HMS Forward (1939 shore establishment)

Last updated

HMS Forward
Newhaven, East Sussex
East Sussex UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
HMS Forward
Coordinates 50°48′19″N0°03′28″E / 50.805253°N 0.057715°E / 50.805253; 0.057715
TypeRoyal Naval Headquarters
Site information
Controlled byFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Site history
In use1940-1945
Garrison information
Garrison Royal Navy

HMS Forward was a shore establishment of the British Royal Navy during World War II. It was based at South Heighton, just outside Newhaven, East Sussex.

Service history

Based in a former Guinness Trust Holiday Home, [1] Forward served as the command centre for all Royal Naval establishments in the area and was responsible for:

In 1941 a complex of tunnels were constructed 20 m (66 ft) underground to house a centre which plotted all shipping traffic in the English Channel between Dungeness and Selsey Bill, in conjunction with the coastal radar chain. [3]

Forward was decommissioned on 31 August 1945. [1]

Related Research Articles

Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent was one of the primary shore airfields of the Fleet Air Arm. First established as a seaplane base in 1917 during the First World War, it later became the main training establishment and administrative centre of the Fleet Air Arm. Situated near Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, approximately four miles west of Portsmouth on the coast of the Solent at grid reference SU560019, the airfield closed for military use in 1996 and passed through several owners until 2014 when the current owners Fareham Borough Council bought the airfield and re-branded as Solent Airport. The airfield hosts the Solent Enterprise Zone.

Garden Island (New South Wales) Place in New South Wales, Australia

Garden Island is an inner-city locality of Sydney, Australia, and the location of a major Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base. It is located to the north-east of the Sydney central business district and juts out into Port Jackson, immediately to the north of the suburb of Potts Point. Used for government and naval purposes since the earliest days of the colony of Sydney, it was originally a completely-detached island but was joined to the Potts Point shoreline by major land reclamation work during World War II.

HMNB Portsmouth British Royal Navy base

Her Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is located on the eastern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, north of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. Until the early 1970s, it was officially known as Portsmouth Royal Dockyard ; thereafter the term 'Naval Base' gained currency, acknowledging a greater focus on personnel and support elements alongside the traditional emphasis on building, repairing and maintaining ships. In 1984 Portsmouth's Royal Dockyard function was downgraded and it was formally renamed the 'Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation' (FMRO). The FMRO was privatized in 1998, and for a time, shipbuilding, in the form of block construction, returned. Around the year 2000, the designation HMS Nelson was extended to cover the entire base.

HMS <i>Caroline</i> (1914) Royal Navy C-class light cruiser

HMS Caroline is a decommissioned C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy that saw combat service in the First World War and served as an administrative centre in the Second World War. Caroline was launched and commissioned in 1914. At the time of her decommissioning in 2011 she was the second-oldest ship in Royal Navy service, after HMS Victory. She served as a static headquarters and training ship for the Royal Naval Reserve, based in Alexandra Dock, Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the later stages of her career. She was converted into a museum ship. From October 2016 she underwent inspection and repairs to her hull at Harland and Wolff and opened to the public on 1 July 2017 at Alexandra Dock in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast.

HMS <i>President</i> (1918) Minesweeper of the Royal Navy

HMS President (1918) is a retired Flower-class Q-ship that was launched in 1918. She was renamed HMS President in 1922 and moored permanently on the Thames as a Royal Navy Reserve drill ship. In 1982 she was sold to private owners and, having changed hands twice, served as a venue for conferences and functions as well as the offices for a number of media companies. She has been moved to Chatham on the Medway in Kent since 2016, but is due to return to the capital. She had the suffix "(1918)" added to her name in order to distinguish her from HMS President, the Royal Naval Reserve base in St Katharine Docks. She is one of the last three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War. She is also the sole representative of the first type of purpose built anti-submarine vessels, and is the ancestor of World War II convoy escort sloops, which evolved into modern anti-submarine frigates.

South Heighton Human settlement in England

South Heighton is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is seven miles (12 km) south of Lewes. In the 1890s the village's population grew from less than 100 to over 500 after a cement manufacturing plant opened nearby. The village is now associated with the urbanised area of Newhaven.

