Postby John110547 » Wed Jul 22, 2026 12:41 pm
Hi Anita
One of the problems is that the Royal Navy kept very few records after the war for minor war vessels serving abroad. However, please find below some information which may be helpful. You could try contacting the Naval Historical Branch at Portsmouth; they may have more information.
• ML 1297 was ordered on 24 April 1942 as a Motor Launch & commissioned on 10 April 1943
• ML 1297 on 11 April 1943 was at Brightlingsea.
• ML 1297 on 25 April 1943 was at the Clyde.
• ML 1297 on 9 May 1943 was at Ardrishaig.
• MLs 1297, 1246, 1253, 1254, 1301 on 23 May 1943 were at Milford Haven waiting for shipment to join the 140th ML Flotilla in the Mediterranean.
• MLs 1297, 1246, 1253, 1254 in June 1943 were shipment to join the 140th ML Flotilla in the Mediterranean.
• MLs 1297, 1246, 1253, 1270 (140th ML Flotilla) on 9 July 1943 took part in Operation Husky (Sicilian Campaign); other Light Coastal Forces vessels involved in Operation Husky came from the 3rd ML Flotilla, 31st ML Flotilla, 113th ML Flotilla, 139th ML Flotilla, 141st ML Flotilla, 142nd ML Flotilla, 7th MTB Flotilla, 10th MTB Flotilla, 20th MTB Flotilla, 24th MTB Flotilla, 32nd MTB Flotilla, 33rd MTB Flotilla, 19th MGB Flotilla & 20th MGB Flotilla. The primary mission of Light Coastal Forces was the protection of convoys to the various operational areas from ports in North Africa & Malta & once their primary mission was completed, their secondary mission was to deny the enemy access to the operational areas, anchorages & shipping. Note: On 21 December 1943 ML 1253 was gazetted for their actions during Operation Husky landings & TLt Fletcher was mentioned in Dispatches.
• MLs 1297, 1246, 1253, 1270 (140th ML Flotilla) on 9 September 1943 with boats from the 25th, 139th & 142nd ML Flotillas were part of Task Force 85 & Operation Avalanche, the landing of the British X Corps at Salerno. The British X Corps comprised the 46th Infantry Division, 56th (the Thames) Infantry Division & 7th Armoured Division. Other ships in Task Force 85 included the light cruisers: HMS DELHI, MAURITIUS, ORION, UGANDA, the monitor HMS ROBERTS, the amphibious force flagships HMS HILARY & USS BISCAYNE, eighteen destroyers (17-British & 1-Greek), seven minesweepers, four tugs, thirteen transports & LSI, ninety LSTs (45-British & 45-American), eighty-four LCTs (60-British & 24-American), ninety-six LCI(L)s (48-British & 48-American), 23 USN submarine chasers, twenty-seven minelayers & thirteen minesweeper trawlers. The primary mission of Light Coastal Forces was the protection of convoys to the various operational areas from ports in North Africa & once their primary mission was completed, their secondary mission was to deny the enemy access to the operational areas, anchorages & shipping.
• ML 1297 on 1 January 1944, was notified that a programme had commenced to reclassify all Motor Launch (ML) to Harbour Defence Motor Launch (HDML).
• HDMLs 1297, 1246, 1253, 1270 (140th ML Flotilla) on 13 December 1944 were in the Adriatic & operating out of Naples, Italy.
• MGB 660 was one of sixty Fairmile D-type boats that were ordered on 28 November 1941 & the order was split between fifteen boatbuilders. All these boats were built with torpedo scallops cut into the hull to be armed as either an MGB or MTB & the Fairmile boat component kits (keel, stem pieces, stern pieces, deadwoods, bulkheads, transoms & planking) were prepared at Fairmile Marine’s factory in Cobham, Surrey & shipped to the boatbuilder who assembled the kits using fixtures & fittings supplied by others under contract to the Navy. MGB 660 was built by Brook Marine, Oulton Broad & the boat's length was 115ft, its beam was 20ft 10ins, the draught was 4ft 6ins (fwd)/5ft (aft) & its displacement was 105 tons. It was powered by four Packard V12 4M-2500 1250bhp petrol engines, achieving a speed of 31 knots & was armed with one 40mm/39(1.575”) 2pdr Vickers Mk VIII Gun, one twin 20mm/70(0.79”) Oerlikon Mk II Cannon, one 20mm/70(0.79”) Oerlikon Mk II Cannon, two twin 0.5”/62(12.7mm) Vickers Mk III Machine Gun, two twin 0.303”/93(7.7mm) Vickers K Machine Gun, one Holman Projector & four type ‘D’ Mk XIII Depth Charges. MGB 660 was commissioned on 21 April 1943 & assigned to the 20th MGB Flotilla with a crew of three Officers & fifteen other ranks.
