London Branch March 2012

Written by London Branch | Posted on 27th March 2012

Keeping in Touch

Welcome to Keeping in Touch — it has been sent in an effort to minimise the effect that the two cancelled meetings has had on communications within the Branch. lt seems a long time since we were last on the Belfast. Due to a major failure involving the access gangway, which occurred sometime following the November meeting, subsequent London Branch meetings have had to be cancelled. Thus the January AGM. has been lost, together with the current March meeting that was to be held on the 18th. Information carried on the HMS Belfast web site still gives an "after Easter" estimate for the re-opening of the ship to normal business. This should allow our May meeting to take place. So far we have received no information that needs to be passed on, of members with fresh problems through illness etc. The chronic sufferers still suffer, of course — nothing seems to alter that particular aspect. But no new cases have been made known. Queries have been raised regarding subs. that was due to be collected last January. Following the AGM David Carter will become Branch Treasurer as the only nominee for the post being vacated by John Williamson, who has expressed a wish to retire from this position. John will continue as Treasurer until the AGM is held and so will be dealing with the 2012 subs. The collection of these has been badly affected by the lack of meetings To assist in completion, those members who have, so far, been unable hand over their dues should find an envelope addressed to the Treasurer enclosed with this communication, and this can be used to send their remittance in by post. Please ensure that your name is entered on the slip inside the envelope, particularly if you send a cheque that is not in your own name. Subs can also be paid in at the May meeting, but the collection of subs will be considered finalised at the close of the meeting, and the Members List will be amended in accordance with payments received. Other enquiries have come to the fore — these in connection with arrangements centred on the Queen's Jubilee celebrations and possible access to the Belfast by members on the day of the Thames Pageant. Access will, presumably, be strictly controlled on this particular day. The Branch Committee will discuss the matter and contact will be made with the Imperial War Museum to secure whatever space we can for members. More information will be made available as and when it is received. An article by David Carter reviewing the progress made on the restoration work carried out during the winter on HMS Medusa (HDML 1387) follows this brief write up. Of particular note is the fact that Medusa will be alongside the Belfast for several days during the Jubilee celebrations, and as you will read from David, it is hoped that day trips can be organised on the 4th and 5th. of June for CFVA members. Those wishing to go on the trips should contact him without delay, to allow provisional numbers to be given to those who will arrange the trips and allow them to plan accordingly. Reach him via our contact address on the home page please. E.D.

HMS Medusa — HDML 1387

motor launch medusa on the water — Photo: © Brian Holmes – Motor Launch *Medusa* shown during the parade of University Training Boats in 2011

Our friends who look after our wooden veteran HMS Medusa have been working very hard over the winter. The impressive list of completed jobs includes:

the 24V electrical system
table in the forward mess
chest of drawers in the wardroom
engines re-aligned to shafts
overhaul of safety gear
much painting
general fitting out (plates, cups etc.) for operation
pipework for the hydraulic windlass

And much else. She is now close to being properly operational. Having seen the boat in many pieces and after the devastating fire in the shipyard, I can vouch for the amazing amount of very hard work that has gone into the rebuilding of the boat and its subsequent refurbishment.

Itinerary for 2012

The first engagement is to go across to Hornet on 29 March to attend a gathering of mayors who are visiting the site and the Submarine Museum.

Jubilee Pageant

The main event for 2012 is the Jubilee Thames Pageant on Sunday 3 June, when Medusa will come to London. The plan is to sail from Portsmouth on Sunday 27th May stopping at Eastbourne and Ramsgate on the way. Medusa will then stay in London alongside HMS Belfast for a few days after the pageant before heading back. We hope that on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th June we will organise as day trips for the CFVA members. These will probably be down river trips from HMS Belfast. Will those of you who wish to come on these trips, please let me know so that we can plan arrangements. The programme after the Pageant is still a bit fluid; there are some tentative engagements in the Solent area we really hope to attend the Southampton Boat Show in September this year especially after the disappointment last year. Also in September, it is hoped to participate in the Heritage Open Days at Gosport, where the boat will be open to visitor groups for three days. The last major event will be attending the Remembrance Sunday at HMS Hornet. David Carter

