Coastal Forces Veterans

I am the Heritage manager for St Mary's Church, Atherstone, Warwickshire. I am trying to mount an exhibition about this MTB. On 28th March 1942 the town of Atherstone "adopted" MTB 83 following the 1942 Warship Week. I have located and secured the memorial plaque presented to the town by the "Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty" to mark the adoption.

Does anyone have any information, photo's etc about the boat, crew and its fate following the war?

I have already established, via the CFV website, that there were no casualties during her service and some details of her exploits. Does anyone know any more?

many thanks,

Dave Stone

Hi David,

Very brief reply as I'm on my way out. You might find this tweet thread of interest, as only a few weeks ago someone brought MTB 85 to my attention, adopted at the same time. When I have a bit more time, I'll see what I can find in my books on MTB 83's service.

https://twitter.com/SeaSpitfires/status ... 1826343942

Regards,
Steve

Dear all,

Does anyone know where the logs for MTB’s are kept? When I searched the National Archives collection I could not find anything or am I not using the right search term(s)?

Thanks,

Dave Stone

Hi David,

I'm afraid that if her log isn't at Kew, then it probably doesn't survive. Large numbers of Coastal Forces logs, and even those of much larger ships, were simply disposed of. I saw a frightening statistic the other day that when the War Office were organising their records for deposition, only something like 2% was saved. There is a record for awards to the crew for an action in 1944 though: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.u ... r/C4850866

MTB 83 seems to have spent her career in the 22nd MTB Flotilla, which for some time shadowed the 21st MTB Flotilla on the east coast. 83's principal actions get some mention in Leonard Reynolds' Home Waters MTBs and MGBs at War, but there's more detail of two of the actions she was involved in in Peter Dickens' excellent book Night Action. Dickens commanded the 21st MTB Flotilla and in one of the described actions (both of which consist of a dozen pages or so) he was actually embarked on 83.

Regards,
Steve