ANZS Commonwealth (1983: Doomsday)

The Flagship of the Navy of the Commonwealth,the ANZC "Commonwealth" ''(formerly USS Nimitz)



Ship country       = Commonwealth of Australia & New Zealand Ship flag          = Ship name          = CoCN-1 Ship namesake      = Ship ordered       = 31 March 1967 Ship laid down     = 22 June 1968 Ship launched      = 13 May 1972 Ship commissioned  = 3 May 1975 Ship reclassified  = 1994 Ship captured      = Ship status        = Mediterrenean Sea, Malta-Lampedusa-Corridor Ship struck        = Ship reinstated    = Ship homeport      = Brisbane, ANZC Ship motto         =Teamwork, a Tradition Ship nickname      = "Old Salt" Ship notes         =

Pre-Doomsday
The USS Nimitz (CVN-68) was a supercarrier in the United States Navy, the lead ship of its class. She was -and still is- one of the largest warships in the world.

It also headed the US carrier strike group Eleven, a flotilla consiting of   [...]

Gathering Order
On June 1, 1984, the ANZUS Order 001/1984 was given by the joint ANZUS Head Command set up in Brisbane. This order—today famous as the “Final Gathering” Order—was sent to all reachable U.S. and NATO units. It ordered all units capable to do so to set course for Australian, New Zealand and Hawaiian territory, otherwise all surviving units in defined geographical area were routed to the nearest suiting gathering point to which ANZUS supply convoys were sent.

The commander of th CSG-11 got word from the order in October 1985 first by a French Frigate while stopping in the Nigerian port of Lagos in desperate search for food supplies. Due to non-existent satellite connection and out of fear to be spotted and attacked by scattered Warsaw Pact nuclear submarines the commander quickly decided to set sail for Papeete, French Polynesia,named as one of the main gathering sites

To Papeete
The French frigate- and later 21 more NATO ships from France,Italy,the UK and Germany- joined the Nimitz and its Carrier Group along the way to form a massive fleet consisting of all possible ship classes.

In constant fear of being attacked by Soviet submarines (even nuclear attack was not ruled out) the fleet rushed as fast and covert as possible towards Papeete.

Indeed, during the passage of Cape Hoorn, a Uk destroyer was hit and damaged heavily by a submarine torpedo attack. The whole fleet was set on alert formation, helicopters and figherjets started to hunt down the attacker.

After 25 minutes, a Seaking helicopter spotted and hit a submarine rushing to escape the fleet rendering it unmaneuverable. The crew was captured by RAF Special Forces and brought aboard the Nimitz for interrogation.

The initial fear of being attacked by Soviets was proved false as it turned out to be a renegade Argentinian submarine taken the destroyer to be alone but upon spotting the massive fleet chose to run.

The crew and the submarine were taken in custody and into tow.

The fleet arrived in Papeete -without further incidents, on November 18th.

Into open arms
On November 18th, 1985 the arrival of the Nimitz and the vast accompanying fleet from the harbour of Papeete, Tahiti. It was feared that all carrier groups had been destroyed by direct nuclear attacks. But –apparently- due to malfunctioning ICBM’s the Nimitz carrier group was not destroyed and was able to set course south to escape the radiation in the Northern Hemisphere. On December 8th the Nimitz Group arrives in Brisbane.==A new name++