Royal Naval Warships

HMS Active (H14)

Builder: Hawthorn Leslie. Laid Down 10.7.1928: Launched: 9.7.1929. Completed: 9.2.1930

3rd July 1940. Part of Operation Catapult, the attack on part of the French fleet at Mers-El-Kebir. Force included HMS Hood, Resolution, Valiant and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. After the refusal by the French to agree to British conditions a number of French ships were seriously damaged and over 1100 French were killed.

Feb/March 1941. Takes part in a number of operations with Force H, Gibraltar, to get fighter aircraft to Malta. They were flown off the carriers Eagle and Argus. Other ships included the battleship Malaya, the battlecruiser Hood, the cruiser Hermione and destroyers Laforey, Lightning, Anthony, Wishart, Duncan, Whitehall, Blankney and Croome.

22nd May 1941. When the German battleship ‘Bismark’ and the heavy cruiser ‘Prinz Eugen’ set out for the Atlantic for commerce raiding, Active is part of the force sent from Scapa Flow in an attempt to intercept.

24th May 1943. With HMS Ness sinks the Italian submarine Da Vinci near Cape Finisterre, which has previously sunk the Empress of Canada, 21517 tons, and four other ships in the south Atlantic.

8th October 1943. Sinks U-179 with depth charges off South Africa after it had sunk a ship of 6558 tons.

1947. Sold and broken up at Dalmuir.

MGB 85

PTC-1 Class Motor Boat Submarine Chaser:
  • Built by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Completed in February 1941
  • Placed in service 11 March 1941 and assigned to Motor Boat Submarine Chaser Squadron ONE under the command of LTJG John D. Buckley, USN
  • Transferred to Great Britain 15 July 1941 and reclassified HM MGB-85
  • Paid off 7 July 1945
  • Returned to U.S. Navy custody 21 July 1945
  • Laid up at Gillingham, Kent, England to December 1947 then transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission.

Specifications

  • Displacement 27 tons.
  • Length 70′
  • Beam 15′ 3″
  • Draft 3′ 10″
  • Speed 30 kts.
  • Complement 11
  • Armament: 0.5” Vickers machine gun, 2-pounder “pom pom”, a single or twin 20mm Oerlikon and, ultimately, the auto-loader 6-pounder gun.
  • Propulsion: Two 1,500shp Hall-Scott Defender gasoline engines, two shafts.

MGB 88

PTC-4 Class Motor Boat Submarine Chaser:
  • Built by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Completed in February 1941
  • Placed in service 12 March 1941 and assigned to Motor Boat Submarine Chaser Squadron One under the command of LTJG John D. Buckley, USN
  • Transferred to Great Britain 4 April 1941 and reclassified HM MGB-88
  • Returned to U.S. Navy custody 19 June 1945
  • To be sold by the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in September 1946

Specification

  • Displacement 27 tons.
  • Length 70′
  • Beam 15′ 3″
  • Draft 3′ 10″
  • Speed 30 kts.
  • Complement 11
  • Armament: 0.5” Vickers machine gun, 2-pounder “pom pom”, a single or twin 20mm Oerlikon and, ultimately, the auto-loader 6-pounder gun
  • Propulsion: Two 1,500shp Hall-Scott Defender gasoline engines, two shafts