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George Chandler (picture) was a gunner aboard MTB 710 when she was mined and sank, tragically taking many of his shipmates with her. His memories of his time in Coastal Forces in WWII, though, are undimmed, as is his remembrance of that service – especially with Yugoslav forces on the island of Vis, close to Croatia. There, a British cemetery is to be found – for those who fell in the fight against Nazism, including young RN personnel. As we filmed the Coastal Forces Museum, George honoured their memory with his own pitch-perfect rendering of Masefield’s moving verse, inscribed at the cemetery:

“Here dead we lie we, because we did not choose
To live and shame the country from whose bourn we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is. And we were young.”

One visitor to the new Coastal Forces Museum came for a very special reason. Tim Stanton-Fyans’ (picture) great-grandfather was Lieutenant Tim Bone RNVR. Lieutenant Bone was in command of Motor Torpedo Boat 710, returning to Vis on the coast of Croatia, when the MTB was sunk. Sadly, he lost his life along with most of his crew. But as Tim’s sweater tells you, the naval tradition survives in the family – and the Museum works well for him. He told us: “I really love the exhibition. It’s presented really well in the way you can get to understand all the history , and the boats. My great Grandad was on MTB 710 – his ship got blown up by a mine, but George – who’s here today – he survived, and he swam to safety.” More on George in the next blog…

The Coastal Forces Museum pays attention to what will grip the imagination of visitors coming to discover the bravery of those who took the fight to the Nazi war machine, in multi-knot warships, unarmoured, packed with fuel and ammunition. Always mindful of their superb tactician Lieutenant-Commander Hichens’ (picture) dictum: “Hit him hard and quickly – and get out!” There were many fierce boat-to-boat fights in Coastal Forces’ war too – but lying quietly in wait for the enemy, often at night, then getting stuck in was the way to go. The matter-of-fact but courageous ‘Hitch’ (2 DSO’s, 3 DSC’s) fell leading just such an attack, from his favoured position – standing above the bridge holding onto his MGB’s mast. His portrait was painted by leading naturalist Peter Scott, himself a Coastal Forces C.O. It now hangs in the Army and Navy Club, St James’, London.

MTB 71’s first appearance at the new Coastal Forces Museum belied her graceful, planing Thornycroft lines. For a reason no-one could quite work out, she was painted an unbecoming sludge green. Roughly equivalent to the ghastly solecism perpetrated in an episode of the otherwise excellent ‘Foyle’s War’ – where a World War II naval officer appeared in full uniform WITH A MOUSTACHE!! You could hear the growling from Devonport to Rosyth at that moment. Anyway, contractors were sought to put this right – who, after presumably the usual tooth-sucking “Got a lot on at the moment, guv” stuff, offered an eye-wateringly high quote. Forget it! But yet again, the excellent and admirable HMS ‘Medusa’ team, led by Alan Watson, stepped forward and did the lot in a couple of days (picture.) Proving that the can-do RN spirit is alive, well and kicking.

Like many empty spaces, the building adopted by The National Museum of the Royal Navy to serve as the Coastal Forces Museum looked more than big enough when empty. But – into it had to go MTB 71 (60 feet), a classic WWII motor torpedo boat, built for Norway but taken up by us in 1939, eventually crewed by the free Royal Norwegian Navy; and CMB – Coastal Motor Boat 331 (55 feet), a takeover of a WWI type being constructed for the Philippines as war began. Measurements had been quadruple-checked, but space was soon swallowed up when the two warships took pride of place. Like all ships, when close up and out of the water they look bigger than their measurements suggest – but make an imposing sight in their new home, telling a story by their very presence.

The site of the Coastal Forces Museum, in which MTB’s 71 and 331 are the star attractions (though there’s much more than the two ships for visitors to see) is opposite Portsmouth Dockyard in Gosport. Priddy’s Hard- 40 acres of farmland, and a boatyard – was bought in 1750 from Jane Priddy and the Vicar of Fareham, Revd. Thomas Missing. The site served for over 200 years as an ordnance depot, storing and manufacturing a fearsome range of banging machinery for the RN. Some of which can be seen now at National Museum of the Royal Navy’s ‘Explosion’!’ museum – including an example of the only type of missile ever to shoot down another, in the Gulf War (left of picture); from HMS ’Gloucester’, under the command of Rear-Admiral Philip Wilcocks CB DSC DL, in defence of the USS ‘Missouri’.