MGB 661

Motor Gunboats (MGB) & Steam Gunboats (SGB)
Katy Dunn
Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:43 am

MGB 661

Postby Katy Dunn » Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:03 am

Good morning

I am reaching out to see if I can make contact with any men or relatives/friends of those who served on MGB 661 from November 1942 to March 1946. My grandad who turns 95 this year would love to hear from some of his ex comrades or their relatives/friends. Likewise he would appreciate any recommendations of literature mentioning his boat.

Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

Katy Dunn
07876 068391

David Carter
Sub Lieutenant
Posts: 93
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:06 pm

Re: MGB 661

Postby David Carter » Sat Sep 07, 2019 10:51 am

Dear Katy
Thank you for your enquiry. I am the Secretary of the London Branch of the Coastal Forces Veterans Association. I do not know whether any of our members know your grandfather or MGB 661, but I can ask at our next meeting in October. As we are the only Branch still meeting, we would love to contact your grandfather, if he can get to London he would be most welcome to join us on HMS Belfast. Otherwise, we keep in touch with members (all over the country) by e-mail, newsletter etc. If you could contact me on cdcarter263@hotmail.com we could arrange something.
Kind regards

David Carter

Peter
Able Seaman Radar
Posts: 130
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:41 pm

Re: MGB 661

Postby Peter » Sat Sep 07, 2019 11:50 am

Good Morning Katy
It is a pleasure to reply to your post re the adventures of your Granddad. I would think that my memories will be of those that he has . I served aboard MGB 647 during the (Yugoslavia) Island campaign of 1943/45and their must have been times when our boats operated together. An action that I am sure he will recall when our 2 boats captured the Schooner Libecchio and escorted the capture into Komiza
in April 1944 .
I attaché some photo's that I am sure will be of interest to him
For me 2nd row 3rd in from left
Cheers and Thanks Peter
Attachments
647 crew Manfredonia.jpg
647 crew Manfredonia.jpg (256.9 KiB) Viewed 43839 times
MGB 647 -2.jpg

Peter
Able Seaman Radar
Posts: 130
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:41 pm

Re: MGB 661

Postby Peter » Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:42 pm

Hi All Sorry a re write on my photo attached , I am 3rd from the right
2nd row , I am still trying to remember the name of the other shipmate
Cheers
Peter

Manxkipper
Seaman
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2020 1:57 pm

Re: MGB 661

Postby Manxkipper » Wed Apr 15, 2020 2:02 pm

Hi Katy, my father-in-law passed away three years ago and only yesterday I was looking at some old photos and documents which show he was a member of the crew of MGB661. His name was Phillip (Phil) Kennaugh (pronounced ken-yuck) from the Isle of Man.

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

Re: MGB 661

Postby Admin » Thu Apr 16, 2020 5:37 pm

Hello Manxkipper

Thank you for joining the forum. Hopefully the earlier poster Katy will be alerted to your post and reply. Could I ask you to get in touch with the web site as well please at the info@cfv.org.uk address with a view to possibly obtaining copies of the resources your family holds on MGB 661, if you are willing.

Regards
Admin

RogerFentem
Leading Seaman
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:15 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby RogerFentem » Wed Apr 29, 2020 9:17 am

Katy, I am researching the Fairmile boats ny grandfather built in WW2. One was MGB 659 which sailed with MGB 661 and MGB 662 on 4th June 1943 for the Mediterranean. I believe that the boats often worked together but not necessarily in the same flotilla. Is it too much to ask if you have anything which includes mgb659 that you could let me have sight of?
Many thanks, Roger

Katy Dunn
Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:43 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby Katy Dunn » Sun May 10, 2020 9:06 pm

Hello all!

Thank you for the replies! It has been some time since I checked this forum as I lost the link to it!

Peter I will ask grandad about the 647. I think I remember him mentioning something to me about it.

Roger I don't know if he has anything about the 659 but I will ask him. Have you come across anything about the 661?

Thanks

Katy

RogerFentem
Leading Seaman
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:15 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby RogerFentem » Mon May 11, 2020 10:31 am

Katy
I have found references to 661 besides her setting sail for the Malta. Len Reynold's book Dog Boats at War has several. If you can't get a copy I will let you have the details. She was under quite colourful leadership and in common with the Dogs in the Mediterranean changed flotilla and command. I have looked in a number of other publications with little success as yet but will let you know if I come across anything else.
Roger

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

Re: MGB 661

Postby Admin » Mon May 11, 2020 11:06 am

This the photo archive Manxkipper kindly forwarded containing crew photos for MGB 661 and also some photographs presumably from a German PoW, or which may have been left behind in one of the occupied ports Coastal Forces helped to liberate.

