Coastal Forces Veterans

But i can not find any further information has anybody got a copy of Wind up of the war in Europe (Gazette Date - 11/12/45) as i can not find out anything about this and can anyone put names to the photo below Thanks. PG 10 002 (3).jpg I believe "Wind up of the War in Europe" is just a tu...

A recent photo of Glasson Dock, Lancaster taken from a similar angle to the photo above.

2013-01-24 Glasson Dock 036 by Pat Neary, on Flickr

One of her sister boats MASB 24, transferred to the RAF air sea rescue service, and showing the rear gun turret assembly.


DOVER NAVAL BASE. 1941.. © IWM (A 9922)IWM Non Commercial Licence

This rare silent colour footage, now part of the East Anglia University archive, was taken by an American airman stationed at the wartime USAAF airbase at Raydon, near Ipswich. The footage shows Mustangs fitted with long range fuel tanks taking off from the airfield, possibly as part of a bomber esc...

Here are some interesting recent additions to the Imperial War Museum (IWM) online digital archive showing MTBs in the basin at Dover, alongside RAF air-sea rescue launches, and C-Class gunboats moored at one of the wharves. http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib/440/media-440768/large.jpg?action=e&am...

If there was a battle with the MTB, it would be a memoir describing it, or the memories of participants in the forums. But we have nothing. Described in detail with respect to only attack the British destroyers, with their names and the injuries. I managed to find this in the Admiralty diary of dai...

There probably is a report of this night's incident by the Admiralty in the archives at Kew, but we don't possess a complete digest of daily events for this time period ourselves, and the main books on the subject only select certain, notable incidents. It would seem from what Roskill is saying, as ...

Hello rocky HMS Beehive was situated at Felixstowe. If you go to our Coastal Forces Bases page, the image at the bottom of the left hand column shows the basin at Felixstowe used by the boats. If you then select the Home Waters map at the top of that page, select the Port button in the Quick Zoom se...

Hello Mark For you for your enquiry, and welcome to the forum. Do you know if the injury your grandfather suffered was during the period the boat spent out in Burma, as detailed in this edition of the Coastal Forces Heritage Newsletter: Issue 14, May 2014: White Ensign Flown by ML 269 During the Las...

Geoffrey Hudson, the official historian of the former Coastal Forces Veterans Association (CFVA), recorded the following information on the White-built MTBs, in a piece originally written by him for the 2001 CFVA Diary. MTBs 41–48 Intended to be engined with three 1,150 bhp Isotta Fraschini engines,...

MTB 345 was on a routine naval patrol aimed at attacking enemy coastal shipping, as testified to by one of the Norwegian naval officers at the subsequent war crimes trial. As a point of interest, during the war there were a number of Coastal Forces flotillas made up of French, Dutch and Norwegian, c...

I am trying to work out the time it would take for MTB 675 to travel 400 nautical miles on one or possibly two engines from the Norwegian coast - 30 miles west of Askvoll - to Dunbar, just south of Edinburgh. Obviously the weather conditions would have been a factor, but a general calculation would...

As I understand it, MTB 640 sailed as the lead boat to the Mediterranean on the 16th March 1943 a little earlier than the summer of 1943. I assume then that she was built as a MGB but was never converted with torpedo tubes but never the less was classified as a MTB, from the beginning, at her commi...

The situation with regards to the early Fairmile D-Types is quite varied. Geoffrey Hudson, the Coastal Forces historian notes that of the first 96 boats built, half were completed as MGBs and the others as MTBs. Of the 48 boats completed as MGBs, two flotillas, comprising 16 boats in all, went to th...

After the war David * told me of the action and its aftermath. 130 had been attacked by half a dozen E-boats, by coincidence their 3rd Flotilla, which had swept his decks with fire. When they thought 130 subdued , one closed to demand surrender, and David saw his chance. Replacing a wounded gunner,...

One book which should definitely be on your reading list is Gunboat Command The Biography of Lieutenant Commander Robert Hichens DSO* DSC** RNVR by his son Antony Hichens. Robert Hichens was a renowned Coastal Forces commander, instrumental in evolving the tactics of the gun boats on the East Coast,...

Yes that looks like a record pertaining to the repair work that needed doing on the boat, but may not contain details of how the damage came about. Some of the Public Record Office records have been digitised and are available to view online, but most have not, so you would have to request a scan of...

The Coastal Forces Log : PRO: ADM/199/2418 is an official document held by the Public Record Office at Kew, in London. The precise nature of the document, who compiled it and why, is not known. It consists of daily entries that are written in pencil, not typed, and gives lists of the patrols mounted...

The section on this incident in the book Home Waters MTBs & MGBs by Len Reynolds reads as follows: On that night three groups of E-hoats set out to attack the convoys; they were cleverly dispersed to different areas in order to stretch the thinly spread resources of available escorts. The first ...

Reynolds appears to be saying that 495 took a shell to the engine room, which presumably could have come from one of the E-boats, or possibly friendly fire from one of the Royal Navy destroyers, though their co-ordination with the MGBs and MTBs using radar to vector them on to targets would have bee...

This incident is mentioned in Home Waters MTBs & MGBs by Len Reynolds who states that MTB 495 was hit in the engine room, but it is not clear by whom. A Coastal Forces member, Brian Hetherington, who attended S-boot flotilla reunions after the war, corresponded with the commanding officer of S 1...

MTB 447 started life as MGB 128 but was only completed one month prior to being changed to an MTB, so it would not have been built with torpedo tubes originally, and quite possibly may never have acquired them, since although the designation MGB was dropped for boats in Home Waters in 1943, not all ...

I haven't been able to find anything more about this particular attack. I presume this was an earlier passage of Komet through the Channel prior to the attempt on the 13th/14th October 1942, when it was torpedoed by MTB 236 under the command of Sub Lieutenant Robert Drayson.

If MTB 34 was involved, it was known to be part of the 4th MTB Flotilla which may have been operating out of Dover at the time. According to Home Waters MTBs & MGBs other boats in this flotilla were MTBs 22, 29, 30, 24, 25, 28, 31, 32, and later on MTB 69, 70, 71 and 72. The diary extract makes ...

That is a very good find as it happens as I haven't been able to find out much at all. I have come across the German war diaries before and they featured in the Mysterious battle at Maun Island thread on the forum. In that earlier one, there was no correspondence at all between what was being claime...

Thanks for the explanation and for the links which are very useful. I'll take a look at what has been recorded from the Royal Navy side with regards to this action and get back to you with whatever I can find.

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Hello Cam Can you please clarify what it is you are asking. Are you asking about an action on the night of 14 March, 1942 involving Royal Navy MTBs and MGBs, against a German coastal convoy? Also, is the Michael to which you refer SS Michael , a Latvian steamer seized by the Germans? Can you perhaps...

I'll do my best and see if I can find out anything. Were there any attempts made to go ashore or did it mainly appear to be reconnaissance? Sounds like it could have been an interesting honeymoon for the medical officer under different circumstances :-)

So how long after June 1944 would this have been can you recall? And was the boat that was mined part of your flotilla or entirely unrelated? I take it also that Lt Cmdr Wilkie would have been along for this trip. Might you have gone as far south as the Loire in your estimation, or did you stick fai...

Dog Boats At War by Len Reynolds states that MTB 738 and MTB 749 were part of the 64 MTB Flotilla under Lt Cdr D Wilkie RNVR, which comprised 724, 725 , 728 , 739 , 742 , 759 , 766 , 773 , 787 , 784 , 788 , 795 , and 5015 as well, and that the 64th was involved in minelaying for Operation Neptune, ...