Thanks Peter for your reply. By the way, my 1/35 model of MTB 378 is finally nearing completion (no Breda guns on this model though) :




Kind regards,

Arjan

I've made a list of the Vosper MTBs that were fitted with captured Italian 20mm Breda guns at some point in their service history. No doubt there were more, these are the boats known to me : MTB 61, MTB 77, MTB 82, MTB 85, MTB 86, MTB 89, MTB 97, MTB 226, MTB 243, MTB 290 and MTB 298. MTB 61 (a 70 f...

Hi, thanks a lot for the interesting photo. I think the photo may be mirrored because the SOE radar mast is on the starboard side whereas these were always on the port side. This particular boat looks more similar to the Jacob's Vospers than to the Annapolis ones in that it seems to have twin Vicker...

Hi welcome aboard . Of course we would love to see your photos !

Regards,

Arjan

Hi Peter, you are quite right, I jumped at the wrong conclusion. MTB 290 never had an Oerlikon so the Breda gun was not an exchange but rather an addition to its fire power. I failed to read this info carefully, it just says "one 20 mm mount" and the name Oerlikon isn't mentioned. http://www.navsour...

Thanks Peter for the interesting info. On the subject of Breda guns, there's one pic in the IWM archive showing MTB 290 (if I read the number correctly) off Brindisi. It also has a Breda gun on its foredeck : http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib/514/media-514085/large.jpg?action=e&cat=photographs SP...

Once you know what to look for, these rocket storage boxes are indeed easy to recognise. A rescue launch with 2" rocket flares at Den Helder in 1945 :



Source: Dutch Photo Museum

Arjan

Thanks a lot for your extensive reply.

Kind regards,

Arjan

I wonder how/when these flares were used. I haven't managed to find much on the internet, I assume they were used to illuminate targets but I would appreciate some further info. Apparently the flare rockets were sometimes stored in a rack on the (port?) side(s) of the wheelhouse : http://media.iwm.o...

The "large Flak lighter" mentioned in this wartime activities account turns out to be German Marinefährprahm F 345 : Wartime Activities 30/03/43 Transferred to Royal Navy under lend lease Transported from the United States to the Mediterranean in an LST arriving in Oran, Algeria. Passage through Alg...

I think I found some colour footage of MTB 298 (that is, if I read the number correctly) : http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/uu279/ArjanWiskerke/Annapolis/65675060809_000575_3_zpsqv6i3ss7.jpg Source of the still : http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675060809_United-States-Patrol-Torpedo-boat_shell...

Two pics of American PT boats at Leghorn, the first seems to show the jetty the British officers posed on.




Arjan

Thanks Peter, a really nice picture. Here are two Jacob's adverts from a wartime American yachting magazine. I like the strange mix of propaganda, patriotism and blatant commercialism which is so typical of these American ads. Pity the images are not clearer : http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/uu27...

Thanks a lot for your interesting contribution Peter, I love the painting of MTB 410. Needless to say, I would appreciate any further pics of or info on the Jacobs Vospers from the 28th MTB Flotilla. On the subject of radar equipment, I don't know if you know the IWM interview with Lieutenant G.P.H....

Thanks, on closer inspection the number on the right hand Elco MTB does indeed seem to be 315 and not 313 as I assumed earlier. By the way, some time ago I tried to find out which German "Flak Lighters" were actually sunk during operations MTB 378 was involved in. These two German Marinefährpräme we...

Thanks, the last pic you posted gives the best clues to identify the various vessels. From the right to the left : MTB 420 (78' Higgins), MTB 313 (77' Elco), MTB 400 (Jacobs Vosper with Radar mast on the port side), behind MTB 400 probably MTB 401 (also Jacobs Vosper with Radar mast on the port side...

Thanks Stephen, I have pored over the two pics with the posing Navy officers but I can't make heads or tails of them. The pics are a bewildering mix of Higgins and Vosper MTBs (perhaps even an Elco 77 footer among these and I'm not really familiar with the anatomy of Higgins and Elco MTBs) and many ...

I wonder if there are any pics of MTB 377 taken at Bastia or Leghorn. I know that it was present at Leghorn where it accompanied MTB 378 on several missions. I wonder if this IWM pic could possibly show MTB 377 , the Vosper in the background with a twin Oerlikon, a metal band stand and an American r...

"the deck stiffening was a mahogany plank 22' long × 12" × ¼" and the gunwale stiffening was 30' × 11" × ⅞" (he still has the sketch)." Interesting, I had wondered about the function of these planks . I know these were standard fittings on later Vospers but I didn't know that these boards had also b...

Thanks Stephen, you've provided some very interesting info. The lend-lease Vospers of the 16th and 17th MTB Flotilla were apparently built by at least four different American companies : Annapolis, Jacobs, Herreshoff and Harbour Boat so it's probably not correct to assume that Annapolis Vospers were...

Thanks Stephen, much obliged ! Very interesting details regarding the shortcomings of the boats' construction. Of course the climate conditions in this particular war theater were more extreme than those in the Mediterranean but it makes me wonder if the quality of the lend-lease Vospers made by Jac...

Thanks a lot for the additional information.

Kind regards,

Arjan

This probably explains why there is so little info about this MTB Flotilla (disbanded after only a year and apparently not much action) : "Motor Torpedo Boats (M.T.Bs) In June 1943 three flotillas of Vosper 72 ft. Motor Torpedo Boats were commissioned in Bombay and Calcutta. Later 22 boats of these ...

Hi, I'm looking for info on/photos of lend-lease Annapolis Vospers used by the Royal Indian Navy. I found one pic on the IWM site showing MTB 281 and two sister boats. Apparently these MTBs belonged to the 17th Flotilla. For some reason there do not seem to be (m)any pics of these particular vessels...

To my delight I noticed today that the IWM photos I was looking for have been digitised in the mean time. I get the impression that many other interesting MTB pics have also been digitised recently. I suggest using search words "MTB" and "Leghorn".

Regards,

Arjan

I happened across a thread on a Packard engine found in a scrapyard in Malta: http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?19555-Is-this-an-MTB-engine http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/uu279/ArjanWiskerke/Annapolis/Packard_zps372bb9b4.jpg This pic seems to show the same Jacob's Lend-lease Vospers as in...

Some nice shots of American built Annapolis Vospers MTB 375, 376 and 378:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/us-te ... o+boats+US

Arjan

The IWM have been steadily digitising more of their photographs, so if you keep checking back you may eventually find these online. A 27452–A 27455 along with others already published on the site are by the same photographer, Lt F A Hudson, so I'm not sure why if they digitise items in batches, the...

Thanks for the pic, it's clearer than the one I've got. I think I would like to build MTB 378 in its later guise, that is with the twin Vickers guns replaced by the twin Oerlikon: http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/uu279/ArjanWiskerke/Annapolis/120596001_zps2160b4fc.jpg I don't know if MTB 375 and 3...

Hi, I'm new on this board and I'm looking for photos of the lend-lease Vospers I can use for my build. Unfortunately, photos of Jacob's and Annapolis lend-lease Vospers appear to be pretty rare. I like to combine my love for history and modelling. Here's my build, not much progress so far but that i...