Motor torpedo boat (Great Britain)
The British motor torpedo boats ( Engl. : Motor Torpedo Boat ) were under the acronym MTB known. They were mostly wooden speedboats with a length of around 20 to 24 m and a displacement of 40 to 50 t, which, with a few exceptions , were powered by gasoline engines. Mostly designed as gliding boats , they could sometimes reach speeds of well over 40 knots (> 74 km / h) in calm seas . The armament consisted of up to four torpedoes , machine guns (MG) and some machine cannons .
The first motor torpedo boats put Britain already in the First World War, one under the name CMB, but gave the concept between the wars again. During the Second World War, over 400 MTBs in various designs were used around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean. They were also the inspiration behind the development of the US so-called PT boats , the production of which was even higher during the war. After the war, the number of MTBs was drastically reduced and in the 1950s only around 35 boats were built. At the end of the 1960s, the Royal Navy then dissolved the last MTB flotillas .
designation
The Royal Navy developed speedboats in World War I under the name Coastal Motor Boat, abbreviated CMB, but abolished them again after the war. It was only with the resumption of the speedboat concept in 1932 that the designation Motor Torpedo Boats or MTB was introduced for boats with torpedoes and only weak secondary armament and these were differentiated from the Motor Gun Boats or MGB with artillery armament , but without torpedoes . Also refer to as MTB z. B. the Canadian , Norwegian and US Navy comparable boats.
Within these type classes, the classification was inconsistent, and boats also changed their assignment due to retrofitting, and with the "Fairmile boats" ( see below ) a hybrid was created that was assigned almost at random. Before the Second World War, the main task of small boats was to protect the coast, so all boats were given an identifier with the letter P for patrol .
The MTB were not given names, but consecutive numbers, mainly from P1 - P539. The numbers were assigned to the various manufacturers for a projected number of boats, some of which were processed in parallel, but entire series of numbers were never used. That is why the numbering does not result in a chronology .
The most widespread is the classification according to length and manufacturer of the boats. There were also partly version information about the form of 72 Foot Vosper Type I or 72 Foot British Power Boat Mark V . The length in feet (ft) is often rounded. The exact equipment with engines and weapons then depended on the time of manufacture. Overall, this results in a variety of variants.
The post-war classes were designed from the outset as multi-purpose vehicles and designed to be able to be converted and used as MGB, but also as fast mine layers or U-hunters , so that the designation as MTB is no longer clearly possible.
history
development
Manufacturer
The development of the British speedboats was essentially carried out by three manufacturers, but many other shipyards, including in Canada and the USA, acted as suppliers of partial orders or manufactured them under license .
During the First World War, the sole producer was John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited . Although the shipyard continued production for export in the interwar period, it missed the development of new boat concepts and was only involved to a small extent during World War II. The Thornycroft company built 40 and 55 foot (ft) length CMBs for the Royal Navy during World War I , and later 72 and 75 foot length MTBs.
The British Power Boat Company (BPB) gave the first impetus in the revitalization of speedboat design before the beginning of the Second World War, but then apparently fell back in importance as an MTB manufacturer due to personal differences between decision-makers in the shipyard and the Admiralty . However, the shipyard was even more involved in the production of MGB. Before the war, BPB built boats of 60 feet and during the war only those of 72 feet were built.
Vosper & Company was the last of the three companies to enter the race for orders, but then became the main supplier of motor torpedo boats and ultimately supplied over two-thirds of all boats. After the Second World War, Vosper remained the only supplier. The merger with Thornycroft took place in 1966, but at a time when the MTB concept was no longer being pursued. Vosper built boats 60, 70, 72 and 73 ft in length.
Another manufacturer was the Fairmile Marine Company , which initially acted as a subcontractor to Vosper in the field of speedboat construction. Fairmile mainly produced coastal protection boats independently, but then brought out the so-called "Fairmile 'D'" boats as their own design, which were mainly classified as MGB. Camper & Nicholson also produced some comparable boats . In addition, a small number of boats based on JS White's own designs and prototypes from other shipyards were used. The boats (PT boats) that were released by the US Navy came from the manufacturers Electric Launch Company (Elco) and Higgins Industries .
CMB
The development of British MTB goes back to the year 1915, when officers worked out a plan to drive over German mine barriers with fast motorboats with shallow drafts in order to attack German coastal shipping. Based on this, the Admiralty specified the requirements to the effect that the boats should carry an 18- inch torpedo (≈45.72 cm) and thereby reach over 30 knots (kn). Since it was planned to bring the boats to their place of use in the davits of light cruisers , they should not be heavier than 4.5 tons and not longer than 40 ft (≈12.2 m).
