Coastal Forces Veterans

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...

That was a destroyer that was apparently sunk at Malta during an air raid, which would have left him without a ship at that point. Presumably he returned to Home Waters at some stage to receive training in radar before being posted to 751. What does his service record show between March '42 and Nove...

from what you have said (and on checking) the MTB's on fire was in fact in 1945 ... and because my father had written "Malta 1942" .. this cannot be the incident you refer to Just to clarfy, the photo labeled Malta 1942 would have nothing to do with 751 & 756 as quite apart from the f...

Ras El-Tin was the site of the Coastal Forces base HMS Mosquito at Alexandria. MTBs 315 and 266 were American-built Elco boats which formed part of the 10th MTB Flotilla. Their Commanding Officers in 1943 were both New Zealanders, Lt L Newall and Lt N Broad. MTB 266 later sank in Alexandria Harbour ...

Thanks for the interesting photos. With Malta it would simply be the fact of air raids which were very heavy and effectively placed the island under siege. The population of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its resilience.

I haven't found much in the primary source, Dog Boats at War by Len Reynolds, except he notes the fate of sister boat MTB 734 in June 1944: The 50th Flotilla, who spent many nights on convoy defence, had a bitter experience on 25/26 June when patrolling off the Dutch coast. 734 was attacked by Briti...

Hello Rvictor, and welcome to the forum. MTBs 751 & 756 were Fairmile D-Class boats, commonly known as 'Dog Boats', which when first introduced, were configured in Motor Gunboat and Motor Torpedo Boat variants. The very first ones, including MGBs 603, 604, 605, 606, 609, 610 and 612, formed the ...

At this time of the year we recall the tragic events that befell Coastal Forces at Ostend in 1945 with a commemoration on the home page of the web site.

It’s quite heartening to see so many ‘new’ entries posted on the PRO site for records of award recommendations, as having carried out frequent searches in the past when there was very little to be seen, I had assumed, somewhat pessimistically, that what was listed was all there was. However it appea...

I also believe the cards don't always record the boat involved in the award, but can be the one the recipient was on at the time the index card was made out, presumably for the purpose of communicating the award. However the earlier awards to Lieutenant Michael Hicks-Beach, and Sub-Lieutenant John ...

You can view the awards to Coastal Forces using our database, which contain a link to the relevant start page for the group of awards in question in the London Gazette. Most online genealogy sources are probably deriving their information on awards from those lists compiled by Seedie from the offici...

Stokers: Scouse From Liverpool. Don't know his real name. My father was his replacement. He left the ship the morning after dad arrived. I found a former CFVA member named Colin Hubbard in the records, who was a Stoker onboard ML 207 when it was fitted with torpedo tubes, and who hailed from Southp...

Another great photo of the crew above from Gail, and one more from the archive! Another member of crew in later life, together with the story of their reunion as related by Bill Rodger in the Summer 1988 edition of the CFVA newsletter. bill-rodger-mgb-658-bill-last-mtb-636.jpg SHIPMATES MEET IN OXFO...

Amazingly - this has motivated dad to reveal a photo diary of his time in the RN! It has pages of carefully catalogued photos - examples of which I have tried to attach but not having much luck. He relates snippets which I try to write down (as above) but I hope I may just be able to sit and chat a...

Your father's memoir appears quite complete and will be a welcome addition to the history of Coastal Forces once complete! I'm not sure now whether I read or heard the account you refer to, though I'm certain it was a little German girl, and took place in Germany, presumably at Cuxhaven maybe, but w...

The following report of the reunion held in London in May 1986, which accompanied the photograph shown above, was written by Len Reynolds THE 56th MTB/MGB FLOTILLA REUNION The Background Five flotillas of Dog-Boats went to the Med in 1943 and 1944 — a total of forty boats. By the end of the war, fou...

As far as I'm aware they don't seem to have been preserved unless they were kept by individual officers, in which case the odd one may be still in the hands of family members somewhere, or donated to some local museum. In the case of MGB 658 for instance, Len Reynolds , who was the last officer of t...