Website Update March 2012

The website continues to grow apace, receiving over 6,400 visitors to its pages since the start of the year, and is now ranked top in the major search engine Google for the principal search term ‘Coastal Forces’. Work on three different databases is nearing completion, which when published will allow those wishing to research the subject to find information on each boat, and for the first time online, view all the awards made to members of Coastal Forces. Readers will also be able to view a web-based Book of Remembrance, containing the records of those who died serving in Coastal Forces. The names have been drawn from the 65,000 plus casualties listed for the Royal Navy in the Second World War by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

Donations to the Website

Members of the London Branch have recently provided the website with a number of materials that will prove invaluable as study aids. Ken Gadsdon donated a copy of Lt Donald Bradford’s Day in Night Out, together with A History of the 24th MTB Flotilla by H F Cooper. Ken also corresponded on our behalf with Len Reynolds, to determine the whereabouts of the considerable archives compiled by him during the writing of his books, with a view to including some of the photographs on the website. Len graciously replied, informing us his archive is now in the safe keeping of the Imperial War Museum, and giving us his blessing to use any part of it, for which we would like to thank him. Peter Bickmore donated several books, including copies of Flag 4 by Dudley Pope, MGB 658 by Len Reynolds, and Little Ships by Gordon Holman, and most generously of all, has donated his entire collection of CFVA newsletters. The newsletters are proving a veritable treasure trove of information, allowing for many additional insights into the work of Coastal Forces boats and their crews, over and above those already known and published in books, and will assist us greatly in the handling of enquiries to the website. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Peter and Ken for their donations, and to request any other members with books or materials on the subject they no longer need, to consider passing them on the website team to assist us in our research. Members can contact us using the information within the membership list or via our contact e-mail address on the home page. Last, but not least, I would like to single out fellow member Wallis Randall. Wallis as former Librarian for the CFVA, was instrumental in helping us source much of the information used, allowing the entering of data for some 3,400 of the awards to Coastal Forces in a specially constructed database on the website. It is planned for all the work mentioned above to be published on the website by the time of the next newsletter.

Able Seaman Joseph Vaughan DSM

The web site forum - a form of electronic message board - has seen one recent success story in helping a new forum member research her late father. Rita, who is the daughter of Joseph Vaughan, joined the forum in January in an attempt to learn more about her Dad’s service in Coastal Forces. Rita wrote:

The reason I knew nothing about Dad's naval service is because he never spoke about it at all, and shortly before he died in 1993 he had a copy of his Investiture photo for all of his four children, and after he passed away we found a folded piece of paper which he had kept, which was the citation informing him of his DSM award.

Rita continued:

I was at a loss as to where to start looking for information, guidance and help with my research. All that I had was the citation showing my dad had served on MTB 638 and was awarded the DSM, and that is where I based my first Google. This took me to two main websites, but when I found the Coastal Forces website I knew it was more specialised and relevant to my research.

joseph vaughan outside buckingham palace — Photo: © Rita Moyland – Joseph Vaughan with his parents, Joseph and Florence, outside Buckingham Palace on the day of his presentation on 23 October 1945

Rita found other members of the forum only too willing to assist in her research and help her get to grips with the terminology involved. She was able to view a photo of the crew of MTB 638 posted by the son of London Branch member Charlie Smorthit, while we were able to direct her to a complete transcript of the original action report compiled for the Admiralty, and now contained on the London Gazette website. This document provided a detailed description of the circumstances in which Rita’s father was awarded the DSM, during an attack on a German coastal convoy in the Adriatic on 11th October 1944. We had not been able to find a photograph of MTB 638 to show Rita, but while in the process of writing this update, another forum member, whose father Jack Sidebottom was awarded a DSM for saving the engine room of MTB 632 when it was struck by shellfire from a surface ship, sent us photos of items related to his award, which quite by chance, included a photograph of MTB 638, taken during his later posting to the Mediterranean. With this amazing stroke of luck, we were finally able to show Rita a photograph of the very boat her father was serving on at the time of his award, rounding off a happy series of discoveries for her. We hope to be of assistance to many more veterans’ family members in future, helping to fill in the gaps in their knowledge, while uncovering many hitherto unseen photographs, and items of interest, pertaining to the history of Coastal Forces.

