HMS M.33 is a 1915 Coastal Bombardment Vessel, one of only two British warships to survive from the First World War.

She saw action in the Mediterranean between 1915 and 1918, supporting troop landings and evacuations at Gallipoli in 1915. Then in 1919, she played a part in the Russian Civil War covering the withdrawal of Allied and White Russian troops. Following her return from Russia, she spent the rest of her active life in Portsmouth Harbour.

Today she is berthed near the new Mary Rose Museum and Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard. Her location in No. 1 dry dock allows visitors to get a closer look at her exterior from the dockside, although currently she cannot be boarded. Her national and historical significance has been recognised and she features in the National Register of Historic Ships.

HMS M.33 is currently being renovated and it is planned that the work will be completed, allowing full public access, in time for the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign later this year.

The ship behind HMS M.33 is the recently retired HMS Illustrious.

Thiepval memorial stands in an isolated windswept position and is the largest memorial in the world and was opened on 31st July 1932 by the Prince of Wales. It contains over 72,000 names of British and Commonwealth men with no known graves, who fell on the Somme between July 1916 and March 1918.   Most of these died during the first battle of the Somme.  An inscription on the memorial reads:

Here are recorded names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields July 1915 February 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.

To the rear of the memorial is cemetery which unusually contains both British and French burials (300 of each). This commemorates the joint Anglo-French action that took place in the Somme. The French are buried to the left and the British on the right

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.