Motor Torpedo Boat

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MTBs on their way back from Anti-E-boat Patrol
MTBs on their way back from Anti-E-boat Patrol

Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the United States Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy.

During World War II the US Navy boats were usually called by their hull classification symbol of "PT" (from Patrol, Torpedo) and are covered under PT boat though the class type was still 'motor torpedo boat'. The capitalised term is generally used for the Royal Navy (RN) boats and abbreviated to MTB. German motor torpedo boats of World war II were called E-boats by the allies and S-Boote (Schnellboote ~ fast boats) by the Kriegsmarine.

Contents

[edit] History

MTB in the Mediterranean.
MTB in the Mediterranean.

MTBs were designed for high speed and manoeuvrability on the water to get close enough to launch their torpedoes at enemy vessels. With next to no armour, the boats relied upon their agility at high speed to avoid being hit by gunfire from bigger ships.

The British and Italian navies started developing such vessels in the early 20th Century. Italian MTBs were called MAS and comparantly small. MAS 15 has the distinction in the history of this new weapon of sinking the Austrian battleship Szent István in 1918.

  • HMS Cricket, launched in 1906, was the first RN ship to use oil for her boilers. She was initially designated as an Insect class coastal destroyer, but was later reclassified as a torpedo boat. The class were nicknamed Oily Wads by RN seamen.
  • A similar size boat with a different role was the Rescue Launch.

The last MTBs for the Royal Navy were the two Brave class fast patrol boats of the late 1950s/early 1960s which were capable of 50 knots.

[edit] Specification

Many boats were built with the MTB designation.

[edit] RCN MTB

Specification of a Royal Canadian Navy torpedo boat of the 29th MTB Flotilla. Originally designed as Motor Gun Boats (MGBs) (because they carried 6pdr {57mm, 2.24"}) they were redesignated as Motor Torpedo Boats.

[edit] Vosper Private Venture Boat

Designed by Commander Peter Du Cane CBE, the Managing Director of Vosper Ltd, in 1936. She was completed and launched in 1937, she was bought by the Admiralty and taken into service with the Royal Navy as MTB 102.

  • Length: 68 ft
  • Beam: 14 ft 9 in
  • Draft: 3 ft 9 in
  • Powerplant: 3 Isotta Fraschini 57-litre petrol engines
  • Power: 3300 hp.
  • Speed 48 knots (light), 43 knots (loaded and armed)
  • Crew: 2 officers, 10 men.
  • Armament:
    • Two 21-inch torpedo tubes (depth-charges, machine guns and the Swiss made Oerlikon 20 mm cannon were trialled on her)

MTB 102 was the fastest wartime British naval vessel in service. She was at Dunkirk for the evacuation and carried Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower to review the fleet for the Invasion of Normandy.

[edit] Vosper Types 1 & 2

Between 1943 and 1945 two Vosper designs appeared

Vosper Type I

  • Length: 73 ft (22 m)
  • Engine: 3 Packard engines for a total of 4200 hp
  • Speed: 40 kt
  • Range: 470 nm at 20 kt
  • Displacement: 47 t
  • Armament:
    • Four 18-inch Torpedo
    • 20 mm Oerlikon,
    • Two 0.303 Vickers MG, (optionally two 0.5 Vickers MG)
  • Crew: 13

Vosper Type II This design remained in use after the war.

  • Length 73 ft (22 m)
  • Engine 4200 hp
  • Speed 40 kt
  • Range 480 nm at 20 kt
  • Displacement 49 t
  • Armament
    • Two 18-inch Torpedo
    • QF 6 pdr Mark IIA (57 mm)[1],
    • 20 mm Oerlikon,
    • Two 0.303 Vickers MG
  • Crew 13

[edit] References

  • "British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939–45" by Angus Konstam, Osprey, 2003, ISBN 1-84176-500-7
  • "Dog Boats at War: A History of the Operations of the Royal Navy d Class Fairmile Motor Torpedo Boats and Motor Gunboats 1939-1945" by L. C. Reynolds and Lord Lewin, Sutton Pubns Inc, 2000, ISBN 0-7509-2454-3

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ An automatic loading version of the 6-pounder Anti-tank gun

[edit] External links

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