Hello Welcome to the forum. I've not heard of such a boat myself in relation to Coastal Forces but an internet search makes mention of such a thing in use with the RAF Air Sea Rescue Service and the Air Sea Rescue and Marine Craft Section site contains photos of some of these, if they look familiar....
Star awarded for 1 or more days’ service in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands or Germany between the above dates. Naval personnel will qualify for service afloat in the North Sea and English Channel within certain specified boundaries.
Hi Ian In the case that I'm aware of regarding the France & Germany Star, the recipient's boat had been based at Ostend for a time, so the criteria may be a flotilla that was based on the continent for a time during the Allied advance into France and then later Belgium and Holland. The Coastal F...
Hello Ian As far as I'm aware your father wasn't awarded any specific honour, so he would likely have been eligible for those medals relating to service during the war in Europe which could include 1939-1945 Star, Defence Medal, 1939-45 Medal, and possibly the France & Germany Star, which some C...
Thank you for the photo of SGB 7 which is the best I've seen of any of the SGBs. It's particularly interesting to see the torpedo tubes as I wasn't aware these had been fitted to the SGBs. A very good find! and thanks again for posting.
Hello cornishman Welcome to the forum and thank you for your enquiry and photographs. the one of a damaged MGB 608 is particularly interesting, taken at Portland possibly? or else Newhaven which would have been HMS Attack or HMS Aggressive. I'm not sure what the first ship name in your list could be...
Hello Richard Thank you for your enquiry. Sadly there are no preserved Fairmile 'D' Dog Boats still in existence, and all of the houseboat conversions that were known about in the past seemed to have succumbed one by one to the ravages of time. I'll check through the standard works on Coastal Forces...
Hello Angus Thank you for your interesting photo. The radar dome visible in the background is that of an Allied boat, but I'm glad you have an actual visual identification for your father in that photo, since they are all wearing Kriegsmarine uniform it seems, which makes it a highly unusual photogr...
Hello Marcus Unless a member of the family has a copy of his service record then the only way of acquiring details of it would be to apply for a copy yourself from the Ministry of Defence, details of which are available in the Service Records thread. I would imagine your uncle would most likely have...
The actor Patrick Macnee has died at his home in California age 93. The star of film and television, his most memorable role was that of John Steed in the iconic television series The Avengers , which ran from 1961–1969 on British television. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy as a...
Hello Edward Welcome to the forum, glad to have you onboard. I don't have much information to give you unfortunately and suggest the best option would be to apply for a copy of your Grandfather's service details from the Ministry of Defence for which details are available in the Service Records thre...
Well that puts a spanner in the works - not listed Not listed in the data Brian has provided is not necessarily the same as no connection. The main sources of information for officer postings are the UK Navy Lists, and the awards notices, and he has no award granted him, at least not for Coastal Fo...
Hello again Dave Thank you for the scans of the service record. The Royal Navy designation for MTB 344 would have remained even when equipment was removed temporarily, and that is the way the boat is referred to in the literature, and is the description used by Freddy Bourne too. In all other instan...
The October 42 listing shows the man above as being on the Hugh Walpole, Norm has a -- where the posting and his seniority should be I'm pretty sure the dashes mean the details are as above: that is, postings appear to have been decided on an alphabetical basis and in the case of the October 1942 l...
This page has Australian Navy Lists containing names of Australian service personnel serving with Royal Navy ships or training at Royal Naval establishments. I have found his name a couple of times, once for Asbury as you mentioned, and in the April 1943 edition he is listed for MC 344, rather than ...
Hello Dave Welcome to the forum. I haven't been able to turn up much on your Uncle so far as there are no references to his name in the standard Coastal Forces history works of Reynolds or Scott. Collingwood was basic training, Cormorant was at Gibraltar and Nile was at Alexandria I believe, which m...
MGB 318 was one of twenty-four Fairmile C-Class Motor Gun Boats, numbers 312–335, which were involved in a number of famous operations, including clandestine work as part of the 15th MGB Flotilla operating out of Dartmouth to the coast of Brittany. The MTB 718 web site provides some useful informati...
London Branch have been informed of the death of Mr Darrell Stirling, who died on 23rd January, 2015 at Rotherlea Care Home, Petworth, Sussex. He was aged 94. During the Second World War, Lieutenant Darrell Stirling RNVR served with the 5th ML Flotilla at Dover, taking part in the D-Day operations a...
I really appreciate any help on where I should go to find more about his service before and after coastal forces? I believe he was a signalman on convoys not sure of the ship(s) - he signed up in '39 and I believe he commanded a minesweeper for some years after the war.. Details on how to apply for...
Hello Rod Welcome to the forum. As you may be aware your father was Mentioned in Dispatches for his service with MTB 499 as recorded in the London Gazette for the 11th December 1945. I'll have a look through the books I have later to see what entries there are concerning MGB 81 and MTB 499. There is...
London Branch have learned of the death of James Shadbolt, who died in the early hours of Wednesday 7th January, 2015. As a Temporary Sub-Lieutenant, he served with MTBs at the famous East Coast base HMS Beehive at Felixstowe, and was awarded a Mention in Dispatches for distinguished service during ...
Hello Arjan No I imagine it's just the sheer volume of images the IWM holds and the manpower needed to do it all. The photographs were all taken by a Royal Navy photographer which makes them Crown Copyright, which has now expired, but all the negatives have been passed to the IWM so they can release...
I note that the text description for the IWM photo A 27452 describes a Sub Lieut J P H James as being on the bridge. There is an award of the DSC to Temporary Sub-Lieutenant George Philip Henry JAMES RNVR, which according to Seedies List of Coastal Forces Awards , was for the sinking of fifteen enem...
Hello Ted There is quite a good book on the subject called The Blockade Busters by Ralph Barker: Chatto & Windus (1976). That mentions a vessel called Charente which was one of the Norwegian ships involved, whose Captains were J W Donald and K M Nordby. MV Hopewel l and MV Gay Viking were two of...
London Branch has been informed of the death of Donald Lefever who ‘crossed the bar’ on 26th November, 2014. He joined the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman before being selected for officer training. On completion of his training he sought a posting to Coastal Forces, attending HMS St Christopher at...
Having had the chance to look at this in more depth I think there are some clarifications to be made with regards to the account of these events given in Coastal Forces at War by Jefferson. I would just like to preface my comments with the following observation: Len Reynolds in compiling Home Waters...
Just to clarify, the poster darius on the Marine Archiv forum post linked to above quotes the passage from the Jefferson book twice. This text appears on page 133 of that volume, but is not repeated elsewhere in the book to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps the poster meant to quote one passage from...
Thanks for your enquiry regarding the sinking of the Birkenfels and the Santos . Unfortunately, I found the narrative in the thread a bit difficult to follow and wasn't sure why the same Jefferson quote from Coastal Forces at War was used twice in support of the two different vessels. What is clear ...
Also interested in any photographs of MTB 633 and to know of her fate after the war. Victoria (Butler) Scott MTB 633 was lost on passage between Malta-Alexandria on 30 January 1946. One of eleven earmarked for the Royal Egyptian Coast Guard, this boat was being towed to Alexandria by one of four de...