Postby Brian Holmes » Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:59 pm
MTB_243 Vosper, Portsmouth and Porchester 18/11/42
For good service during the air attack on Bari 2/12/43
MBE TSLt John Ernest Harley Collins RNVR
BEM Ord Peter Thomas Frank Bickmore P/JX389145
Known Crew
Lt C W S Dreyer MTB 243 and Senior Officer 24th MTB Flotilla 11/1/43
TLt Hubert Charles Houssemayne DuBoulay RNVR HMS Midge 17/10/41 First Lieutenant MTB 71 10/07/42 First Lieutenant and Commanding Officer MTB 243 10/7/42 Commanding Officer MTB 407 31/10/44 DSC 1945 Born 1920 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
TSLt John Ernest Harley Collins RNVR MTB 243 6/9/43 Commanding Officer MTB 406
Charles Dennis Scutt Coxswain 1943
Ord Peter Thomas Frank Bickmore P/JX389145
Wartime Activities
24th MTB Flotilla Based at Malta
Mediterranean
Operation Husky - Invasion of Sicily
Based at Augusta
16-7/8/43 MTB 81, MTB242 and MTB 243 are stopped a half mile off Messina when two German R Boats appear. MTB 81, MTB242 and MTB 243 engage with gunfire. MTB 81 is struck by return fire. MTB 243 is stopped with one engine out of action. A fire breaks out on MTB 81’s bridge and her starboard engine is put out of action. Her engine room hatch is blown off. MTB 81, MTB242 and MTB 243 break off the action and return to Augusta.
2/12/43 MTB 81, MTB 86, MTB 242, MTB 243, MTB 296 and MTB 297 are alongside and MTB 85 is on a slipway in Bari. As dusk nears, a strong force of Luftwaffe bombers flying low over the sea to avoid Radar beams, appears over Bari harbour to release their bombs on merchant ships unloading on to the well illuminated quays, and along the line of freighters anchored side by side, stern onto the east wall. The air defences are caught completely unawares, the German aircraft causing great damage and loss, leaving behind chaos and confusion. It was a well executed attack, all over in a few minutes. MTB 296 is so badly damaged that she is written off and out of the war. MTB 297 is ordered to torpedo a blazing ship just outside the harbour which is drifting shorewards
Seventeen merchant vessels are sunk in the harbour, and several others are badly damaged, including HMS VIENNA the Coastal Force depot ship, whose damage is caused by a near miss bomb blast. One of the vessels sunk SS PUCK, has, amid its cargo, engines and spare parts for the 24th and 20th flotillas. The major factor however, in the disaster that followed, was the blowing up of USS JOHN HARVEY, which in addition to its cargo of arms and ammunition, carried a large quantity of liquid mustard gas contained in carboys stacked on the upper deck. It was not intended to use it, and was held in a stock pile, in case it was needed as retaliation should the Germans decide to resort to its use.
The JOHN HARVEY is repeatedly hit and set on fire burning fiercely until the ammunition went off with a great explosion. When the dust settled, the liquid mustard gas lay on the surface of the sea, mixing with oil and other fuels used by the sunken vessels.
MTB 81, MTB 242 and MTB 243, although only partly crewed, start up and crept around the harbour, picking up seamen from the acrid fumes coming from the surface of the water, and getting as near to burning hulks as they could to pluck off stranded crew members. Several merchant sailors have managed to get to the east wall walk way, and these too are rescued.
It became apparent that some of those in the water were so badly injured that they were unable to clamber aboard the MTBs. Several of the officers and crews strip off their trousers and upper clothes to assist those in the water to get aboard.
TSLt Leo Vincent Cruise RANVR boards a new Liberty ship that has been abandoned by her crew as she lay between two blazing ships, one of which was a tanker. A line is passed and MTB 81 tows the ship to safety.
From the diary of TLt Claude Raymond Holloway RNVR
“Air raid on Bari Harbour by Luftwaffe. Crew of MTB 242 up all night rescuing merchant seamen from burning ships and in the water. Seventeen merchant ships sank over 1000 people killed.”
Quote from Lt E Young RNVR (MTB 86)
“ We were alongside HMS VIENNA’s port bow all night awaiting new engines and some spare parts which were part of SS PUCK’s cargo. She was one of the merchant vessels that sank in Bari Harbour. Some of my crew assisted in the saving of merchant seamen’s lives”.
Although VIENNA is badly damaged by the effects of bomb blast, MTB 86 is shielded by her, and comes out of the inferno comparatively unscathed. Lt Young takes MTB 86 out of Bari the following morning and sails down to the Coastal Forces base at Brindisi on two engines. Upon arrival the Commanding Officer and most of his crew are taken to hospital and detained for treatment to their mustard gas blisters and burns”.
Quote from Lt H du Boulay RNVR
“ I was driving 243 all the time in the Bari air raid, and we picked up 40 to 50 survivors of every nationality under the sun.
MTB 243 went alongside a blazing tanker and successfully took off survivors.
Quote from Lt H du Boulay RNVR
“ I was driving 243 all the time in the Bari air raid, and we picked up 40 to 50 survivors of every nationality under the sun.
Post War Fate
Sunk as target, Mediterranean 22/8/44 (7/45?)