The Thornycroft shipyard, also known for the construction of luxury motor yachts, was awarded the contract for an initial six boats. From 1916 the shipyard built a total of 66 CMB during the First World War, with a further developed version of 55 ft (≈16.76 m) length with two torpedoes being used from 1917. At that time the plan to take the boats along as dinghies for cruisers had already proven impractical.
After the war, individual larger boats were initially procured for test purposes, then the British Admiralty did not pursue the concept any further and sold the remaining boats to other countries or put them out of service.
The manufacturing company Thornycroft continued to produce boats for foreign navies based on the 55 ft model, so that at the beginning of the Second World War several completed CMBs were available or were in production and could be taken over by the Royal Navy. These quickly proved to be obsolete and production was phased out in favor of more modern types by 1942.
MTB
It was not until 1932 that the British Admiralty took up the speedboat idea again and in 1935 placed an order for initially a so-called flotilla with six boats to the British Power Boat Company, now under the name MTB. When the Second World War broke out, the British Navy had three flotillas with six of these boats each.
These first boats were armed with two 18 inch torpedoes and two 0.303 inch (7.7 mm) machine guns from the First World War.
By the end of the Second World War, around 450 boats had been built and used in all theaters of war. However, this figure also includes 12 experimental boats that were never used in combat and some boats that were used for other purposes, such as the eight underpowered 75 ft (≈22.86 m) boats from Thornycroft, which were used as target tugs after a short time . The British gave about 60 boats to other navies. In return, the Royal Navy put 21 boats from US production into service, which were provided by the USA as part of the lend lease program.
After quarrels between the chief designer of BPB and the Admiralty, Vosper became the main supplier of speedboats for the Royal Navy. Finally, the most common type was the 72 ft (≈22 m) Vosper boat. The designer of BPB Hubert Scott-Payne left England and participated in the development of the US PT boats, mainly in collaboration with Elco.
MGB / MTB
Especially to counter the threat posed by German speedboats, a type of boat was developed that defied the usual classification and is therefore not listed uniformly in the lists. These boats occupy a special position among MTB and are therefore shown separately at this point with their technical details.
From 1942, under the leadership of the Fairmile Marine Company, over 200 so-called Fairmile 'D' boats with a length of 115 ft (≈35 m) and about 100 tons displacement were produced, which represented a further development of the coastal protection boats (motor launch) built by Fairmile in large numbers. They should meet the requirements of MGB and MTB at the same time. Two thirds of the boats were counted among the MGB, but in some cases the boats were no longer assigned to any of the classes and listed as MGB / MTB. In addition, boats are listed twice because they have been reclassified after conversions. Unofficially they were called "Dog Boats". The boats had identifications from P600 to P800 and some P5000 numbers.
The boats were round frame boats and were relatively insensitive to rough seas. The drive took place with four Packard motors (total 4800 HP), which worked on four shafts. With the heavier MTB equipment, the boats only reached around 27 knots and had a range of around 500 nm at full speed and up to 2000 nm at 11 knots. Some of the boats were also used by the RAF because of their long range and insensitivity to the weather, either wholly or temporarily, as long-range lifeboats for shot down pilots.
As early as 1940, Camper & Nicholson built 8 boats with a length of 117 ft and a displacement of 95 tons for the Turkish Navy, which were taken over by the Royal Navy upon completion. At that time, however, there was still no defined need for such boats, but they largely corresponded to what was developed by Fairmile two years later. Five of these boats were converted into blockade breakers with 45 tons payload, which mainly fetched ball bearings and machine tools from Sweden. In 1944 there was an order for another ten boats, which, however, were no longer used before the end of the war. These boats differed significantly in their construction from the smaller MTB and MGB. They were not only designed as round frame boats, but also in composite construction with steel frames. They were driven by three Paxman or Packard motors which enabled speeds of 28 and 31 kn respectively.
When used as MTB, the MGB / MTB were armed differently with two 21 inch (≈53.3 cm) and less often with four 18 inch torpedo tubes as well as various machine guns and guns. The artillery armament mostly consisted of two 6-pounder guns (5.7 cm) or a 6-pounder and a 2-pounder (4 cm) pom-pom as well as additional 20-mm Oerlikon machine cannons and several machine guns. In addition, up to eight depth charges were carried. The crew was up to 30 men to operate the weapons.
