Coastal Forces Veterans

Yes, Len Reynolds in Mediterranean MTBs at War cites the two flotillas as having operated from 1943–44, so the reference to 1942/43 may be an error in recalling the details, or there may have been some early arrivals towards the very tail end of 1942, though they would have struggled to have been in...

Norman Hine, the other survivor, in an addition to that letter, requests Bert to "ask old Turner to write and tell the boys to make sure there's some corned dog in your Carley rafts we almost starved to death." Norman Hine is down as having received an award as part of the crew of MGB 503,...

I would assume any materials used during construction of some of the American-built Vospers, if different from those specified in the plans, would have been cleared beforehand, and deemed serviceable before the boats were accepted from the yard for commissioning, but it's possible that flaws in a pa...

Thanks Herve As there are potentially many of these I may create a thread specifically for Adoption Plaques later, at which point I'll move your post into it. I was previously chasing photos for two myself which I gave up on, but must take up again. One was for MTB 79, which used to be in the Workin...

Owing to their limited operational range and absence of targets for their torpedoes, it was decided by the Admiralty that M.T.Bs were of no practical value in the South-East Asia Command and therefore in July 1944 both flotillas were paid off and placed in care and maintenance." Three flotilla...

Do you know where I could have a chance to find pictures of MGB 659 and a portrait of Mr Barlow? A photo of MGB 659 has proved hard to come by. It's possible that it features in one of these photos, but I couldn't say for sure. The boat nearest the quay in the first photo is MGB 658, and in the sec...

Hello Arjan Yes the IWM have been steadily digitising more of their collection. For those interested in the subject it's worth searching on 'MTB' or 'MGB', but also 'Motor Torpedo Boat', 'Motor Gun Boat', 'Motor Launch', 'Coastal Forces', 'Felixstowe' etc as although each of the search terms can bri...

One of our veterans, Peter Bickmore, has pointed out that Medyna was actually the name used for the former J Samuel White built MTB 253. Has there been a mix up here between MTB 253 and ML 253? MTB-253-MV-Medyna-Newhaven-1983-1.jpg MTB-253-MV-Medyna-Newhaven-1983-2.jpg MTB-253-MV-Medyna-Newhaven-198...

Hello CharlyArry Thanks for the posting the photo. It may just be the angle but my first impression was that this boat looks more like a First World War era Elco Motor Launch, than a Second World War Fairmile 'B'. There were many hundreds of Elcos commissioned which bore the same numbers as the late...

When logged in, if you click on the Post Reply button, you'll see a tab below the area where you would ordinarily enter text, labelled Attachments . If you select that and then select the Add files button, you should be able to select an image file (in jpg format) from your own computer. Once the fi...

Unfortunately there is no known preserved Fairmile D 'Dog Boat'. There may be some hulls still extant somewhere forming the basis for houseboats, although several previously known about have succumbed to the ravages of time and are now lost altogether, while the prospects of any others are slim. Thi...

Hello Mark Welcome to the forum. Attack and Midge were Coastal Forces bases at Portland and Great Yarmouth, Mercury was a signals school near Petersfield, so presumably your father was a signaller, and Valkyrie a camp at Douglas, Isle of Man. Glendower was a training base at Pwllheli. MTBs 630 and 7...

Today on the home page we remember all those from Ireland who fought during the Second World War, and who in some cases died serving with Light Coastal Forces.

The pictures he has of the MTB's are in Cyprus by the looks of things except one entitled "268 on then slips Hiafa" this picture is one of the missing ones. That would likely be Mosquito I at Haifa, which would date the photo to October 1943 through to March 1944, or possibly up until May...

I would imagine the information supplied on World Naval Ships to be accurate with regards to general operational detail as there are a lot of ex-servicemen on there it seems. Which would suggest he wasn't on Hecla or Orlando but rather still with Legion. Yes, I would agree with that reading looking ...

