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Coastal Motor Boat

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 1:58 pm
by Admin
This remarkable footage from the Imperial War Museum (IWM) collection entitled The Home of the Coastal Motor Boat shows the base for Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs) at Osea Island, Essex in the period shortly after the First World War. Osea Island which was home to Coastal Motor Boats, an early antecedent of the later Motor Torpedo Boat of the Second World War which became synonymous with Coastal Forces, a new organisation formed for the first time in November 1940.

As well as illustrating the storage facilities for the boats, and the mechanisms for getting them in and out of the water, the film shows some of the craft, powered by Thornycroft engines, at speed, as well as being armed with the single torpedo they carried, which were released from the rear of the craft after steering at an intended target, and then turning out of the way.
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Coastal Motor Boat at Osea Island Essex