WW2 veteran visits BAE Scotstoun for launch of new frigate

Archie 'Archie' Hazledine got a VIP tour during his visit to the yard as he met with the crew of HMS Glasgow, the ninth ship named after Scotland’s great industrial city.

The veteran - a Royal marine gunner from Oxford -  served on HMS Glasgow number seven during the final months of the war in 1945.

And current logistics specialist Chief Petty Officer James Oakley and Petty Officer Kieran ‘Woody’ Woodward, Glasgow’s chief boatswain’s mate, hosted Archie throughout and ran through the wide range of capabilities that the new class of frigate will offer the Royal Navy when it enters service. 

Young Archie Hazledine in naval uniform and Archie now (Image: Supplied)

PO Woodward said: "It was an absolute pleasure hosting an old HMS Glasgow shipmate.

“Archie was really interested in the flight deck – much larger than a typical frigate’s – and he was fascinated to learn that it is capable of landing the RAF’s heavy-lift Chinook helicopter.

“He also showed a keen interest in the mission bay and asked lots of really good questions about how it will be used and the flexibility that it brings.” 

Archie specialised as an ack-ack (anti-aircraft) gunner, a role he’d performed defending airfields during D-Day.

His frigate the HMS Glasgow took part in the Normandy operation, but Archie was only assigned to her after the invasion, when she was refitted to prepare her for the war in the Far East – not least to bolster defences against Japanese Kamikaze suicide attacks.

The revamped cruiser was sent via Gibraltar, Malta and the Suez Canal to the Far East to participate in the final invasion of the Japanese home islands.

As it was, Japan sued for peace after the two atomic bombs were dropped, and formally surrendered before Glasgow arrived in Singapore.

The Town Class cruiser HMS Glasgow (Image: Supplied)

HMS Glasgow’s ship’s company pose for a photograph (Image: Supplied)

Instead, the ship was redeployed to the Indian Ocean but damaged her rudder in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and had to go to Simonstown for dry dock repairs.

Archie spent a very enjoyable few months in South Africa (where he happily remembers the absence of rationing) before being demobbed and sent home on a troopship

CPO Oakley added: "It was fantastic hearing about Archie’s experiences during the war.

"It was a pity that the visit had to end actually – we would have been very happy to exchange stories with him all day.” 

Archie on a rooftop at Scotstoun with the new HMS Glasgow behind (Image: Royal Navy)

The new HMS Glasgow is the first of eight Type 26 anti-submarine frigates being built by BAE Systems for the Royal Navy, replacing the existing Duke-class ships from later this decade into the mid-2030s.