More than 2,500 personnel, made up of 2,100 Britons, 200 Norwegians and Canadians and Spanish, have been involved in the deployment.

Thousands of service personnel have been reunited with their families in time for Christmas as the Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales and its support ships returned to their home bases.

The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier and the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless sailed into Portsmouth Naval Base where the crews were met by cheering families and friends.

The arrival, which is the biggest naval homecoming in 20 years, was brought forward because of heavy winds forecast for Monday.

Frigate HMS Richmond, which was also part of the carrier strike group (CSG), is also returning to Plymouth during the weekend and HNoMS Roald Amundsen also headed back

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