51 Among the earliest Dart-
mouth-based units was the 7th Motor Launch Flotilla. Tese were Fairmile B’s, not the fastest boats, but they were versatile and reliable - and they played a key role in one of the most audacious raids of the war. In March 1942, four of the 7th’s
boats were selected to take part in Operation Chariot - the raid on St Nazaire. Teir task was to carry com- mandos up the Loire estuary under intense fire, carrying commandos, who would destroy the dry dock that could have serviced German capital ships like the Tirpitz. Te cost was severe, every one of
the Dartmouth boats was lost, but the dock was destroyed, and the operation built national morale at a critical stage of the war. Te 7th Flotilla was rebuilt, and its crews returned to the Channel.
Fairmile B Motor Launch s imilar to 7th ML Flotilla’s at St Nazaire
MGB at speed
refused to accept the defeat of their country and had chosen to continue the fight from Britain. Tey brought with them their own culture, their own rhythms of life and their own determination. Operating from Kingswear, they
approach was simple and uncompro- mising: close with the enemy, strike hard and never give them time to respond. His boats were fast - capable of
forty knots - and heavily armed. Under his leadership, they developed the aggressive night-fighting tactics that would become standard across Coastal Forces. Sent from their Harwich base to
Hichens and the fight for the
Channel If Coastal Forces had a defining figure, it was Lieutenant Robert Hichens. A solicitor from Falmouth in civilian life, Hichens was charged with establishing and training up a new Flotilla: the 8th Motor Gun Boat Flotilla, made up of 8 new British Power Boat: 80ſt gun boats. His
take on German e boats wreaking havoc with west country convoys, the 8th were sent West. Two days aſter arriving with his new boats in Dartmouth, his 8th Flotilla went into action. In later operations off Cherbourg, they engaged German E-boats on equal terms - and proved that these small British vessels could match, and defeat, their opponents. Hichens led from the front, always in the thick of the action. He was killed in April 1943 at the age of just twenty-nine. But by then, the way Coastal Forces fought had already been transformed.
Allies on the Dart Dartmouth’s war was not fought by British crews alone. In January 1943, the 23rd Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla arrived in Kingswear. Teir crews were Free French - sailors who had
HMS Campbeltown at St Nazaire, before she exploded, destroying the dry dock
carried out hundreds of sorties in the Channel, attacking German con- voys, sinking ships and supporting wider operations. Among them was Philippe de Gaulle, son of General Charles de Gaulle, who later awarded Kingswear its own silver medal for hosting the 23rd. Off duty, the Free French became
Wren servicing engine
part of the local community. Friendships formed, some leading to marriages. When the 23rd Flotilla finally leſt in 1944, Kingswear turned out in force to see them go.
A system that worked By 1943, what had begun as a hurried improvisation had become a coordinated system. Radar stations at Start Point and
along the coast detected enemy movements. Intelligence based in the Royal Dart Hotel directed boats to intercept. Coastal Forces units struck at night. Air cover protected them by day. From Dartmouth, opera- tions were planned, launched and sustained as part of a wider effort to control the Channel. It worked: by the time the Allied
invasion of Europe was being planned, Coastal Forces had gained the upper hand in these waters. Te Channel - once contested - had become, if not safe, then manageable.
From the Dart to D-Day Much of what made D-Day possible had roots in Dartmouth. Te tactics of landing troops on hostile shores were refined and trained here by Combined Operations, based at Britannia Naval College. Intelligence gathered from the
French coast by the clandestine 15th MGB Flotilla shaped the planning. Coastal Forces kept the pressure on German shipping and defences. Tis was not the most visible part of the war. But it was essential and it happened here.
contd. over
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108
