Allied Coastal Forces of World War II - Volume 1

As someone who has always admired the lines of the Fairmile Dog boats, this book is a delight. There is literally no aspect of the Fairmile range of Coastal Forces craft that isn’t covered. The early Fairmile A proved to be too slow to tackle E boats and they evolved into the heavily armed D Class with at least 2x6 pdr main armament, 4 torpedoes, twin 20mm and machine guns. The D Class were “the most potent and heavily armed coastal forces” of any navy. With a range of over 500 miles, it is worth pointing out that they carried over 5000 gallons of petrol with no armour. The book has exhaustive details of construction including technical drawing; literally no detail is omitted. Sections on the individual types weapons, radar and engines are similarly detailed – I almost felt I could have done an oil filter change the drawings were so detailed. As these craft became more heavily armed, crew conditions were increasingly cramped. A section on habitability is a marvellous piece of understatement. Habitability in these small craft was always going to be a test – this was before the days of lightweight Goretex foul weather gear. The CO who filled his seaboots with warm water on the basis that if he was going to get wet, he might as well be warm is brilliant. The builders of these craft were small boatyards throughout the country. Many of them were peacetime yacht builders and in one case the woodwork was French polished not varnished. The book has been supported by the Coastal Forces Veteran’s Association and their input is very evident. The photos are superb and the publishing standard is equally high. My only comment is that a photo of HMS Hornet talks of “Suicide Bridge” over Haslar Creek – I always knew it as “Pneumonia Bridge”! This book is fitting testimony to some extremely brave young crews who were mostly volunteers. Very highly recommended.