Title:HMS SOLEBAY IS RE-COMMISSIONED [Allocated Title]
Film Number:ADM 1638
Other titles:POST-WAR NAVAL OPERATIONS - MISCELLANEOUS [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: HMS Solebay is brought forward from Reserve in Exercise Sleeping Beauty IV.
Description: Opening sequence shows the actual commissioning ceremony - officers and men fallen in on the quayside, RN band, Captain reading himself in. The White Ensign is hoisted. Captain Alexander addresses the ship's company. The men are entered on the ship's books and receive cap tallies. CU of the ship's name plate. CUs as men de-cocoon a 40mm STAAG mounting, cutting away the plastic covering and stripping off the lagging beneath. Divers check the condition of the ship's hull - in the background is HMS Obdurate (D.139). Kit and ship's stores are unloaded from transport and stowed onboard. Torpedo tube is de-cocooned. Harbour crane lowers oil drums onto B gun deck. LA from the quayside to starboard bow of Solebay alongside. Boxes of rations are carried up the gangway. Admiral Superintendent visits the ship to make a brief inspection. No 4 rifles, Lanchester submachineguns, and chests of smallarms ammunition are brought onboard. Drums of oil or lubricant are pushed with some difficulty up a gangway and wrestled onto the deck. MSs from the quayside as Solebay is warped out into the basin and then taken out by two harbour tugs for her first run at sea.
Alternative Title:POST-WAR NAVAL OPERATIONS - MISCELLANEOUS [Allocated Series Title]