Wasp, Repellent, Victory, CT40

Enquiries relating to individual men and women who served with HM Light Coastal Forces; help with interpreting service records, or with tracing former comrades
krisg
Seaman
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:04 am

Wasp, Repellent, Victory, CT40

Postby krisg » Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:57 pm

I'm looking to find information on the vessels my Grandfather served on in WW2. He was a Stoker First Class called Arthur William Finch.

From his record I have the following:

The Duke (27 May 1943) - I believe this is a shore base in Malvern. Training.

The Attack (26 June 1943) - I believe this too is a shore base in Portland. Training.

The Wasp (MASB33) (August 1943) - I have found of photo of this online.

The Repellent (20 October 1943) - I can't find any info.

The Victory (24 January 1945) - I can't find any info.

St. Anglo (GREGALE) - CT40 - I believe this is the Coastal Forces base in Malta where he was using CT40 (a control target boat). CT40 was originally USS PT-203 and HM MGB-189. I have several photos of CT40.

I'm more than happy to share the photos if anyone is interested.

I'm looking for any information I can find about the boats he served on. Would Repellent and Victory have other names? If you can help it would be much appreciated.

All my best wishes and thanks,

Kris

Admin
Site Admin
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Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:40 pm

Re: Wasp, Repellent, Victory, CT40

Postby Admin » Sun Dec 18, 2011 1:35 pm

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

krisg
Seaman
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:04 am

Re: Wasp, Repellent, Victory, CT40

Postby krisg » Sun Dec 18, 2011 8:01 pm

Thanks for your message. I thought HMS Wasp was a nickname for MASB-33. Clearly I was wrong. From his service record do you think this indicates he using MASB-33 whilst at HMS Wasp?

Kris

Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 501
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:40 pm

Re: Wasp, Repellent, Victory, CT40

Postby Admin » Sun Dec 18, 2011 10:59 pm

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 for the officers. However, the Lord Warden Hotel being such a substantial building, it's possible crews may have been billeted there too. Service records for Coastal Forces personnel usually record what is in fact a shore base — HMS Wasp, HMS Hornet, HMS Beehive etc — along with a boat number at times, but oftentimes just the shore base alone.

We have maps of the Coastal Forces bases on our main web site.

krisg
Seaman
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:04 am

Re: Wasp, Repellent, Victory, CT40

Postby krisg » Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:57 pm

Thanks again for this extra info.
My Nan is coming to stay for Christmas and is bringing all of his service records and books along so I'll able to get more info in more detail. I'll be sure to post new findings.
Luckily the IWP has a copy of MASB33 (the one he served on) in their archive. I purchased a hi-res copy of it yesterday - can't wait to see it in full glory.
All the best,
Kris

AnnaMcK
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Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 4:11 pm

Re: Wasp, Repellent, Victory, CT40

Postby AnnaMcK » Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:43 pm

Repellent was a minesweeper - this was confirmed by two Veterans (independently) on 7th November 2014 at the Ushakov Ceremony in Glasgow. My Dad served on it too.

www.racmp.co.uk


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