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Description
HMS Fearless (A03205V)
1:600 Airfix Vintage Classics
HMS Fearless (L10) was an amphibious assault ship of the Royal Navy that acted as a base and provided Headquarters facilities for the Royal Marines that were aboard, before and during their assault missions. She was constructed in the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Northern Ireland in the early 60s, reaching service in 1965 at the beginning of a career that was to be longer than many ships of her era, which also made her the last steam-driven ship in the Royal Navy, with her career coming to an end in 2002. She spent another five to six years laid-up before being sent to be dismantled in an environmentally responsible manner by a Belgian shipyard, recycling the majority of its metals during the process. She was one of two ships of the class, her sister Intrepid was L11, and served alongside her until she was withdrawn into deep storage where she provided spares for Fearless, which is a little sad from her point of view, but kept fearless sailing for longer. Intrepid was dismantled around the same time as Fearless, but in a UK location.
During service Fearless was capable of transporting 400 troops plus armour, or 700 troops if the armour wasn’t required, and those troops were Royal Marines, who formed the 4th Assault Squadron while they were aboard. They would be put ashore using the four LCVP landing craft, or one of up to five Wessex helicopters that could land on the expansive deck that covered the majority of the dock where the landing craft were embarked. Both Fearless class ships took part in Operation Corporate to retake the Falkland Isles in 1982, where they performed admirably, and after they returned only Fearless underwent a two-year refit to extend its working life, as Intrepid wasn’t in good condition by then. The type’s replacements were ordered at the beginning of the 90s in anticipation of the end of the Fearless’s career, although there was a brief period where there were no Assault Ships in service while they waited for HMS Albion to replace the retired Fearless a year later, to be joined by Bulkwark in 2005.