Post war boats
After the war, the Royal Navy quickly decommissioned most of the speedboats. Only the 73 ft Vosper Type II, which was used towards the end of the war, remained active. The British Navy experimented with other drive concepts, such as delta diesel engines or gas turbines , until the mid-1960s, but finally gave up the MTB concept. Two larger series of boats were commissioned. The last gasoline-powered MTBs were the 12 gay-class boats that were launched from 1952 to 1954. The boats remained in active service until the mid-1960s, then some of them were assigned to the reserve and most of them sold until the early 1970s. The 18 boats of the Dark class formed the last real class of MTB boats. They were launched from 1954 to 1958 and were the only class of speedboat in the Royal Navy to be diesel-powered. Their two extraordinary Napier Deltic engines gave them a top speed of 47 knots. There were also several small series and single boats.
With the two boats of the Brave class (also tested in Germany as the Vosper class ), the last boats with torpedo armament were procured in 1958. They were powered by two gas turbines and a diesel engine for maneuvering at low speeds. These boats were no longer considered MTB, but were classified as Fast Patrol Boats and were only used as test vehicles. The last to be sold was the “HMS Brave Borderer” in 1982 after being used as a target ship.
commitment
The CMB of the First World War took on many tasks, such as reconnaissance or the laying of artificial fog veils and also occasionally of mines, but remained relatively unsuccessful with regard to sinking. Only after the war in the conflicts following the Russian Revolution did they draw attention to themselves with the sinking of the Russian cruiser Oleg , the liner Petropavlovsk and a depot ship, as well as the severe damage to the old liner Andreij Pervozwanni during attacks on the port of Kronstadt . These successes brought Thornycroft foreign customers, but in Great Britain the boats were taken out of service.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the Royal Navy then had 18 new boats from BPB, but in contrast to the German speedboats and Italian MAS, no operational concept. The MTB were grouped into so-called flotillas of six to eight boats. One of the flotillas was located in Hong Kong and was sunk by the Japanese after it was captured , so that the MTB have no further use in the Far East.
The first use of MTB on the European arena in 1940 was lossy and ineffective. Boats attacked from a great distance at top speed, which warned the enemy early on by the loud engine noises, and the boats often fired their torpedoes at great distances and missed the target.
Based on this experience, an operational doctrine was developed that had the aim of ambushing and infiltrating enemy convoys . For this purpose, the boats ideally placed themselves in the path of a convoy in the dark or tried to penetrate the formation from behind with little speed, since experience has shown that observation to the rear was worst. Only shortly before the torpedo shot should the attack position be assumed at high speed and then run off at top speed. The optimal attack position was diagonally ahead of the attacked vehicle. The behavior after the torpedo shot was individually different. Many boatmen hid behind a veil of artificial fog while the boat was running, others preferred the unobstructed view in order to make possible further torpedo attacks possible, or in order to cause confusion during the course of the course through continued fire with machine weapons.
It turned out that the division into MTB and MGB, which were to attack security vehicles with their artillery armament and cover the retreat of the MTB, often did not correspond to the real operating conditions. The MTB also had to fight intense firefights with opposing units again and again. Especially in the canal operations there were frequent confrontations with enemy security forces and also German speedboats at very short distances, which is why the secondary armament of the MTB increased steadily in the course of the war. Some boatmen even equipped their boats with handguns and hand grenades on their own initiative.
In contrast to the capital ships , which often had long berthing times, the MTB were almost constantly in use and had frequent enemy contact. However, these were mostly unspectacular, albeit loss-making, night missions against merchant shipping or to defend against German speedboats. The use of MTB in connection with the breakthrough of German capital ships through the English Channel , the attack on the docks of Saint-Nazaire and the securing of the Allied invasion fleet became public awareness .
A total of 83 MTBs were lost during the war. The main threats to speedboats can be identified from the causes of the losses. Combat with surface units was the most common cause with 18 cases (about one fifth), followed by 14 from air strikes and 10 mine hits . It is noteworthy that 9 (a good tenth) of the losses were caused by collisions with other, mostly own, ships. A reference to the requirements and dangers in close association trips. Just as many boats (+ several Canadian ones ) were lost in a fire in the port of Ostend .
crew
The manning of the boats also depended on the number of weapons carried. The small CMBs of the First World War were only served by two to three men, the larger ones, as they were also used in the Second World War, had a crew of five. The MTB were ridden by 10 to 15 men. A boat was usually run by a first lieutenant .
