Download or read book The War of the Motor Gun Boats written by A. J. Chapman and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-10-02 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tony Chapman was born in Southampton in 1924. Aged 16 he watched with horror as the historic High Street of Southampton burnt to the ground in a firestorm caused by a heavy German bombing raid on the night of 30 November 1940. He vowed to join up and fight back. Tony joined the Navy.Within hours of being posted to his first Motor Gun Boat, Telegraphist Tony Chapman was involved in an epic Coastal Forces engagement when his flotilla took on a force of thirty E-boats. Although their unit of two MGBs sank three E-Boats, it was at a high cost. Half of Tony's shipmates were killed or injured.This was the start of an eventful and dramatic wartime service with these little warships. Tony's flotilla operated in the Mediterranean and Aegean where the Motor Gun Boats played a key role in this important but often neglected theatre.rnDaily life on these small ships is vividly described. The flotilla had a busy time showing the flag in the Levant and on combined operations in the Aegean with the Greek Sacred Regiment of Commandos. The culmination of their efforts was when Tony's boat, ML838, took the surrender of the Island of Kos in 1945.rnrnWritten from the perspective of one of the other ranks, War of the Motor Gun Boats fills an important gap in the literature of the Second World War.As featured in the North Devon Journal and Exmoor Magazine.
Download or read book The War of the Gun Boats written by Bryan Cooper and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-19 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This WWII naval history chronicles the development of small fighting boats as well as the evolution of their tactics and coastal warfare operations. Small, fast and highly maneuverable, gunboats and motor torpedo boats were a vital part of naval combat through the Second World War. Every major naval power built their own versions: The Germans had Schnellboote, the Royal Navy had MTBs and MGBs, and the Americans had PT boats. With their daring night raids and close-range battles, they displayed the buccaneering spirit of an earlier age. These small boats fought in coastal waters across the globe, from the narrow waters of the English Channel to the stormy North Sea; in the Mediterranean off the coasts of North Africa and Italy and among the islands of the Aegean; across the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to Leyte Gulf; in Hong Kong and Singapore; and off Burma's Arakan coast. In The War of the Gun Boats, historian Bryan Cooper traces the development of these craft, beginning with their limited use in the First World War and the fast motorboats designed to break water speed records in the 1930s. Cooper then details their widespread implementation during the Second World War and the development of their own form of naval warfare.
Download or read book British Motor Gun Boat 1939 45 written by Angus Konstam and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-20 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motor Gun Boats were the “Spitfires of the Seas” of the Royal Navy. Bristling with small-calibre guns and machine guns, they served in a variety of roles during the War. In the early war period they battled against German E-boats in the English Channel, then went on the offensive, searching the enemy shore for targets of opportunity. At other times, they ran support for Motor Torpedo Boats and were used to deliver commandos on various raids. Naval Warfare expert, Angus Konstam, tells the story of these small, but destructive boats, beginning with their design and development and carrying through to their operational use in both the European and Mediterranean theatres of World War II.
Download or read book War of the Motor Gun Boats written by Tony Chapman and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Motor Gunboat 658 written by Leonard C. Reynolds and published by Cassell. This book was released on 2002 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Powered by four 1500 hp supercharged Packard engines and bristling with guns, MGB (Motor Gun Boat) 658 could reach 30 knots across a calm sea. Flotillas of these craft fought their German and Italian opposite numbers right across the Mediterranean during World War II. British Coastal Forces were involved in all sorts of naval actions, from raids on the enemy coast to escorting convoys in preparation for the Allied landings in North Africa. (It was during one such operation that two U-boats collided and sank while attacking the author's convoy!) A vivid tale of young men at war, first published in 1955, now updated by the author in the light of new information from both British and German records, and illustrated with personal photographs.
Download or read book Dog Boats at War written by Leonard C Reynolds and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2009-05-29 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Built of plywood and measuring 115 feet long, powered by four supercharged petrol engines and armed to the teeth with heavy weapons, the 'D' Class Motor Gun Boats (MGBs) and Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) were better known as Dog Boats and played havoc with enemy shipping in home and foreign waters. During three years of war they engaged the enemy on more than 350 occasions, sinking and damaging many ships. Dog Boats at War is the authoritative account of operations by the Royal Navy's 'D' Class MGBs and MTBs in the Second World War in Home, Mediterranean and Norwegian waters. As well as drawing on official records - both British and German - the author has contacted several hundred Dog Boat veterans whose eye witness accounts add drama to the unfolding story.