HMS <i>Example</i> (P165)

HMS Example is an Archer-class patrol and training vessel of the Royal Navy, based at HMS Calliope in Gateshead, England. Example was originally built for the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service, and was transferred to the Royal Navy when the RNXS disbanded in 1994. On transfer, she retained her name, and became the first ship in the Royal Navy to bear that name.

HMS Sultan (establishment)

HMS Sultan is a shore base of the Royal Navy in Gosport, Hampshire, England. It is the primary engineering training establishment for the Royal Navy and home to the Network Rail Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme and the EDF Energy engineering maintenance apprenticeship. It is expected that HMS Sultan will close in the near future, but "no earlier than 2029".

HMS <i>Collingwood</i> (shore establishment) Training establishment of the Royal Navy

HMS Collingwood is a stone frigate of the Royal Navy, in Fareham, England. It is the lead establishment of the Maritime Warfare School and the largest naval training organisation in Western Europe. The Maritime Warfare School is a federated training establishment incorporating HMS Excellent, the Defence Diving School, the RN Physical Training School, the School of Hydrography and Meteorology in Plymouth and the Royal Marines School of Music in Portsmouth Naval Base.

HMS <i>Vernon</i> (shore establishment)

HMS Vernon was a shore establishment or "stone frigate" of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. Vernon was established on 26 April 1876 as the Royal Navy's Torpedo Branch also known as the Torpedo School, named after the ship HMS Vernon which served as part of its floating base. After the First World War, HMS Vernon moved ashore, taking over the Gunwharf site, where it continued to operate until 1 April 1996, when the various elements comprising the establishment were split up and moved to different commands.

Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy Military unit

Coastal Forces was a division of the Royal Navy initially established during World War I, and then again in World War II under the command of Rear-Admiral, Coastal Forces. It remained active until the last minesweepers to wear the "HM Coastal Forces" cap tally were taken out of reserve in 1968. On 21 May 2020, Ministerial approval for the change in name from 1st Patrol Boat Squadron to Coastal Forces Squadron was given. It encompasses the Archer-class patrol vessels and the Batch 1 River-class offshore patrol vessels and are responsible for UKEEZ Protection and Patrol.

HMS <i>Ferret</i> (1940 shore establishment) Shore establishment and naval base of the Royal Navy during the Second World War

HMS Ferret was a shore establishment and naval base of the Royal Navy during the Second World War, located in Derry. It was given a ship's name as a stone frigate.

HMS <i>Royal Arthur</i> (shore establishment)

HMS Royal Arthur was a shore establishment of the Royal Navy, initially at Ingoldmells near Skegness, and later at Corsham, Wiltshire. During the Second World War, the former holiday camp at Ingoldmells was used to mainly train 'Hostilities Only' communications branch ratings and officers.

Four ships and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Forward:

Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth Military unit

The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Sir Thomas Williams's tenure, his successor, Sir Philip Durham, being the first to move into Admiralty House at the Royal Navy Dockyard, where subsequent holders of the office were based until 1969. Prior to World War I the officer holder was sometimes referred to in official dispatches as the Commander-in-Chief, Spithead.

Geoffrey Robson

Vice Admiral Sir William Geoffrey Arthur Robson, was a Royal Navy officer whose last Service appointment was Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic.

HMS Aggressive was a shore establishment of the British Royal Navy during World War II, based at Newhaven, East Sussex.

HMS Newt was a shore establishment of the Royal Navy during World War II, based at Newhaven, East Sussex.

Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham Military unit

The Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham also known as HMS Pembroke was a naval barracks built between the Victorian Steam Yard and Brompton Barracks between 1897 and 1902. It was built on the site of a prison built in 1853 to house over 1,000 convicts, with the intention that they would be used to build the Dockyard extension.

References

  1. 1 2 Ellis, Geoffrey (2011). "The Guinness Trust Holiday Home (a.k.a. Denton House) 1938-1996". Our Newhaven. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  2. Ellis, Geoffrey (2011). "HMS Forward". Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  3. Ellis, Geoffrey (2011). "Royal Naval HQ, HMS Forward, Newhaven, 1939-1945". The Secret Tunnels of South Heighton. Retrieved 5 November 2011.