Hello Graham I've managed to draw up the following which will hopefully prove useful: Pembroke II was the accounting base for Chatham, which was his Port Division. Orion: three different versions served as shore establishments, but none during the period in question or during the Second World War, s...

MGB ACTIONS SUMMER 1942 MGB 330 was one of twenty-four Fairmile C-Class motor gun boats, which were somewhat longer than the ‘short’ British Power Boat MGBs then in service with the existing MGB Flotillas. A larger variant still, the Fairmile D-Class, known as Dog Boats, were just starting to compl...

Hello chine Yes those look fairly standard. I make them out to be: Africa Star (for service off North Africa) Atlantic Star (Home Waters service) 1939-45 Star (General Service) Italy Star (Sicily, Bari, Ancona etc) War Medal (General Service) I think the only other general service/campaign medals Co...

Sorry I've just realised a slight error in the information I gave above regarding the boat commanders. The list should read:

MTB 634 (Lt. W.E.A. Blount DSC, with S.O. Lt.Cdr. T. Bligh DSO, DSC embarked)
MTB 651 (Lt. L. Ennis, RNVR)
MTB 670 (Lt. E. Hewitt, DSC)

The three boats and their officers would have been:
MTB 634 (S.O. Lt.Cdr. T. Bligh DSO, DSC)
MTB 651 (Lt. W.E.A. Blount DSC)
MTB 670 (Lt. E. Hewitt, DSC)

Thank you Glenn, that's proved really helpful. I managed to find the relevant document which is available to download for free from The National Archive: REGISTERS OF REPORTS OF DEATHS: NAVAL RATINGS ADM 104/127 - ADM 104. A - Blyth This is all the proof needed really to show that his boat was MGB 3...

I wonder if in the photo titled MGB 658 on patrol from VIS September 1944 those are Yugoslav Partisans shown onboard, and whether the caique shown in the quayside photo is captured booty or part of the Levant Schooner Flotilla.

I haven't been able to find any recent news on the boat but I note there was a thread on ML 357 in the World Naval Ships forum with a post from owner Terry Young giving his contact details, which if they are still current, you could try contacting him with.

Hello Glenn I believe there's definitely something amiss here. I have managed to track down a photograph of the headstone which displays the same H.M.M.L.B. 5 recorded in the grave report, and which is definitely incorrect, as there was no such ML, so the CWGC will need informing at some point, so t...

Hello Navigator27 and welcome to the forum. There was a link contained in the earlier thread about ML 357 for photographs of ML 357 and ML 351 posted on Pinterest, which are still available. The campaign around the Dodecanese Islands consisted of multiple small-scale operations and patrols—with larg...

Hello Glenn Thank you for your enquiry concerning your Uncle, AB Dimmock Barker. I have checked our own casualty records and note that it reads ML 5, which never existed. Checking back with the Commonwealth War Graves, I note that the Grave Registration Report available with his record shows his uni...

I can't claim any great level of expertise in these things, but I would imagine in all these instances, print deadlines in conjunction with lack of information is the likely cause. The Navy was used to 'big' ships in the main, while the Second World War saw a rapid surge in numbers of both small boa...

As Flotilla divisional leader, he was in charge of a very successful operations at Boulogne and Calais and part in the sweeping of Dieppe. This material would appear to have originated from an auctioneer's catalogue, though I have not managed to find the original source for it. It's also not very c...

When the London Gazette plays up it's always a struggle! In this instance they issued a later correction in a supplement of 29 May, 1945, having apparently printed John Whitfield Armstrong S.A.N.F. (V) in error, instead of J R Armstrong. I managed to pick it up in Google using: armstrong r.n.v.r. si...

Ganges was a training base at Shotley, and Victory I the accounting base at Portsmouth. Pembroke II for Legion was the accounting base at Chatham. Hecla was the depot ship for destroyers based on the Clyde but was at Hvalfjord, Iceland in June 1941, so this may have been rest & recreation during...