Coastal Forces Veterans

Hello Croation Navy Thank you for your informative post, and for giving us the benefit of your research into the action around the island of Vir involving MTB 638 and others. You may already be aware of the official Royal Navy report for this action, but this London Gazette supplement: Coastal Force...

Hello again jonco Thanks for the update, and sorry you haven't been able to learn a whole lot more. I wonder if you need to know the names of ships, boats, bases in advance to specifically ask for records relating to them, to be sure of getting all available information, or else the information simp...

This wonderful short film from the IWM is a dramatisation made at close of war in 1945, but featuring actual personnel of Light Coastal Forces — and a great set of characters they are too! The story-line illustrates the typical workload of Coastal Forces in the North Sea, from long, cold, uneventful...

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) has recently redesigned its web site, to which it has added a beta Film and Video Archive Sales section. Among the films available to view online is this 30 minute gem on the Fairmile design and construction process. The following descriptive text is taken from the IWM ...

Given the name Louisastraat is the correct location then the best bet may be old postcards if there are any sites on that subject. Looking at Ostend in Google Maps and using streetview (drag the little orange figure at left on to the street) Louisastraat is a quite a long street running part of the ...

Yes he would have come under HMS Wasp for pay and record keeping etc, whilst attached to MASB 33. In a lot of cases Coastal Forces personnel lived on their boats full-time, even where there was a base ship, or shore base available, as they usually just contained the base admin staff and the wardroom...

Hello Kris

HMS Attack and HMS Wasp were Coastal Forces shore establishments, HMS Wasp being a quite famous one located in the Lord Warden Hotel at Dover, which still exists within the port of Dover and carries a plaque from the Coastal Forces Heritage Trust to mark its wartime role.

Regards
Admin

Hello Sparks Others may have more information to give you, but the following crew members are recorded as having received awards while members of ML 120 and ML 150: ML 120 Jack Swan (Tel) C/J 101252 Laurence Lightwood (Tel) C/WRX 125 Edward Kerfoot Jones (TLt) ML 150 Herbert Caffrey (MtrMech) C/MX 7...

Hello Jaime Thank you for your interesting contribution to the forum offering an insight into the work of the Coastal Forces base personnel, which is a subject seldom covered. Just out of interest, in case you were not aware, Ken Forrester, who was present at the Ostend disaster, writes about it in ...

The anniversary of the Bari Raid will soon be upon us. The port of Bari in Italy, situated on the Adriatic coast, was the scene of a relatively unknown but devastating incident during the Second World War, which involved Coastal Forces units stationed there. An operation aimed at supplying the Briti...

Just to add another small bit of information, J. S. Guard in his book Improvise and Dare: War in the Aegean briefly mentions ML 579 as having been off of the Island of Arki (Arkoi) when she was attacked and sunk.

It seems likely that HMS St Angelo would have been the pay and administration 'ship' for those serving with Coastal Forces at Malta, so the fact he is still recorded as being St Angelo would suggest he stayed within that administrative area (Malta), possibly serving on one or more Coastal Forces cra...

Is that possibly Trained Operator (Wireless Telegraphist)? the non-substantive part referring I believe to having the training and the pay, but not the advancement—in terms of rank—that the training might ordinarily entitle you to. This enabled men to seek advancement in their particular trade witho...

Hello Julie

Thank you for your kind words regarding the new look web site. As you can see, we have been busy creating a new format for existing material from the former site, whilst also adding new content, and we hope to add more articles and features in the coming months.

Regards

Admin

We have carried out some additions and amendments to the forum. We have added a new forum Fast Patrol Boats under the Coastal Forces Craft section. This is intended to cover the period of post-war development in general up to the demise of Coastal Forces as a formal branch of the Royal Navy in 1957....

Having been online for over two years now, it was felt the existing forum topics were not serving the forum and its posts as well as they might, and that the time had come for a comprehensive overhaul of the board, to improve its usability, and help provide a better experience for readers. The major...

The following is offered by way of help & advice when posting to the forum: Subjects for Posts When entering a title for your post in the subject title box, please try to keep the title brief yet descriptive, avoiding vague or ambiguous subject titles e.g. use a specific title like MBG 658 at Ko...

Hello skiphaddon Welcome to the forum. I have a small amount of information on ML 269, though Mr Brian Holmes who holds a very good collection of information on most Coastal Forces boats may be able to supply you with more information once he sees your post. Briefly then: ML 269 was a Fairmile B Mot...

Hello John Just for your information, you need to keep the %20 in the url—though browsers will put it back in anyway—as you are not allowed spaces in web file names, whether html or image files. Sea Hawk either needs to be written as seahawk or better still sea-hawk as Google and other search engine...

Hello John Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting details of your website which are very interesting. My father served aboard ML296 in Freetown, where they also experienced boat explosions. Are the two photos at the bottom of the Photo Page 1 on the Mosquito page, the engine room and radio r...

I wonder how much these boats were bought for at the end of the war? Hello Pat I came across this insightful piece from a Canadian newspaper, regarding the sell off of Fairmile Bs which casts a bit of light on the haste with which resources were disposed of after the war. Demands Inquiry In Fairmil...

Hi Pat My father was also at Mayina during August to October 1945 and again between December 1945 and February 1946. Mayina was actually a joint forces transit camp at Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). I believe he was there as part of a large build up of Allied Forces for the planned invasion of Jap...