Hello Mattpageyarm and welcome to the forum. As it happens we have a good deal of material on the flotilla to which it belonged: the 55th MTB Flotilla, commanded by Lt Cdr Donald Gould Bradford. I was contacted some years back by a family member of the Chief Motor Mechanic of 632, Jack Bowman Sidebo...

Good Evening Steve and welcome to the forum. HMS Gregale was the Coastal Forces base on Malta, and the CO of ML 575 was a member of the South African Volunteer Naval Force — SANF(V) — named John Norman Barfield. The April 1945 Navy List shows him as Temporary Lieutenant for 575 along with Temporary ...

This photo from the IWM collection shows the CO of MTB 245 Douglas Hunt.

This remarkable footage from the Imperial War Museum (IWM) collection entitled The Home of the Coastal Motor Boat shows the base for Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs) at Osea Island, Essex in the period shortly after the First World War. Osea Island which was home to Coastal Motor Boats, an early anteceden...

Hello corkerrys Thank you for the information on Maurice Illingworth. 629 was ordered as an MGB initially but changed to an MTB during construction. This photo is said to be of MTB 629, which after its decommissioning in 1945 became a floating guest house at Penzance until 1950 before a move to Salc...

Hello MattR I've had a look through the resources I hold but haven't managed to turn up anything. H.K.C. could conceivably have been anyone unconnected with Coastal Forces, and there's no match for a Bill or William amongst those few known members of 245's crew. An interesting item none the less. Ad...

I was lent a copy in the past and know he spent some time after the war in Glasgow, employed in the fitting out of liners built on the Clyde at Govan.

The chapters of Ken's autobiography covering his wartime experience may be found within the memoirs section of the web site, but I do not have a scan of the complete book.

Hello Linda

Welcome to the forum. There are some images for the crew from this boat in the earlier part of this thread, but I believe these may date from the period after the death of your Great Uncle. I will try to ascertain the dates for the images and get back to you.

Regards
Admin

Hello Morrrm11 MTB and MGB 17 were two distinct boats which were both lost but on different dates. It appears from the mention of D-Day that MGB 17 lost to a mine on 11th June 1944 would be the boat in question. Could you please give us your father’s full name and I could see if I have any details c...

Gray207 Thank you for such a well researched account of the part ML 207 played in minesweeping operations ahead of the D-Day landings. The manoeuvring mid-invasion, and mid-channel at night in the middle of a minefield, was a feat of seamanship made all the more remarkable by the fact these were all...

Hello Charles Thank you for the photograph of the memento, and what a great name your grandfather had - Ernest Tregilgas! Yet another of the Lancashire contingent! MGB 647 had four casualties recorded at two different times, with three casualties in one incident spoken about above. Our veteran Peter...

The photograph Roger mentions can be seen in the memoir written by Ken Forrester entitled If I only had known which details his time with the 55th MTB Flotilla.

Mentor II was the Coastal Forces base at Stornoway in the Hebrides.

Yes you would need to contact the IWM about the possibility of getting this image digitised. I dont’t know a great deal about this boat other than the basics of its construction as outlined in the boat database , and can only imagine the boat struck a mine left over from sweeping operations in the S...

Hello Jeffrey There is an image of ML 466 from the collection of Lieutenant Commander J K Neale DSC RNVR showing ML 466 in the Shetland Islands in June 1943 which forms part of the Imperial War Museum (IWM) Collection, although this particular photo has still to be digitised. A digitised photo from ...

Hello, and welcome to the forum. Pen & Sword are due to publish British Naval Weapons of World War Two Volume III: Coastal Forces by the late John Lambert, which may include this weapon, else his earlier volumes may, and I assume he must have created plans for sale previously, although only plan...

Hello Katy Could you send any images you have to us here as well please using our info@cfv.org.uk address. If you have a scanner, could you also scan them at 600dpi, and in colour, even though they will be in black & white, and then saved as TIFF rather than JPEG, which is a better format for ar...

This the photo archive Manxkipper kindly forwarded containing crew photos for MGB 661 and also some photographs presumably from a German PoW, or which may have been left behind in one of the occupied ports Coastal Forces helped to liberate.

Phillip Kennaugh Photo Archive

Hello L B Thank you for your enquiry and for the photographs. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the uniforms the two gentlemen are wearing, thinking at first they might be Petty Officers, though going by the cap badges, not, yet they don’t seem quite the same as RN Lieutenants, and their jackets a...

Hello Manxkipper Thank you for joining the forum. Hopefully the earlier poster Katy will be alerted to your post and reply. Could I ask you to get in touch with the web site as well please at the info@cfv.org.uk address with a view to possibly obtaining copies of the resources your family holds on M...

Hello Bob and welcome to the forum. I am posting the one piece of info I have on ML 466 and would be grateful to receive any information or photographs you may have to add to our archive if you wouldn't mind emailing them to our info@ address. This obituary comes from the Dulwich College Roll of Hon...

Hello Roger Thank you for your enquiry. I have checked my own resources and also Allied Coastal Forces: Volume 1: Fairmile Designs by John Lambert but have had no luck with this particular launch, though someone else may be in a position to contribute. Just out of interest the Imperial War Museum (I...

Hello Alex

Welcome to the forum. I have replied to your email address on the subject of the crew photos of MTB 316 your family holds.

Regards
Admin

Platon That seems to be an interesting book which I have not heard of before. I take it Reg Cooley does not provide a specific reference for mention of the operation. Just a couple of other possible pointers: 1.Pink Lists, which are the Royal Navy's record of foreign ship movements might provide an ...

Platon, I couldn't tell if XMAS it was used for special ops or not, beyond the basic knowledge of it being used for air-sea rescue. I corresponded with a gentleman some years ago who was researching a planned book of remembrance for former pupils of Hordle House, which included Richard Millett Ricka...

Hello I've not been able to find any specific information on this mission in any of the books I have. Do you have a copy of Secret Flotillas Vol II: Clandestine Sea Operations in the Western Mediterranean, North African & the Adriatic 1940-1944 by Brook Richards? I have the first volume covering...

Hello Platon Just to add to what Ken has already written of the event, Kenneth Horlock in command of 651 wrote the following brief account of the incident: In January or February it became our turn to go over to Italy to be patched up. Consequently we suffered the usual indignity of having practical...

Hello Mark

Did you ever manage to establish what the Shrapnel offshoot at Newcastle trained personnel in by any chance?

Regards
Admin

I have managed to acquire a copy of the Admiralty file on Patrol Vessel 4 (ADM 358/3797). The pages of most interest are these two which are the last ones in the folder. It would be interesting to learn what an Eng.6 agreement was. A copy of the complete file is available on request. Admin patrol-ve...

Dear All I have visited the Public Record Office at Kew and obtained record series ADM 358/2521 and ADM 358/4412 on ML 916. The identity of the other surviving member of ML 916 has been found; he was Able Seaman W C Morrison C/JX 406145. The 358/2521 series also records Lt W B Curtis, Seaman D Frase...