Hello Graham
I've managed to draw up the following which will hopefully prove useful:
Pembroke II was the accounting base for Chatham, which was his Port Division.
Orion: three different versions served as shore establishments, but none during the period in question or during the Second World War, so this will be the vessel you have managed to research.
Legion was brand new in December 1940 and seems to have had an eventful career in Home Waters being involved in the landings on the Lofoten Islands, and was in the Mediterranean before returning to the UK in July of 1941 when presumably he was either drafted to Coastal Forces or put in a request to join them?
Hecla was a depot ships for destroyers on the Clyde, but was allocated to Hvalfjord in June 1941.
Orlando was an accounts base at Greenock, so he presumably stayed on the Clyde when Hecla departed for Iceland.
Attack was the Coastal Forces base at Portland. If 152 refers to a boat, then there was an ML 152 that was operational at this time, but 503 was either a Camper & Nicholson MGB (1943), or a British Power Boat MTB (1945), both of which were much later than the period in question. There seem to be a couple of other numbers under Attack — 94? and 538? — neither of which make sense as boat numbers, given the dates.
Hornet was the principal Coastal Forces base at Gosport, and MTB 307, along with 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315 & 316 were all American-built Elco MTBs and part of the 15th Flotilla under Lt D Jermain, before merging with the 10th MTB Flotilla in September 1942 after losses to the 10th had depleted its numbers. This would account for his transfer at that point to HMS Harrow.
Operation Agreement, a disastrous raid involving combined land and sea forces on the port of Tobruk, had taken place on the 14th September 1942, during which 308, 310, 312, & 314 were lost. So he may have been with one of those boats, or if he was with 307 and remained with that boat—which survived the war—then he may have been displaced by another stoker(s) who was a survivor from one of the boats that was lost. There is an interview available on the IWM site with
William Henry Robinson who served on
Harrow and describes the ship.
Mosquito was the Coastal Forces base variously at Haifa, Beirut, Benghazi and Port Said, but was at Alexandria at the time in question.
Shoreham seems to have been active in the Gulf but is also given as an accounting base for all Gulf personnel between 1939–41, so he could conceivably have been on some other smaller vessel, but he was more than likely a stoker on the vessel itself.
Cyclops is given as Repair Ship to the 7th Submarine Flotilla at Rothesay for the period in question, the ship being Paid Off (retired from its role) in December 1945.