The crew had two lounges in the foredeck, some of which had berths that could be folded out. However, these were not designed for permanent living. There was a cooking facility with a kerosene cooker, but no complete sanitary facilities and hardly any storage space for personal equipment or supplies, under war conditions the crews still lived on the boats for weeks.
The high exposure to noise and vibrations of these boats and their sensitivity to swell was described as a considerable impairment for the crews' work, especially on the psychological constitution. A direct consequence of this was also wrong decisions and operational mishaps.
technology
hull
The boats were often disparagingly referred to as "plywood boats". In fact, only the bridge structure and some interior fittings were made of plywood . The hull was constructed as a close-meshed framework made of high-quality solid wood on which the planking was carried out in several layers. This made the boats light and strong. A welcome side effect was the saving on valuable metal. However, apart from sheet steel aprons around the control stand, there was no armor and the boats easily caught fire due to the gasoline fuel.
The chine hulls lifted at high drive level of the water and so reduced in slides over the water drag considerably. For example, speeds of around 50 kn could be achieved with individual types, but this was only possible when the sea was calm. Their usability declined sharply in the swell.
The boats developed independently by Vosper and BPB were flat and relatively wide and with a few exceptions similar in their internal structure, although the construction varied in details depending on the size of the boats and the manufacturer.
Here is an example of a 70 foot Vosper boat:
The Vosper 70 ft boats had an oak keel on which 67 frames made of birch or mahogany were attached and connected with struts. In the kink area there was an all-round oak reinforcement. Four reinforced frames pulled through the boats as watertight bulkheads made of plywood, dividing them into five compartments. The front two were used as crew quarters, followed by the departments for the main fuel tanks, the engine compartment and, at the very rear, for further tanks and the steering gear. There was only a connection below deck between the two forward compartments. The underwater hull was provided with three layers of mahogany karweel , with the two inner layers being offset diagonally by 90 °. Impregnated cotton fabric was glued between the layers of wood. One of the diagonal layers was omitted in the overwater area. The motors rested on galvanized steel girders that distributed the weight over a large number of frames.
The post-war boats deviated from the construction method in that the gay class was made largely of plywood, the dark class and some of the experimental boats were built with light metal frames, and some boats were also made entirely of light metal.
drive
When production ramped up at the beginning of the Second World War, only Thornycroft made suitable engines for use on the boats in Great Britain. However, with only 650 hp , so that four of these engines had to be installed in larger boats, two of which each drove a shaft.
The competitors had to look for alternatives, initially engines from Napier and Isotta Fraschini were used. The British engines were only available in small numbers and were relatively inefficient. Rolls-Royce Merlin engines were tested on a boat, but due to the enormous demand of the RAF , this engine was no longer available for use on MTBs. The excellent Italian engines were of course no longer available after Italy entered the war in 1940, so engines from US production were soon procured. Initially engines from Sterling Admiral and Hall-Scott , the latter with only 650 HP (later also 900 HP), but with a relatively high weight, they did not provide the necessary power to achieve the desired performance of around 40 knots. Initially from BPB, aircraft engines from the US company Packard adapted for maritime use were then used. These initially delivered 1,200 hp successor models up to 1,500 hp. These engines were also big and heavy and required the size of the boats, but the increased power of the engines made up for this and, above all, Packard was able to deliver the necessary number of pieces. These engines therefore increasingly represented the standard engine of other shipyards as well.
The 4M-2500 were engines of Packard twelve-cylinder - V-engines with 60 ° bank angle, and had 40.8 liters displacement , centrifugal compressor with charge air cooling , four valves per cylinder and dual ignition . The engines had an enormous consumption of jet fuel with 100 octane , so that the boats only had a range of a good 400 nm (≈740 km) even at 20 kn, despite the often more than 10,000 liter tank capacity. (For comparison: the German speedboats of this time could travel around 700 nm (≈1 300 km) at 30 kn.)
In the standard version with three motors and three shafts, the middle motor and the additional crawl speed motor were installed behind the two outer motors against the direction of travel and diverted to the middle screw shaft via a gearbox . The crawl speed motor gave the boats a speed of 6 to 8 knots. This was often a Ford V8 engine. The process of changing the motors, when the crawl speed motor was disengaged from the stand-by position and the middle main motor was engaged with the gearbox, was not an unproblematic process.
The steering was carried out via two or three spade rudders, depending on the number of shafts, which were suspended in the flow of the propellers.
