Wikipedia

Draft:List of vessels of Royal Navy Coastal Forces

Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy operated Motor Launches (ML), Motor Torpedo Boats (MTB) and Motor Gun Boats (MGB) during Second World War and after.

The vessels were made by several manufactures and the designs varied.

MTBs were intended for attacking enemy shipping while MGBs were armed for combat with other fast attack craft.

Motor Torpedo Boats edit

List of boats[1]
Vessel Type Builder In service Notes
MTB 1 60ft BPB British Power Boat Company (BPB) June 1936
MTB 2
MTB 3
MTB 4
MTB 5
MTB 6
MTB 7 - MTB 12 Lost in December 1941 during Japanese attack on Hong Kong
MTB 13 60ft BPB
MTB 14
MTB 15
MTB 16
MTB 17
MTB 18
MTB 19
MTB 20 70ft Vosper To Romanian Navy
MTB 21 70ft
MTB 22 70ft RN
MTB 23 70ft To Romania
MTB 24, MTB 25 74ft Thornycroft Prototypes for 75ft design
MTB 26 From order for China. MTB 26 sunk December 1941

MTB 27 was scuttled in December 1941 during the Japanese attack on Hong Kong

MTB 27
MTB 28, Vosper (sub contracted to Thornycroft) Replacements for 20, 21, 23. MTB 30 lost to mine in North Sea December 1942[2]
MTB 29, 30 Vosper (sub contracted to Camper and Nicholsons)
MTB 31-40 70ft Vosper changed to Hall Scott Defender engines from No. 35 onwards. MTB 33, 37, 39 and 40 wer lost to a bombing raid during construction. MTB 35 out of service in 1943[2]MTB 32 became a target boat ("Controlled Target) CT 24 in 1942 [3] MTB 31 and MTB 34 were converted to CT 22 and CT 23 in 1943[4]
MTB 41
MTB 42
MTB 43
MTB 1
MTB 1
MTB 1
MTB 49 -56 75ft Thornycroft
MTB 57-66 Vosper ordered 26 February 1940.[5]
MTB 67-68 Vosper
MTB 69-70 70 ft Vosper Intended for Greek Navy (as T3 and T4).[5] Two engines instead of three limited top speed to 27 knots[6]
MTB 71-72 60ft Vosper originally built for Norway (as No.7 and No.8)[5]
MTB 73-99 72ft 6 in[a] Vosper delivered January 1941 to January 1942 Ordered 14 May 1940[5]. Construction subcontracted to various yards. Packard engines. Six supplied to Free French forces[6]MTB 74 Special modification, 70 ft long with torpedo tubes on fo'castle. to fire over anti-torpedo nets. Used in St Nazaire raid

MTB 75 destroyed in German bombing raid while being built[7] MTB 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, and 98 trasnferred to Free French in 1942[7]

MTB 102 Private venture
MTB 103 experimental 70ft, used as target tow
MTB 108 MTB 'small type' Destroyed by bombing before complete[8]
MTB 201-212 J. Samuel White Building Vosper design
MTB 218-221 70ft Vosper Vosper Ordered for Greek Navy in 1940. Requistioned be UK in 1941[9] Same design as MTB 69-70

MTB 218 sunk by mine and "German surface craft", Dover Strait 18 August 1942.[10]

MTB 222-245 72ft 6 in Vosper Similar to MTB 73 series but with 20mm cannon added[6]. Two to Free French and two to Royal Netherlands Navy[6] MTB 242 to 245 built by J Samuel White as replacements for MTBs 33, 37, 39, and 40[7]
MTB 246-257 73ft White Vosper design
MTB 259-268 70ft Elco Elco Built and supplied under Lend-lease. Armed with two 21-inch torpedo tubes[11]
MTB 275-282 Vosper design built by Annapolis Yacht Yard in USA Lend-Lease production
307-316 77ft Elco
347 - 362 70ft Vosper ordered April 1942
363-370 72ft 6in Vosper Vosper built by Annapolis Yacht Yard Transfered to USSR
371-378 72ft 6in Vosper Vosper built by Annapolis Yacht Yard British use
379 70ft scale test of 73 ft design for MTB/MGB
380-395 73ft Vosper Type 1 Vosper 73ft Type 1[12] Four 18-inch torpedo tubes[6]
419-423 78ft Higgins
424-429 73ft White
MTB 510 100ft December 1943 Experimental 100 ft design to test gearbox, not used in combat [8]
MTB 523-527 73ft Vosper Type 2 post war 73ft Type II with heavier gun armament (additional 6-pounder gun and 20 mm cannon[6]) than the Type 1. Carried two 21-inch torpedo tubes
528-530 73ft Vosper Type 2
532-533 73ft Vosper Type 2
MTB 412-416 72ft BPB BPB Initially MGB 74-81

Motor Gun Boats edit

Vessel Type Builder In service Notes
MGB 1
MGB 312–335 Fairmile C Fairmile Marine 1941 onwards 110 ft design
MGB 502 to 509 Camper and Nicholson Under construction for Turkey. Taken over in 1941[13]

Five converted to blockade runners to transport ball bearings from Sweden, 504 became Hopewell, 505 became Nonsuch, 506 became Gay Viking, 507 became Gay Corsair and 508 became Master Standfast. Gay Corsair converted back to MGB 507 then renamed HMGB 2007

Motor Launches edit

Steam Gun Boat edit

Main article: Steam Gun Boat

The Steam Gun Boats were a class of nine high speed 145 ft (44 m) vessels intended to combine the functions of an MTB and an MGB comparable to a German "E-boat". They were powered by steam engines due to lack of suitable internal combustion engines. Only seven of the nine ordered out of a planned 60 boats were completed.

Operated as a single flotilla in the Channel, SGB7 was lost in the 1942 Dieppe Raid and the five remaining were converted to minesweepers in 1944.


Vessel Builder In service Notes
SGB 1 & 2 Cancelled
SGB 3 to 9 Thornycroft, Yarrow, Hawthorne Leslie, Denny, J Samuel White 1941 onwards

Notes edit

  1. ^ Fitted with Type 286 radar in 1941. 20mm Oerlikon mounted ahead of the bridge late in the war.[7]
  1. ^ Konstam 2003, p. 38-39.
  2. ^ a b Connelly 2000, p. 8.
  3. ^ Connelly 2000, p. 43.
  4. ^ Connelly 2000, p. 44.
  5. ^ a b c d Connelly 2000, p. 9.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Davies 2012
  7. ^ a b c d Connelly 2000, p. 10.
  8. ^ a b Konstam 2003, p. 15.
  9. ^ Connelly 2000, p. 45.
  10. ^ Connelly 2000, p. 47.
  11. ^ Konstam 2003, p. 18.
  12. ^ Konstam 2003.
  13. ^ "MGB 502 Gunboats". NAVYPEDIA. Retrieved 11 March 2022.

References edit

Further reading edit

  • Dog Boats at War: A History of the Operations of the Royal Navy D Class Fairmile Motor Torpedo Boats and Motor Gunboats 1939–1945 by L. C. Reynolds and Lord Lewin, Sutton Pubns Inc, 2000, ISBN 978-0-7509-2454-2
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