“The 7th Submarine in the Astute class will be baptized HMS ACHILLESas the king approved, “the Royal Navy announced on social networks on Sunday January 26. However, in 2018, Queen Elizabeth II had validated the name of HMS Agincourt (Azincourt in French) for this same submarine, currently under construction. Former Navy officers then hypothesized in British media that the change had been decided not to offend the French. The Battle of Azincourt, a battle for the Hundred Years War, was indeed won by the English of Henri V on October 25, 1415, in the north of France, while the French soldiers were more numerous.
For the conservative Grant Schapps, former Minister of Defense, the name change is squarely “a sacrilege”, and a “WOKE absurdity” on the part of the Labor Party. The former counter-admiral of the Navy Chris Parry also told Times Radio that it was “only a despicable capitulation before, I fear it, the ideology pushed by our government. It aims to erase our History and everything we have to be proud of.
“If this is really the reason why (the submarine) was renamed, I fear that we were not focusing on superficial things rather than the reconstruction of our defense,” criticized another former conservative minister of the Defense, Ben Wallace.
Adapted to the 80th anniversary of the 1945 victory
The Royal Navy, it explains in its press release that the name “Achilles” is “appropriate to the light of the 80th anniversary, this year, days of victory in Europe and victory over Japan. Six ships have already worn This name and received six war honors, including River Plate and Okinawa. ” Before the name ofAgincourt (already used for five submarines) was envisaged, had also been suggested that ofAjax. In addition, spotted the BCC in 1939, a Corvette de la Royal Navy which was to be called Hms Pansy had also become HMS Heartsease just before its launch.