Operation Cunningham was a naval operation in April 2010 by units of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

to ship British military personnel and air passengers stranded in continental Europe by the

air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption In response to concerns that volcanic ash ejected during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland would damage aircraft engines, the controlled airspace of many European countries was closed to instrument flight rules traffic, resulti ...

. The amphibious warfare ships HMS ''Albion'' and HMS ''Ocean'' and the aircraft carrier HMS ''Ark Royal'' were assigned to the operation, which was named after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

British admiral Andrew Cunningham. However, only ''Albion'' was directly involved in the repatriation effort.

By ship

''Albion''

''Albion'' was assigned to collect 200 soldiers from 3rd Battalion,

The Rifles The Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Formed in 2007, it consists of four Regular battalions and three Reserve battalions. Each Regular battalion was formerly an individual battalion of one of the two large regiments of the ...

from Santander, and to fill the remaining space aboard with passengers, arriving on the morning of 20 April.

''Ocean''

''Ocean'' sailed from her Devonport base on 19 April, being on readiness in the Channel from 20 April.

''Ark Royal''

HMS ''Ark Royal'' was detached from

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Exercise Joint Warrior Exercise Joint Warrior is a major wikt:biannual, biannual multi-national military exercise which takes place in the United Kingdom, predominately in north west Scotland. It is the successor of the Neptune Warrior exercises and Joint Maritime C ...

off north-west Scotland (also affected by the grounding of aircraft), reaching the south coast of England on 20 April and sailing from

HMNB Portsmouth His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is loc ...

to join ''Ocean'' in the Channel later that day. However due to two leaks, she was stood down and returned to HMNB Portsmouth for a dry dock repair, with her ammunition still embarked

Notes

References