Download or read book The War of the Motor Gun Boats written by A. J. Chapman and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-10-02 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tony Chapman was born in Southampton in 1924. Aged 16 he watched with horror as the historic High Street of Southampton burnt to the ground in a firestorm caused by a heavy German bombing raid on the night of 30 November 1940. He vowed to join up and fight back. Tony joined the Navy.??Within hours of being posted to his first Motor Gun Boat, Telegraphist Tony Chapman was involved in an epic Coastal Forces engagement when his flotilla took on a force of thirty E-boats. Although their unit of two MGBs sank three E-Boats, it was at a high cost. Half of Tony's shipmates were killed or injured.??This was the start of an eventful and dramatic wartime service with these little warships. Tony's flotilla operated in the Mediterranean and Aegean where the Motor Gun Boats played a key role in this important but often neglected theatre.rnDaily life on these small ships is vividly described. The flotilla had a busy time showing the flag in the Levant and on combined operations in the Aegean with the Greek Sacred Regiment of Commandos. The culmination of their efforts was when Tony's boat, ML838, took the surrender of the Island of Kos in 1945.rnrnWritten from the perspective of one of the other ranks, War of the Motor Gun Boats fills an important gap in the literature of the Second World War.??As featured in the North Devon Journal and Exmoor Magazine.
Download or read book Fairmile D Motor Torpedo Boat written by John Lambert and published by Conway. This book was released on 2005-04-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fairmile Type D was designed to combat the known advantages of German S-boats (Schnellboote - but always called 'E-boats' by the Allies) over previous British coastal craft designs. Designed for 31 knots at 80 tons' displacement, the Fairmile Ds were the most potent and heavily-armed coastal forces type of any navy. They fulfilled various roles, from the original MTB/MGB role to anti-submarine and mine operations. This book is the most comprehensive body of information available anywhere in a single volume on this important type. This book provides the finest documentation of these uniquely fast small warships ever produced, through a complete set of superbly executed line drawings offering enthusiasts a novel insight into ship design and construction. In addition, it includes a service and design history and a pictorial section emphasising close-up and on-board photographs.
Download or read book Gunboats of World War I written by Angus Konstam and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-04-20 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Naval action in World War I conjures up images of enormous dreadnoughts slugging it out in vast oceans. Yet the truth is that more sailors were killed serving on gunboats and monitors operating far from the naval epicentre of the war than were ever killed at Jutland. Gunboat engagements during this war were bloody and hard fought, if small in scale. Austrian gunboats on the Danube fired the first shots of the war, whilst German, British and Belgian gunboats fought one of the strangest, most intriguing naval campaigns in history in far-flung Lake Tanganyika. From the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, from the Balkans to Mesopotamia, gunboats played an influential part in the story of World War I. This detailed technical guide to the gunboats of all the major navies of the war means that, for the first time, the story can be told.
Download or read book German S Boats in Action in the Second World War written by Hans Frank and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2007-01-17 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed narrative of S-boat, or schnellboot, actions during World War II in all the theatres where they were deployed. The author, describes, with the help of a multitude of maps and photographs, all the incidents that these 45-knot fast attack craft were involved in. The German motor torpedo boat (German: S-boot, English: E-boat) was a controversial subject in the pre-war period of German naval rearmament. As late as 1938, the Fleet Commander recommended that S-boot building be terminated on the grounds that the craft was merely a 'weapon of opportunity' without a defined role. This outlook changed dramatically after the first wartime successes. Soon the S-boot was required on all fronts, and the area of operations. In this volume the operational deployment of the S-Boot in these theatres is given comprehensive treatment for the first time, and not purely from the isolated viewpoint of S-Boot warfare, but as an integral part of the overall military objectives of the time. This study of the effectiveness of the S-Boot, its successes and failures, is based on war diary entries and previously unseen original sources. It is a first-class account of this German naval arm in which survived to be the last class of German surface warship still carrying the offensive to the enemy.
Download or read book Soviet Motor Gunboats of World War II written by Przemyslaw Budzbon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling account of the heavily armed and highly mobile Soviet river gunboats which took on the Germans during World War II. Russia's enormous river system has long been its highway and, as early as 1908, the Tsar's armies were developing armoured riverboats that brought tank-like mobility, firepower and survivability to Russian battlefields. This book, the first history of these vessels in English, explains how this concept led to one of the most remarkable naval weapons of World War II, the Soviet 'river tank', or Armoured Motor Gun Boat (AMGB). Highly mobile, capable of carrying up to 20 infantrymen directly into action and providing immediate firepower from their tank turrets, machine guns or Katyusha rockets, their military value was widely recognized. They were versatile enough to be used in naval landing operations off the Gulf of Finland, the Azov Sea and the Black Sea, and their capabilities were prized by local commanders. Using meticulously researched new colour profiles, rare photos and spectacular artwork, this book uncovers the history of river warfare on the Eastern Front, and the boats that played such a key part in the fighting.
