Royal Navy Coastal Forces 1939-42 (Fast craft in the Channel and North Sea)

In World War II, the Royal Navy fought a dashing, dangerous war to defend the last miles of British waters. Fully illustrated, this studies Coastal Forces in the toughest years of the war.

At the start of the war, the Royal Navy possessed a handful of small, fast, experimental motor torpedo boats (MTBs). There was no command structure, and no plans for their use. But with the fall of France in 1940, the Kriegsmarine's experienced force of fast, light coastal craft could now be deployed just across the English Channel. A counter was needed.

In this book, naval historian Angus Konstam traces the rapid development of Coastal Forces in home waters. By late 1942 it had expanded to a force of almost 10,000 officers and men and some 300 vessels, including destroyers and fast motor gunboats. Initially their main role was the defence of British coastal convoys, but during 1941 they increasingly went on the offensive across the North Sea and English Channel, culminating in the MTBs' February 1942 attack on Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the 'Channel Dash' – suicidal, but it captured the public imagination. The following month Coastal Forces' participation in the Saint-Nazaire raid was much more successful, but equally high-risk.

Packed with illustrations, this study tells the dramatic story of the creation of Coastal Forces, and outlines its expansion and combat during the early years of the war.