Predecessor

The Royal Navy had previously operated flotillas of small torpedo- and depth-charge-armed craft (coastal motor boats) during World War I (1914-1918). They operated as often in action against the enemy coast as in defence of British coastal areas.

Establishment

The first post WWI motor torpedo boats built for the Royal Navy were built by the British Powerboat Company at Hythe, Southampton. MTBs 01-19 were built between 1935 and 1938, following the hard chine planing hull designed with T E Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), for high speed rescue of downed aircraft crew.^{[citation needed]}

During World War II (1939-1945), the first Coastal Forces headquarters was set up at HMS Vernon in 1940 under Rear Admiral Piers Kekewich, Flag Officer Coastal Forces. The chief staff officer to the admiral was Augustus Agar, VC, who had commanded coastal motor boats during World War I and in British operations in the Baltic Sea in 1918 and 1919 in support of White Russian forces during the Russian Civil War.^{[citation needed]}

World War II operations

Royal Navy Coastal Forces craft operated mainly in the English Channel and North Sea waters. They were also based in Malta, The 1st & 3rd MTB Flotillas, Numbers 01-06 & 14-19, and HMS Tamar, Hong Kong, the 2nd MTB Flotilla, numbers 07-12, 26 & 27.

On 19 December 1941 MTB 07 led the attack on Japanese landing craft in Kowloon Harbour, Hong Kong, taking fire from land, sea and air. The operation was arguably the most daring daylight MTB raid of all time losing over 40% of the flotilla. MTB 07 was hit 97 times losing two crew dead and all three engines. It was hailed as the "Balaclava of the sea".^{[3][full citation needed]}

They were also used in the Mediterranean^{[4][page needed]} and off the Norwegian coastline.^[5] They were used at the St. Nazaire Raid and the Dieppe Raid. They were used to attack German convoys and their S-boat (known to the Allies as "E-Boat") escorts, carry out clandestine raids and landings, and pick up secret agents in Norway and Brittany. Alongside British officers and men, the coastal craft were manned by various Allied nationalities including Dutch, Norwegian, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealanders.^[6][7]

A number of Captain-class frigates were configured to operate as "coastal forces control frigates" (CFCF).^[8] Operating with Coastal Forces officers embarked and responsible for controlling and providing radar support to groups of Coastal Forces' motor torpedo boats intercepting German motor torpedo boats in the North Sea,^[9] these frigates were involved in the destruction of at least 26 E-Boats.^[10]

By 1944 Coastal Forces numbered 3,000 officers and 22,000 ratings. Altogether there were 2,000 British Coastal Forces craft. Affectionately known as the Royal Navy's "little ships", they fought over 900 actions and sank around 400 enemy vessels, including 48 E-boats and 32 midget submarines. They fired 1,169 torpedoes, shot down 32 enemy aircraft and carried out many mine laying operations. 170 of the "little ships" were sunk or otherwise destroyed.^[11]

Post-World War II

After World War II, the Royal Navy re-designated all its motor torpedo boats (MTBs) and motor gun boats (MGBs) as "fast patrol boats." The Brave-class fast patrol boats were the last craft to be built for the Coastal Forces, and the Coastal Forces were disbanded as a separate unit and their last base, (HMS Hornet), decommissioned in 1956.

In 1960, a question was asked in the House of Lords why Coastal Forces had been reduced to a skeleton of three patrol boats and three ships operated by two crews, based at HMS Dolphin in Gosport, when considerable expenditure was made in the 1950s but not followed up, and thus wasted. In addition, Coastal Forces was invaluable as a means of training young officers, and the development of small ships, often to the benefit of the navies of Britain's allies. Lord Carrington, then First Lord of the Admiralty, responded that limited resources and changing threats were the reason, and that keeping the Coastal Forces at a low level would at least enable it to be rapidly expanded should the need arise. He added that nine boats were in operational reserve to maintain Britain's NATO commitment.^[12]

The last sailors to wear the "HM Coastal Forces" cap tally were the ship's companies of the inshore minesweepers Dittisham and Flintham on being taken out of reserve in 1968, before individual cap tallies for the minesweepers had been manufactured and issued.

A permanent exhibition of craft, personnel and history of Coastal Forces was established in Gosport in 2021. The exhibition shows that, with 3,000 decorations, including four Victoria Crosses, Coastal Forces personnel received more gallantry awards than any other branch of the Royal Navy.^[13]