In the two post-war classes, the tried-and-tested Packard engines were used on the one hand, and two Napier Deltic diesel engines , each with 2500 hp , in the dark class . These gave the boats speeds of up to 47 knots.
Armament
The main weapon of the MTB was torpedoes. Due to the small size of the boats, the CMB and the first MTB from BPB were equipped with light 18 inch Mark VIII torpedoes, which were originally intended to be dropped by aircraft. Later, 18 inch torpedoes were used partly because of bottlenecks in the supply of 21 inch torpedoes and on MTBs, which were created by converting MGB. At the MGB, the cannon armament was reduced, but there was still less scope for loading the torpedoes. Some Fairmiles also received 18 inch torpedo tubes in order to be able to equip them with four of them.
The vast majority of MTBs carried the much more effective 21 inch torpedoes. Except for the aforementioned Fairmile 'D' MGB / MTB, all British MTBs of the Second World War had two torpedoes loaded.
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With the CMB, the 18 inch torpedoes lay in the middle behind the control station in the direction of travel on rails in a trough, from which they were pushed backwards by a cordite charge via a push rod with the tail first and started by a rip cord after going overboard. This meant that immediately after being dropped, the boats had to drive sharply out of the path of the torpedoes that were now chasing them. The MTB, however, had torpedo tubes mounted on the side of the deck next to or just behind the bridge superstructure. Some of these ejected the torpedoes parallel to the direction of travel, or they were arranged at angles of 7.5 ° - 10 ° to the direction of travel. Early Vosper boats in particular had indentations in the side wall in front of the torpedo tubes to ensure that the torpedoes could easily escape. The torpedo tubes ejected the torpedoes by means of a pyrotechnic propellant charge. The secondary armament of the boats consisted only of machine guns (MG) until 1942 . Even in the Second World War, it was still left over from the First World War. First, two to four 0.303 inch (7.7 mm) Lewis Mark I MG were used, which were replaced from 1940 by the 0.303 inch Vickers MG . This was later added by 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) Vickers MG. For the latter, simple rotating towers were also installed as the only protected armaments, which consisted of a sheet steel cylinder open at the top with an attached rotating ring , in which the gunner turned around with his machine gun. These towers, also equipped with double carriages, were mostly located amidships behind the control stand. Other common positions for guns were on the foredeck and completely in the stern of the boat and were partially surrounded by textile anti-splinter mattresses. Additional machine guns were often used in stands on the torpedo tubes or in stands attached to the side of the bridge.
From 1942 the 20 mm Oerlikon Flak was available for the Navy. The mount of the weapon was changed again and again, for example to improve the height adjustment. From 1943, the 20 mm Oerlikon was used as a double mount with a protective cover of 12 mm thickness. In this form, the weapon became the usual equipment on MTB. The high theoretical firing frequency of 470 rounds per minute, however, was limited in its effectiveness by the low ammunition supply of only 480 rounds per barrel (in 60 round magazines).
Depending on availability, some Vosper boats were also retrofitted with individual 2-pounder (4 cm) Pom-Poms Mark VIII, and a number of MGB equipped with this weapon were converted to MTB during the course of the war. Some of the boats taken over by the US Navy, as well as those built under license in Canada, also had 40 mm Bofors guns on board from 1944 . Shortly before the end of the war, a few boats with 6-pounder (5.7 cm) guns were used in motorized towers on the foredeck.
The boats mostly carried two, sometimes four 400 lb (≈181 kg) depth charges in drop racks, as well as one or two 2 inch flare launchers. A chemical mist generator (CSA apparatus) was installed on the rear edge of the deck.
After the war four torpedoes and mostly single 40 mm Bofors guns and 20 mm Oerlikon twin guns were used as armament.
Communication and sensors
The boats were equipped with tactile radios and two-way radios .
From 1940, the first boats received simple radar type 286PU, a simplified type 286 (ex ASV Mk.I). Initially, the devices had a fixed antenna with a forward search angle of 140 degrees, later also a rotatable antenna. The observation range was - also due to the low installation height - small (1.25–4.5 nautical miles for ships depending on size, a good 10 nautical miles for aircraft). The device was increasingly criticized from 1941 because of its limited range and its inaccuracy. The successor from 1942 was the Type 291U, with slightly better performance data, especially for air surveillance. Basic data: P-band (214 mc / s), 100 kW power with 1.1 ms pulses, resolution 3–5 degrees, detection range for aircraft up to 30 nautical miles, for ships up to 5.5 nautical miles). The built-in components on MTB only had an A-Scope for evaluation to map the frequency modulation without sweep, no actual radar screen , which is typically connected to a PPI (Plan Position Indicator).
