Exercise Verity in 1949 is presented as the Western Union's first joint naval exercise and the first multinational defence exercise of the Cold War. The reading traces the organisation through the Anglo-French Treaty of Dunkirk in 1947 and the extension of mutual defence to the Benelux countries under the 1948 Treaty of Brussels. Sixty vessels from four countries took part. Britain's contingent included Anson and the carriers Implacable, Victorious, and Theseus. Fifty ships assembled in Mount's Bay, where Penzance welcomed the visiting navies with a souvenir programme and public events. The episode places the continuing use of battleships within postwar training and international cooperation.
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Exercise Verity brings Western Union navies together
Anson joined a 1949 multinational exercise that linked postwar battleship service with Western Union defence cooperation.