Summary: Dramatised Navy Instructional film intended to illustrate the role of specialist communications ratings in the Royal Navy.
Description: Different methods of communicating, both visually and by radio, and communications ratings' training at the shore establishment HMS Mercury are shown, and scenarios at sea used to show the importance of communications in co-ordinating forces in operational situations. In one a North Sea oil rig calls for Navy assistance when a small vessel is noticed lingering in the area; the Leander Class frigate HMS Leander (F.109) is ordered to investigate, and in turn despatches a smaller ship, HMS Reward to the oil rig, driving off the unidentified vessel. In the other a number of Royal Navy vessels, including submarines and supported by an RAF Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, are ordered to investigate three unidentified warships off the east coast of England. An anti-submarine engagement, involving a Wasp helicopter and a British submarine, then follows.
