MTB 751 Colour Footage

Motor Torpedo Boats (MTB)
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MTB 751 Colour Footage

Postby Admin » Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:21 am

This rare silent colour footage, now part of the East Anglia University archive, was taken by an American airman stationed at the wartime USAAF airbase at Raydon, near Ipswich. The footage shows Mustangs fitted with long range fuel tanks taking off from the airfield, possibly as part of a bomber escort. Towards the second part of the film the scene changes to what is likely Great Yarmouth, where the airmen have gone, either of their own volition or in response to an invitation by RAF Air Sea Rescue units based there. The film briefly shows MTB 751, a ‘Dog Boat’ of the 63rd MTB Flotilla known to have been based at HMS Midge, Great Yarmouth, departing harbour, with some of the crew lined up on deck. The footage continues on to show some of the Air Sea Rescue launches at sea, including several passes by HSL 180, a British Power Boat Company craft, with the distinctive whaleback design of the early Coastal Forces Motor Anti-Submarine Boats, some of which were later converted to MGBs, or in some cases transferred to the RAF for Air Sea Rescue work. The footage gives a real sense of what these craft looked like at sea when at speed, and provides an insight into how small they were to be tackling the North Sea in, and taking on E-Boats at night.

Raydon Airfield 1944 Raydon, Suffolk: East Anglia University Catalogue 933

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