• MGBs 660, 659, 662 with MTBs 634, 638, 654, 670 on 1 January 1944 formed the new 57th MTB/MGB Flotilla based at Komiza, Croatia.
• MGBs 660, 657, 659, 662 on 27 March 1944 took part in Operation Gun with USN PTs 208, 212, 214, 218 & landing craft LCGs 14, 19, 20. The operation was against convoys of German Fährprahme (heavily armed seagoing barges used as escorts & transports) off the west coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Allies destroyed six German motorised barges off Vada Rocks, Corsica; F609 (MFP-C2 Landing Craft), F4706 (MZ-A Landing Craft), F4785, F4795, F4799 (MZ-B Landing Craft), plus one other (ID not known). Note, the following awards were Gazetted: MGB 657, PO Burton & Able Seaman Armit were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, LT Maitland was Mentioned in Dispatches; MGB 660, TAPO Dodd was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, PO Motor Mechanic Thoroughgood & Able Seaman Brown were Mentioned in Dispatches; MGB 662, PO Briddon was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Able Seamen Loryman & Richardson were Mentioned in Dispatches.
• MGBs 660, 657, 662 & MTBs 633, 640, 655 on 24 April 1944 were part of Operation Newt Battle Group departed Bastia at 18.00hrs with the USN 15th MTBRon (PTs 202, 209, 212, 213, 218) to rendezvous off Giglio Island with LCGs 14, 19, 20 (armed with two 4.7” guns & two 40mm guns manned by Royal marines) escorted PT 211 & 216 (15th MTBRon), which had departed Bastia earlier. At 21.25hrs, PTs 202, 212, 213 were detached to the Vada Rocks area & at 22.05hrs, they reported they were in position. At 22.07hrs, PT 218 reported a radar contact off Piombino Point, a southbound enemy convoy consisting of the Tug TERESSA & eight F-lighters (Fs 350, 358, 423, 461, 515, 610, 621, ?) sailing south from Leghorn to Porto San Stefano. A few minutes later, PT 218 reported a second contact, a northbound enemy convoy consisting of two trawlers, each a barge head from Portoferraio for Leghorn. At 23.00hrs, the Allied ‘Battle Group’ turned north to intercept the southbound enemy convoy before turning south at 23.20hrs to attack the convoy close inshore.
• MGBs 660, 657, 662 & MTBs 633, 640, 655 on 25 April 1944 at 00.05hrs with USN 15th MTBRon & LCGs 14, 19, 20 attacked the Tug TERESSA & eight F-lighter (Fs 350, 358, 423, 461, 515, 610, 621, ?). The LCGs opened fire with star shells & 4.7” shells; the star shells illuminated the enemy vessels, but their 4.7” shells missed the targets & landed on the nearby cliffs. In the ensuing battle, the tug TERESSA was repeatedly hit by shellfire & sank. Then one F-lighter exploded & sank, a second caught fire before it also exploded & sank, a third was hit by shellfire & sunk. The battle Group then turned away to intercept the northbound convoy (two trawlers towing barges). At the same time, MGBs 657, 660, 662 closed on the beach area in search of any of the other F-lighters & discovered one F-lighter undamaged & abandoned on the beach, which they destroyed with shellfire before they rescued twelve survivors from the water, including Dutchmen from the Tug crew. The MGBs were then ordered to return to Bastia with their twelve prisoners. The rest of the Battle Group attacked the northbound convoy, sinking all four vessels. A third contact was sighted Vp 7013, which the MTBs attacked with torpedoes & gunfire before it sank. The Battle Group then headed back to Bastia with PT 211 & 216 escorting the LCGs. En route, PTs 202, 212, 213 came across three German torpedo boats from the 10th T-Flotilla (TAs 23, 26 & 29), which they unsuccessfully attacked with torpedoes before making their escape as the German torpedo boats fired their torpedoes at the three PTBs; one of the torpedoes fired by TA 29 hit & sank TA 23.