The installation of ASDIC devices began around the same time .
Technical specifications
The specifications vary depending on the manufacturer and type. Here, the selection of the type of boat from the three main producers that was produced in the largest number is specified. Also within these classes, depending on the time of production, there were changes, especially in the armament and motorization, which are not reproduced, and the boats were retrofitted, so that in general the secondary armament was considerably increased towards the end of the war. The BPB boats are exceptional in their secondary armament because they are repurposed MGB.
| Technical specifications | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Thornycroft 55 feet (CMB) | Vosper 72 feet | British Power Boat 72 feet | |
| Length: | 55 feet (≈16.76 m) | 72 feet 6 inches (≈22.1 m) | 71 feet 9 inches (≈21.9 m) |
| Width: | 11 feet (≈3.35 m) | 19 feet (≈5.8 m) | 20 feet (≈6.1 m) |
| Draft: | 3 feet 6 inches (≈1 m) | 6 feet 3 inches (≈1.9 m) | 5 feet 9 inches (≈1.75 m) |
| Displacement: | 17 tons | 40 tons | 52 tons |
| Drive: | 2 × Thornycroft 650 hp each | 3 × Packard 1200 hp each | 3 × Packard 1200 hp each |
| Top speed: | 38 kn | 39 kn | 39 kn |
| Armament: |
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| Crew: | 5 | 13 | 15th |
References
literature
- Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 . Osprey Publishing Ltd., Oxford 2003, ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 .
- David Cobb: HM MTB / Vosper 70ft . Profile Publications (Warship Profile # 7), Windsor 1971.
- HT Lenton / JJ Colledge: Motor Torpedo Boats and Motor Gun Boats . In: (British) Warships of World War Two , Part 7, Ian Allan, London 1964 (4th edition 1970), ISBN 0-7110-0202-9 , pp. 486-521
- Brian Lavery: The Coastal Navies . In: Churchill's Navy - The Ships, Men and Organization 1939–1945 . Conway, London 2006, ISBN 1-84486-035-3 , pp. 244-250 (for practical use)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; Pp. 42-44
- ↑ a b c British Military Powerboat Trust on the Dark Class (Eng.)
- ↑ British Military Powerboat Trust (Eng.)
- ↑ www.classicboat.it (in web archive 2018) (engl.)
- ↑ list of units of the Royal Navy (Engl.)
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; P. 47
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; P. 18
- ↑ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; Pp. 6-7
- ↑ World War II Database on the Fairmile 'D' class (Eng.)
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; Pp. 16-18
- ↑ The Royal Navy Postwar on the Gay Class ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Eng.)
- ↑ The Royal Navy Postwar on the Dark Class ( Memento from October 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Eng.)
- ↑ Photographic comparison against the old construction: Pictorial ML2840 and Brave Borderer , in: Warship, October 1980 (Vol. 16), Conway, London, ISBN 0-85177-208-0 , pp. 280-285
- ^ The Royal Navy Postwar on the Brave class ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Eng.)
- ↑ a b British Military Powerboat Trust on the Brave Class (Eng.)
- ↑ naval-history.net about the actions during the Russian Civil War (Engl.)
- ^ H. Nöldeke and V. Hartmann: The medical service in the German fleet in World War II. Light naval forces. Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn 1999, Mittler & Sohn, ISBN 3-8132-0589-4 . Pp. 154, 156
- ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war of the Württemberg State Library 44-02
- ↑ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; Pp. 35-37
- ^ Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war of the Württemberg State Library
- ↑ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; P. 40 ff.
- ↑ DK Brown, Nelson to Vanguard - (British) Warship Design and Development 1923–1945 , Chatham Publishing, London 2000, ISBN 1-86176-136-8 , pp. 137–141 with further evidence, in particular with regard to the author's well-known descriptions of operations Capt. Peter Dickens
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; P. 9
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; Pp. 20-22
- ↑ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; Pp. 22-24
- ↑ description of the motor on a PT-boat (Engl.)
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; P. 24
- ↑ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; P. 24 ff.
- ↑ Norman Friedman, Naval Radar , Conway, London 1981, ISBN 0-85177-238-2 , pp. 195-197
- ↑ Angus Konstam: British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 , Oxford 2003, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 ; Pp. 38, 39
