A Celebration of the Armed Forces

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HM Government instituted Armed Forces’ Day in 2009 in tribute to Britain’s Servicemen and women. The occasion was marked locally across the UK as well but the focal point of the Day’s celebration and commemoration was the national event at The Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent on 27th June.

The 80-acre site, the most complete dockyard in the world remaining from the age of sail, provided room for an audience of 30,000, who were joined by Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Prime Minister and family, the Chief of Defence Staff, Commander-in-Chief Fleet and other official guests.

With a backdrop of historic buildings and ships combined with exhibits from today’s Services, the event began with a drumhead service. For this, the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force contingents arrived in a parade which had marched through Chatham and included several hundred veterans, they and the Gurkhas receiving special welcomes from the audience.

The other key highlight was the river and air display, remarkable for being tri-Service in content. This included the ‘RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’ and ‘Red Arrows’ as well a search and rescue demonstration carried out by RAF Sea King and RNLI lifeboat.

© Mirror

The display’s finale - ‘Operation Yawdem’ - featured three RN warships under way in the River Medway being ‘attacked’ by insurgents in combat support boats - actually, elements of the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham - defended in turn by Royal Marines operating both by boat and roping down from a Sea King helicopter, while being covered by more helicopters in the form of a Royal Marines’ Lynx and Army Apache.

NSR was proud to be selected to provide public address systems and radio communications for the Armed Forces’ Day national event at Chatham, covering the main arena and almost a mile of waterfront. In turn, the systems fed the commentary into the Dockyard’s permanent PA system throughout the rest of the site. The Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent on 27th June.