Download or read book US Navy Gunboats 1885 1945 written by Brian Lane Herder and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the history of the US Navy's gunboats and their role in building a worldwide American naval presence abroad and in combat, from the Yangtze era through to World War II. For more than half a century, American gunboats were the ships often responsible for policing small crises and provided deterrence and fast-response capabilities around the world – showing the flag, landing armed parties, patrolling river and littoral areas, and protecting ex-pats. They were often the United States' most-visible and constant military presence in far-flung foreign lands, and were most closely associated with the Far East, particularly the Philippines and China. Most famous, of course, was the multinational Yangtze Patrol. Many US gunboats were built, purchased or reassembled overseas where they usually served out their entire careers, never coming within 7,000 miles of the national homeland which they served. Numerous gunboats were captured from the Spanish during the 1898 war, many being raised from shallow graves, refurbished, and commissioned into USN service. The classic haunt of US gunboats was the Asiatic Station of China and the Philippines. Gunboat service overseas was typically exotic and the sailors' lives were often exciting and unpredictable. The major operational theatres associated with the US gunboats were the pre-1898 cruises and patrols of the earliest steel gunboats, the Spanish-American War of 1898 (both the Philippines and the Caribbean), the guerilla wars of the early 20th century Philippines and Latin America, the Asiatic Fleet and Yangtze Patrol of the 1890s–1930s, and finally World War II, which largely entailed operations in China, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Alaska, and on convoy routes. It was Japan's sudden 1941–1942 'Centrifugal Offensive' that effectively spelled the beginning of the end not just of most American gunboats, but also the century-old world order in Asia that had provided US gunboats with their primary mission.
Download or read book The Battle of the Torpedo Boats written by Bryan Cooper and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Allied Coastal Forces of World War II Volume I Fairmile Designs and U S Submarine Chasers written by John Lambert and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2018-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The major contribution made by coastal forces to the Allied war effort has had surprisingly little coverage in the literature of World War II. Motor torpedo boats, PT boats, motor gunboats, launches, and submarine chasers served with distinction throughout the war, and in every theater. They performed invaluable service as patrol boats, convoy escorts, minelayers and minesweepers, harbor defense vessels, light landing craft, RAF rescue boats, and transports for agents and clandestine missions.
Download or read book US Patrol Torpedo Boats written by Gordon L. Rottman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK. Motor torpedo boat development began in the early 1900s, and the vessels first saw service during World War I. However, it was not until the late 1930s that the US Navy commenced the development of the Patrol Torpedo or PT boat. The PT boat was designed for attacking larger warships with torpedoes using its 'stealth' ability, high-speed and small size to launch and survive these attacks – although they were employed in a wide variety of other missions, including rescuing General MacArthur and his entourage from the Philippines. This book examines the design and development of these unique craft, very few of which survive today, and goes on to examine their role and combat deployment in World War II.
Download or read book Soviet Motor Gunboats of World War II written by Przemyslaw Budzbon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-11-21 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling account of the heavily armed and highly mobile Soviet river gunboats which took on the Germans during World War II. Russia's enormous river system has long been its highway and, as early as 1908, the Tsar's armies were developing armoured riverboats that brought tank-like mobility, firepower and survivability to Russian battlefields. This book, the first history of these vessels in English, explains how this concept led to one of the most remarkable naval weapons of World War II, the Soviet 'river tank', or Armoured Motor Gun Boat (AMGB). Highly mobile, capable of carrying up to 20 infantrymen directly into action and providing immediate firepower from their tank turrets, machine guns or Katyusha rockets, their military value was widely recognized. They were versatile enough to be used in naval landing operations off the Gulf of Finland, the Azov Sea and the Black Sea, and their capabilities were prized by local commanders. Using meticulously researched new colour profiles, rare photos and spectacular artwork, this book uncovers the history of river warfare on the Eastern Front, and the boats that played such a key part in the fighting.
Download or read book Royal Navy Motor Gun Boat Owners Workshop Manual written by Diggory Rose and published by Haynes Publishing UK. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Second World War, the Royal Navy’s flotillas of small, fast and powerfully armed motor gun boats (MGBs) were looked upon as the ‘Spitfires of the Seas’. Operating from their harbour bases around the south and east coasts of England, RN Coastal Forces crews would set out under cover of darkness to look for trouble with German shipping in the Channel and the North Sea. The vicious close-quarter skirmishes that ensued were every bit as deadly as the aerial dogfights acted out at 30,000 ft by their RAF Spitfire contemporaries. Written by the curator of MGB 81, with contributions from other specialists involved with the boat, the Royal Navy Motor Gun Boat Owners' Workshop Manual is published in association with the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust and fully illustrated with archive photos, technical drawings and detailed photography of MGB 81.
