navies and marines to work together: Corsican Lion.
Some are permanently attached to the ship – the only traditional-style flat-top in Europe’s navies – others joined her for the exercise around the Mediterranean island.
With its mix of up to 30 Rafale and Super Étendard jets, plus Hawkeye eye-in-the-sky planes, the nuclear-powered carrier is the only traditional carrier – ‘cats and traps’, catapults to launch, arrestor wires to catch planes landing – outside the US Navy. She’s also twice the size of HMS Illustrious and Ocean.
AB Davies and a French rating side-by-side at a planning meeting aboard the Charles de Gaulle
“It is a phenomenal bit of kit,” enthuses Lt Damian Stafford-Shaw, normally HMS Illustrious’ education officer. “This is the French flagship and the French themselves are still in thrall of her.”
As for living on board, we could learn a lot from the French. Big beds. Spacious cabins. Wide passageways. As for the dining areas and messes, the wardroom and the adjacent dining room are more akin to a cruise than warship.
“It’s a fighter pilot’s bar,” says ex-Harrier pilot Lt Cdr Neil ‘Twiggy’ (or if you’re French, Twiggeee) Twigg. “Every time you think you are on a warship, you open the door to a cabin or a compartment and you see this and think: ‘Wow’.”
The impressive sight of a Rafale lifting off from the deck of the Charles de Gaulle
They echoed to the strains of Heart of Oak on Trafalgar Night as the Royal Navy contingent decided October 21 had to be commemorated.
“They loved it,” said Lt Stafford-Shaw. “The French responded with songs of their own. We finished off with Rule Britannia. It was a brilliant night and everyone took in the best of spirits.”
Some of the Brits aboard the French flagship speak passable, even fluent French, but most do not. Luckily, most of the French speak excellent English.
“My French is very, very rusty,” says Lt Stafford-Shaw. “But if you make the effort to speak just a little of their language, the French really appreciate it.”
Although there are many cultural differences between the two nations and navies, there are greater similarities than contrasts.
“We work pretty well together,” says Capitaine de frégate Emmanuel Slaars, a senior naval staff officer embarked on France’s flagship for the exercise.
“We are both sailors. We have made the same choice: to serve at sea. We understand the importance of the sea.”
Corsican Lion ends today with the defence ministers of France and UK watching demonstrations aboard the de Gaulle and Bulwark.
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