Coastal Forces Veterans

Hi Norm, As it happens, I'm hoping to visit The National Archives before the end of the year and look at just this sort of thing. There are a lot of reports for the D-Day period on Coastal Forces' actions and losses and I'm fairly confident that MGB 17 will be covered in them (although I must hasten...

Hi again, I don't have a huge amount to add over what Admin has already told you, but I may be able to help with Newcastle. HMS Shrapnel, as I understand it, was an umbrella name for various sites around the country, administered from the main station at South Western House in Southampton (next door...

Haven't fully digested this yet, but can't help but notice that he appears to have been promoted Acting Able Seaman (If I've read the handwriting correctly) 72 years ago today!

Hi Mark,
Not ideal I agree, but there may be some clues there. Do you mind posting images of the material they sent?
Regards,
Steve

Apologies for the delayed reply - I've been moving office and haven't been able to access my photos!

Having looked through them again, I'm afraid I just can't tell. I do notice though, that whilst the majority of documents date from May and June '45, the first list was compiled in January '45.

Steve

Within the collection of 21 citations in the Kew document above, there is only one for ML 207 (I don't know why the preview is on its side, but if you click on it it's the right way up): DSCF5327.JPG As you'll see it is for McCusker. The remaining ones are listed here: DSCF5313.JPG Please let me kno...

Sorry Mark, not much luck with that document ... DSCF5343.JPG It's a curious document, having a seemingly random collection of losses and damage to Coastal Forces craft and Landing Craft (but not ML 146). Some of it is no more than summaries like this, others have several pages of analysis. This par...

Yes, sorry, I forgot to say that's how the news came to me - that post literally just popped up on my feed a few hours ago because I follow them on Facebook.

Does anyone know any more about MASB 27's role on D-Day?

Steve

It appears that MASB 27 is now in the hands of D-Day Revisited. Nothing on their website ( http://d-dayrevisited.co.uk/ ), but a few posts on their Facebook page which is public, so no account needed ( https://www.facebook.com/DDayRevisitedOfficial/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED ). An older post form April states...

PS. MASB 27's new whereabouts are listed in the National Historic Ship's Register. This is the only place I've been able to find this information, but in the absence of any more up to date info, I've gone with it.

http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk ... 37/masb-27

Hi all, Glad you like the map. I've been starting to see the familiarity of names both here and on BMPT's forum, so I'll add mine to the list. I may as well share the link to the website now. The site is still under development, so please don't take the 'final' look as complete. Comments and critici...

No problem at all. It looks to be a part of a much larger document,but this bit is probably only a few pages long. If we're lucky there'll be a survivors list and perhaps an account from one of them. As you say this will, at least, enable you to eliminate the boat from your research! I'll post my fi...

Hehe, indeed. Only occurred to me yesterday, which is stupid given how often I go there to research ships! I probably won't make it in October, but I'll certainly be going in November so I can have a look and make copies for you if you like. Quite often these sorts of reports contain casualty and su...

Well, after I posted I also found this in The National Archives catalogue. I'll have a look at it next time I'm there.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.u ... r/C6422885
Steve

Hi Mark, Just a random thought I had a few weeks ago when I was on holiday. It's perfectly possible that the ML your father was serving on did do some impromptu spotting for HMS Roberts (or another vessel carrying out a bombardment), perhaps if his own ML came under fire for the shore. In Motor Gunb...

Although I can't add anything to the personal stories here, I thought it worth mentioning that if you don't know of it already, A Passage to Sword Beach by Brendon Maher offers an account of minesweeping on ML137 in the 5th ML Flotilla at D-Day, then at Cherbourg, Brest and off the Netherlands up un...

Hi LWB and Rolf, As I understand it the 1st MTB flotilla was based out of Plymouth Command on D-Day and carried out patrol duties on the west flank. According to Invasion Europe (HMSO) they were transferred to Portsmouth Command on the 9th June. I don't believe they were part of the leading flotilla...

Please understand I'm not disputing that MLs were involved on 1st November. That's well documented and Geoffrey Searle's account makes graphic reading. I just don't think that 916 was there on that day or was likely to have been spotting for Roberts. On balance I think that 146 sounds like it may we...

Hi Michael, No problem at all. Looking through Allied Coastal Forces at War, Volume 1 , apparently MTB 687 was completed in Appledore on 31 July 1943. This is the closest vessel I can find that might have sailed out of Appledore or Newlyn on the 21st August. This was a Fairmile D and probably wouldn...

Hello again Mark, Now I'm back in the office, I have access to Big Gun Monitors by Ian Buxton. There is a fair amount of information about the bombardment of Walcheren; Roberts was involved on the 1st November (bombarding Westkapelle) and the 2nd (bombarding W11, west of Flushing), but departed at t...

Hi Michael, I can't offer much I'm afraid, except to say that if your father was laying mines in advance of D-Day, he may have been involved in Operation Monastic . As I understand it, this involved the 13th, 14th and 64th Flotillas. Both the 13th and 14th operated Vosper MTBs and laid ground mines,...

Hi Mark, Allied Coastal Forces of World War II confirms that ML 916 was mined off the Dutch coast on the 8th November. As you also know it was only completed on 16th September. In Battle for Antwerp , J Moulton (who commanded 48 Commando at Walchern), has some details. He states that ML 916 was part...

In case anyone was going especially, I've heard that MTB 102 won't be attending.

I see what you mean - very good point. I suppose you could argue that the fact he refers to "old Turner" but everyone else is referred to by christian name might imply there were two Turners, but equally there's theoretically two different authors to these letters and no real proof of anyt...

Can't tell you what boat it is, but in the background to this picture the second vessel is seemingly equipped with the US radar mast and armed with a twin Oerlikon. Hard to be sure though. There may be a second twin Oerlikon at the extreme right too. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205...

There does seem to be quite a discrepancy between dates here. It seems unlikely that boats that were not completed until between 10th November 1942 (earliest boat, MTB 276) and 3rd July 1943 (last boat, MTB 294) could have been in India at all in 1942. The two boats that were lost en route - MTBs 28...

No problem. Allied Coastal forces of World War II, Volume 2 provides a complete list of each MTB, its builder, construction, launch and completion dates, service and date of return to the US (in most instances).
Regards, Steve

PS. It's worth noting that little of this tallies with the information in Allied Coastal Forces of World War II, Volume II , which puts the launch date of MTBs 275-282 as the summer of 1942 and their completion and transfer to the RIN as November/December 42. Later numbers weren't completed until be...

No problem. To give you the exact details from the appendix, the pine that was "...used in places [was] some inadequately seasoned Canadian pitch pine". Apparently the 11 boats of the 16th Flotilla were part of the 275-306 set of US build Vospers,* delivered as deck cargo on liberty ships ...

I think I may have solved this. In Untold Stories of Small Boats at War is a copy of the letter sent by one of the two survivors of the mining of MGB 2002 (the incident in which Mike Marshall lost his life) to a colleague on MGB 2003 (formerly 503). The author of the letter, Thomas Sheehan, names hi...