• MGBs 660, 659, 662, 674 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla) in May 1944 had their 40mm/39(1.575") 2pdr Vickers Mk VIII Gun replaced with 57mm/31(2.25") 6pdr/8cwt Hotchkiss Mk VI QF Gun.
• MGBs 660, 662 & MTBs 634 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla) on 30 July 1944 at 01.55hrs close to Vir Island when the two-masted schooner TRITONE with a cargo of flour & fodder was sighted. At 02.11hrs, all three boats closed on the TRITONE & MGB 660 opened fire with all guns but failed to destroy the TRITONE. MTB 634 fired a torpedo at the drifting schooner, which then sank. MTB 634 rescued two German Marines from a dinghy that had survived the action before returning to Vis.
• MGBs 660, 662 & MTB 634 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla), MTBs 633, 655 & MGBs 657, 658, 663 (56th MTB/MGB Flotilla), MTBs 637, 649 & MGB 642 (61st MTB/MGB Flotilla) on 3 September 1944 at 02.45hrs, departed Brindisi on a long-range patrol to the Ionian Islands around the Gulf of Patras. The mission was to intercept enemy vessels evacuating German forces from Greece & the Aegean Islands. The MTBS & MGBs arrived at 18.00hrs & by midnight, had carried out a reverse sweep westward off Cape Oxia without seeing any shipping.
• MGBs 660, 662 & MTB 634 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla), MTBs 633, 655 & MGBs 657, 658, 663 (56th MTB/MGB Flotilla), MTBs 637, 649 & MGB 642 (61st MTB/MGB Flotilla) on 4 September 1944 at 00.40hrs, sighted northwest of their position two schooners in full sail & as they closed on the schooners, two Flak Lighter pasted in the opposite direction, which they attacked over the next fifty minutes the MTBs & MGBs sunk two schooners, one Flack Lighters, one Italian MS boat, one PilB landing craft, one caique & damaged one Italian MS boat; the number of enemy killed is unknown. During the attack, MTB 637 was hit by shellfire, which started a fire which was quickly put out & MGB 662 had one crew member wounded in the leg. At 01.33hrs, the MTBs & MGBs reformed & picked the survivors & watched the main channel for enemy shipping. By 05.00hrs, with no further enemy shipping sighted, the MTBs & MGBs made contact with the destroyer HMS QUANTOCK, which was also patrolling these waters & transferred their eighteen captured German & Greek prisoners before making the return voyage back to Brindisi.
• MGBs 660, 662 & MTB 634 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla), MTBs 633, 655 & MGBs 657, 658, 663 (56th MTB/MGB Flotilla), MTBs 637, 649 & MGB 642 (61st MTB/MGB Flotilla) on 5 September 1944 at 01.30hrs, arrived back at Brindisi. The patrol took forty-seven hours to complete & covered a distance of 535 miles; This patrol was to become the longest single Coastal Forces patrol of the war in the Mediterranean.
• MGBs 660, 659, 662, 674 & MTBs 634, 638, 670 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla) on 1 October 1944 at Komiza, Croatia
• MGBs 660 & 659 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla) on 9 October 1944 were off the island of Agathonísi, sighting four merchant ships in a convoy. The MTBs sailed down the line of ships with all guns firing & sinking one small merchant ship. Note, the following award was Gazetted for their service during the action: MTB 660, PO Motor Mechanic Thoroughgood & Able Seaman Brown were Mentioned in Dispatches.
• MGBs 659, 660, 662, 674 & MTBs 634, 638, 670 (57th MTB/MGB Flotilla) on 13 December 1944 were operating in the Adriatic out of Brindisi
• ML 1273 was ordered on 24 April 1942 as a Motor Launch & commissioned on 6 March 1943
• HDMLs 1273, 1046, 1222, 1223, 1229, 1247, 1257, 1258, 1302, 1372 (142nd ML Flotilla) on 13 December 1944 were in the Adriatic & operating out of Taranto, Italy.
• HDMLs 1273, 1247, 1258 (142nd ML Flotilla) on 15 August 1945 were with the reserve fleet at Gibraltar.
Sorry it's not a lot, but I hope it helps.
Best regards
John