Coastal Forces Anniversaries for February and March

This time of year sees the anniversaries of some notable events in the history of Coastal Forces, the pre-eminent one being the famous St Nazaire raid of 28 March 1942, aimed at denying the German Navy the use of large dry docking facilities sited there, and involving a flotilla of Motor Launches that suffered heavy losses. It was during this raid that Able Seaman Savage onboard MGB 314 was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, eventually purchased for the National Maritime Museum with the backing of a fund raising campaign instituted by the former CFV. The anniversary of St Nazaire, along with others for the months of February and March, help illustrate the power of the new databases as research tools to easily correlate information in new and interesting ways. As mentioned above, the awards database records the sole award to Coastal Forces of the Victoria Cross (posthumous) to Able Seaman William Alfred Savage. However, the records for deaths in service reveal another man, Chief Petty Officer Ernest James Pitcher, who died of an illness in 1946 while serving at HMS Attack, who was awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War for his role as a naval gunner aboard a ‘Q’ ship. He also held the awards of DSM and Croix de Guerre from that first conflict.

The Drummonds of Perthshire

Leading Wren Anne Archibald Drummond died, aged 24, in a bombing raid that took place at Great Yarmouth on the 18 March 1943. The raid, mounted by a Messerschmitt, effected a direct hit on the living quarters of the Wren’s serving at Coastal Forces base HMS Midge, claiming the lives of eight young women. Able Seaman Robert Drummond (MTB 255) died, aged 22, in an incident that saw the greatest single loss of life amongst Coastal Forces — the Ostend disaster of 14 February 1945. On that fateful day, several flotillas were moored alongside one another in the harbour, when a fire broke out, that set in chain a series of violent explosions. It was even reported at the time that a formation of bombers flying overhead, started flashing their recognition lights, thinking they were being fired upon, such was the force of the explosions taking place in the port below. Twelve boats were destroyed completely in the conflagration, with the loss of 64 lives, and scores wounded. Both of the deceased were from Perthshire, but of different parents: Anne, daughter of James and Margaret Drummond from the town of Crieff, and Robert, son of Robert and Margaret Drummond from the town of Doune, some nineteen miles apart. Is this merely a coincidence: one that is perhaps related to the widespread occurrence of the name Drummond within the locale: or might they even have been close cousins? Either way, it was a tragic loss of young life for both of the families concerned.

Casualties of War

The oldest known member to have died while in service with Coastal Forces is Stoker 1st Class Richard Thomas Rusbridge of HMS Hornet, who was aged 63. The youngest known casualty was Ordinary Seaman Edwin Frederick Daniels, who died on 10 March 1943, aged just 16, when his boat, MTB 622, was sunk by German destroyers off Terschelling. By an unhappy coincidence, this was the very boat London Branch member Harry Leader (deceased) served on. Harry was fortunate to survive the sinking, but was severely injured in the process, and taken prisoner by the Germans. After an initial period of hospitalization, Harry found himself transferred to a POW camp in the heart of Germany, from where he was to eventually escape, making it all the way back to Allied lines! Harry was later awarded the DSM for his efforts in fighting the fire onboard MTB 622. The records of deaths in service reveal some of the largest losses incurred by single boats at separate times — beside those destroyed in the tragedy at Ostend — are those of ML 916 (18 dead), mined off the Dutch coast on 5 November 1944, ML 466 (20 dead), mined off Walcheren on 25 March 1945, MGB 2002 (23 dead), formerly MGB 502, and mined in the entrance to the Skagerrak on 12 May 1945, and MTB 671 (23 dead), sunk in action off Cape Barfleur on 24 April 1944.

Summary

The initial brief of the website was to preserve the recorded history of Coastal Forces, and help promote this somewhat neglected subject to the present day media, and general public alike. With the advent of these new research tools, and with increasing levels of interest shown by relatives of those who served, we would like to think that, with the able assistance of the veterans, we have made a useful start. K.C.

Secretary's Note

The London Branch is indebted to Kevin and Ted for their dedication to the website. From very humble beginnings, when Wallis Randall went online and the opening page pictured a rather lonely beach scene and Wallis called on any Coastal Forces vets to come forward with their stories. We all marvelled at his achievements. Then to an interim period when Ted Else came forward to add his experience and thus take another (or several) steps forward. And so to Kevin, who has now taken the website to a premier position, one which leads for others to follow. His father served on MLs during the war in West Africa. Kevin is one of the "relatives of those who served" making sure that they are not forgotten. Very successfully!