Phillip Kennaugh Photo Archive

RogerFentem
Leading Seaman
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:15 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby RogerFentem » Mon May 11, 2020 11:36 am

Katy
... there are several nentions of 661 on MGB 647 in the MGB Forum, many of these are those I recognise from Reyold's book.
On the photo's ... the one with K K E ( kappa kappa epsilon I think iit is) written behind the guys suggests somewhere in Greece?
Roger
PS thanks for the photos.

Katy Dunn
Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:43 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby Katy Dunn » Mon May 11, 2020 12:03 pm

This is smashing. I recognise a couple of these photos!

I think my grandad is in one of them but I need to check with him.

The ones with Matt in the title might well be my uncle Matthew Pennington as grandad was telling me last night that philip 'Ken' Kennaugh was his best mate and they stayed in touch until Matt died some years ago...
This the photo archive Manxkipper kindly forwarded containing crew photos for MGB 661 and also some photographs presumably from a German PoW, or which may have been left behind in one of the occupied ports Coastal Forces helped to liberate.

Phillip Kennaugh Photo Archive

Katy Dunn
Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:43 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby Katy Dunn » Mon May 11, 2020 1:45 pm

I have just realised that I have not mentioned my Grandad's name. He is called Kevin Haigh.

Katy Dunn
Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:43 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby Katy Dunn » Mon May 11, 2020 1:52 pm

This the photo archive Manxkipper kindly forwarded containing crew photos for MGB 661 and also some photographs presumably from a German PoW, or which may have been left behind in one of the occupied ports Coastal Forces helped to liberate.

Phillip Kennaugh Photo Archive
Crewmembers2.jpeg - grandad is the one in the middle with the big smile on his face, could be laughing, holding something up
crew-photo-jan-18th-1944-1.jpg - grandad is second from the left top row with white cap on I think
matt-1.jpg - is uncle Matthew 'Matt' Pennington.

Katy Dunn
Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:43 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby Katy Dunn » Mon May 11, 2020 2:17 pm

I'm going to see if I can get hold of grandad's albums to share the photo's do you want them sending to you for the archive David? Or do I post them on here? Thanks, Katy

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

Re: MGB 661

Postby Admin » Mon May 11, 2020 2:46 pm

Hello Katy

Could you send any images you have to us here as well please using our info@cfv.org.uk address. If you have a scanner, could you also scan them at 600dpi, and in colour, even though they will be in black & white, and then saved as TIFF rather than JPEG, which is a better format for archival purposes. This way they can potentially be cleaned up and enhanced to help bring out detail if needs be.

Thanks
Admin

Chrisnye
Seaman
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2020 9:57 pm

Re: MGB 661

Postby Chrisnye » Sun Dec 27, 2020 10:04 pm

Hi Everyone
I was going through my mother-in-laws photos and found this, the death notice of her uncle Bruce Peters. He died on 19th May 1944 on HMMGB 661, so far as I can make out, aged just 17.
It looks like somewhere near the current Serbia, which seems rather a long way to inland. Any ideas on how and why it happened?
Thanks, Chris.
Attachments
8BDB4713-CF78-4AA6-A7E0-BD98342C5249.jpeg

Pioneer
Moderator
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Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:48 pm

Re: MGB 661

Postby Pioneer » Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:48 am

Hello Chrisnye, welcome to the Forum.
There is mention of an action during 18/19 May 1944, in Leonard Reynolds excellent work - ‘Dog Boats at War’, in which MGB 661 was involved.
Although not mentioning your relative AB Bruce Peters by name, it does describe this action in some detail without the indicating of any serious casualties.
However, AB Bruce Peters is listed within our database (simply type in the surname) https://cfv.org.uk/research/personnel/casualty/database and also duly recorded on the Home Page, every anniversary, via the Remembrance Book https://cfv.org.uk/veterans/remembrance/book

Several RN casualties of the Adriatic war were were re-interred in Belgrade after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.

Ashley.j.smith
Seaman
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2022 9:29 am

Re: MGB 661

Postby Ashley.j.smith » Sun Aug 28, 2022 9:52 am

Thank you to the people who started this forum, and to admins particularly for recommending Dog Boats at War.

My grandfather Ron Smith passed away at the age of 98 only a week ago. I have known he had a DSC for his naval service for only a few years now, he never spoke about the war, but after his passing we found many short stories he'd written about his service, some mentioned MGB661. After finding this forum I bought Dog Boats at War and have discovered that the event that earned him his DSC is written up in there, and he is mentioned by name. I don't have words for how much this information will mean to his family. Thank you.


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