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Peter Bickmore BEM

MTB 243, MGB 647 The dawn of my D Day broke over the Island of Ischia a small Island in the Bay of Naples where we the crew of HMGB 647 were enjoying some respite during the time our boat was undergoing some extensive repair as a result of enemy action off the Coast of the then Yugoslavia.

Hubert Pontier

MGB 46, MGB 114, MTB 436 After the brutal disbandment of the Dutch MTB service on 3rd September 1944, Pontier married WREN officer Betty Isobel James on 22nd December 1944. This was followed by a posting to HM(N)S Soemba and then to HM(N)S Queen Wilhelmina, before going to the Dutch East Indies 10th October 1945 on HM(N) Piet Hein, where there was a war going on. He returned 29th August 1947. On the 10th October 1952 Pontier, again on the Piet Hein, went to Korea where there was a fierce war going on. He returned a year lateron 11th November. Pontier retired as a four bander in 1969.

George Chandler

MTB 710 On VE Day we were detailed as duty guard to check on any booze being brought through the main gate and taken aboard. As, obviously, we had to have a sample sip, by the time our spell of duty was over we were almost on our knees and shortly after found ourselves in front of the captain. Happily, our previous experience was taken into account along with the festival circumstances he let us off with an admonishment.

Malcolm Chisholm

ML 577, ML 842 In 1945 I was still on operations in Crete, when the European war ended and Germany accepted unconditional surrender that is with the exception of German forces on Crete. We sailed from Tobruk to Heraklion on the North coast of Crete whilst negotiations were going on for the surrender. The British government eventually accepted surrender conditions and that same day we sailed from Heraklion to Suda Bay with a British Vice-Admiral on board to accept the German surrender.

John Francis Costello

ML 287, ML 296 'Jack' Costello had served with Coastal Forces in West Africa, but had been at Plymouth throughout the D-Day period. On V.E. Day in 1945 he was completing his training at HMS Queen Charlotte, Liverpool to qualify as Petty Officer Ordance Mechanic. Within weeks he was being posted overseas a second time for a period of over a year, joining the build up of forces for the anticipated campaign against Japan, which in the end never materilaised.

Ken Forrester MiD

HDML 1060, MGB 606, MTB 632, MTB 771 Ken's final Coastal Forces posting, MTB 771, had earlier been involved in a fire and explosions which rocked CFMU 1 at Ostend in February 1945. MTB 771 eventually arrived at Brixham, South Devon, where most of the crew were sent on leave while the powers that be decided what to do with the damage. The skeleton crew who were not on leave lived in lodgings but came down daily to work on the boat. VE day came, and everyone went wild with thankfulness and excitement. I was unlucky. I was seconded to Brixham Police Station to work with the police trying to keep order amidst all the hilarity and drink. The only drink I got was tea.

Derek Holden Brown MiD

MGB 663, MTB 655 I was in a hospital bed in the 93rd British Army Hospital in Barletta, on the East Coast of Italy. How I came to be there is a story in itself. During the night of the 21st/22nd March, 1945, HM MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat) 655, which I was commanding, struck a mine in the Northern Adriatic, broke in two and instantly burst into flames as our 100-Octane petrol came to the surface and ignited. Nearly half the ship’s company were missing or seriously injured. The survivors were picked up one by one by another boat in the flotilla, and taken at daybreak back to our forward operating base, Zadar, on the coast of Jugoslavia, about halfway up the chain of Dalmatian Islands.

John Townend

MTB 718, MTB 2009 Victory was imminent. The morning of the V.E day Mike (Marshall) and I went ashore. We listened to Mr Churchill's speech on a radio in the hotels laundry as they had closed the bar, then made our way back to the harbour. Hooters were hooting and sirens were blaring, and as we arrived at the jetty some idiots were firing two-star flares across the harbour and, to our dismay, our navigator was manoeuvering 2009, with two other boats attached, in the middle of this chaos. As we watched, he nudged his charges very gently back alongside. We took the ropes thrown by the duty watch and very thankfully went aboard.

Derek Marquis

ML 264, MTB 652, MTB 770 The light on the South Scroby buoy (flashing red every second) was hardly necessary anymore, as the buoy itself was by now plainly visible. Then the course was N 23 W up past the North Corton, and on to where the harbour piers themselves could be clearly seen. Outside the harbor entrance I signalled 612 to carry on independently and we motored at slow ahead on outer engines up the Yare to Midge. We turned short round and came alongside facing to seaward, as was our custom, and secured from the last ever wartime patrol. The time was exactly 0530.