The last ships involved in the conflict in Iraq have returned to Portsmouth and Devonport in the past few days.

Two of the ships – Type 42 destroyer HMS Liverpool and Type 23 frigate HMS Marlborough – had crucial roles in the early stages of the Coalition assault on the Al Faw peninsula.

Liverpool’s principal role as an air-defence ship meant she was required to stand by the flagship, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, to protect her from attacks which fortunately never materialised.

Marlborough, meanwhile, was required to go close inshore in the northern Arabian Gulf, using her 4.5in gun to bombard Iraqi defensive strongholds and to prevent small craft slipping out of the coastal waterways on potential suicide missions.

But while many of the other ships involved in the conflict made their way directly back to the UK from the Middle East, Liverpool and Marlborough were tasked to pick up the Naval Task Group 2003 programme which had been disrupted by the build-up to the conflict in Iraq.

Liverpool, in company with RFA tanker Grey Rover, undertook the Asian leg of the deployment, calling in at Malaysia, China and Japan, while Marlborough headed for Australia and New Zealand.

The three ships met up again in Singapore for Exercise Flying Fish, a regular air defence exercise between the nations of the Five Powers Defence Arrangement – the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.

Liverpool and Marlborough left their home port of Portsmouth in January, and were welcomed back in the fierce heat of the current heatwave by hundreds of family and friends who gathered in the Naval Base.

Devonport-based Type 22 frigate HMS Chatham was on the Iraqi gunline alongside HMS Marlborough at the end of March, firing her main gun at shore-based targets. Chatham left the UK in mid-January, with the job of relieving sister ship HMS Cumberland on Operation Oracle, the international campaign against terrorism.

She began by taking part in live firing exercises off the British coast before deploying to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.

At that point she was not part of NTG 03, but as events unfolded in the Gulf she was brought into Operation Telic, and became the first British ship in 21 years to bombard a land target in anger.

The frigate also helped prevent a break-out by the remains of Saddam Hussein’s navy – a surveillance team some miles inland had spotted three Iraqi vessels heading down the Shatt al’Arab waterway for the Gulf, and it was feared they may be on a suicide mission or making a dash for freedom with senior military officers or members of Saddam’s family on board.

Chatham closed off the mouth of the Shatt al’Arab waterway, and the craft abandoned their manouevre; one, a Bogomol-class patrol vessel, was left crippled in the waterway after Chatham called up an air strike by a British Tornado.

The frigate used its 4.5in gun, which has a range of about 11 miles, to bombard Iraqi military bunkers, and acted as the afloat headquarters of the American-planned ‘psychological operations’ division of the war.

Type 23 frigate HMS Northumberland returned to Devonport on the same day as Chatham – she had been part of the NATO force operating in the eastern Mediterranean on anti-terrorism duties, checking shipping heading to and from the Middle East and acting as escort for Allied warships and auxiliaries through the Suez Canal.

Northumberland also left Devonport in January, but RFA Grey Rover has been on duty for two years, culminating in her stint in the Gulf during Operation Telic when she supplied fuel to Allied warships engaged in operation in Iraq.

A more low-key welcome was afforded to two of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary landing ships which also had vital roles to play – one of which made headlines around the world when she switched roles to carry humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Iraqis in the Southern port of Umm Qasr.

RFA Sir Tristram left Marchwood on Southampton Water in January, carrying Royal Marines of 40 Commando and soldiers of 8 Battery, Royal Artillery, and 51 Port Squadron, Royal Logistics Corps, along with boats and equipment.

Once she had delivered her ‘cargo’ she remained in theatre to support Operation Telic until fighting was all but over, when she made her way to Singapore for a period of maintenance.

When she arrived back in the Gulf in mid-June she took up the duty of command and engineering platform for the four-strong mine countermeasures force, which she then escorted back to the UK.

Her voyage home was temporarily disrupted when she picked up a distress signal off Oman from the Egyptian freighter mv Green Glory, which had a flooded engine room and was reportedly sinking.

Sir Tristram dashed 250 miles in heavy seas to get to the stricken freighter, where she acted as on-scene commander, co-ordinating the efforts of three other merchant ships and the US Navy ship Concord, which used a helicopter to airlift the crew to safety.

Sister ship RFA Sir Galahad’s entry to Portsmouth was modest for a ship which was seen as having provided a turning-point in the war against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.

The ship also carried a mix of Royal Marines and soldiers and their equipment to the Gulf, but she acquired her fame when on March 28 she became the first Coalition ship to enter the port of Umm Qasr, carrying more than 200 tonnes of aid, including such as rice, lentils and chickpeas, flour, bottled water and World Health Organisation medical packs.

She had been on standby for several days as a ten-strong force of mine countermeasures vessels (MCMVs), and teams of divers, worked round the clock to clear the waterways and port of mines, and she was delayed twice – once by poor weather, then when HMS Blyth and HMS Ledbury discovered two mines close to her proposed route.

Sir Galahad – with some of her fuel tanks emptied to minimise risks if a stray mine had been encountered, and following the lead of Royal Navy minehunter HMS Sandown – slowly negotiated a safe, swept channel around 200 metres wide and some 50 miles long, taking around seven hours to complete.

She later returned to Umm Qasr to provide a base for Royal Marines camped out in the desert – her showers, comfortable bunks and good food proved a welcome respite for the troops.

Sir Galahad also had a spell of maintenance in Singapore before returning to the Gulf to load up with vehicles and equipment for the passage back to Britain.