The Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) was a branch of the Royal Navy active during the Second World War. The RNPS operated many small auxiliary vessels such as naval trawlers for anti-submarine and minesweeping operations to protect coastal Britain and convoys during WWII.
Contents |
The Royal Naval Patrol Service had its origins in the trawlermen and fisherman who belonged to the Royal Naval Reserve Trawler Section in the period leading up to the war. When the Royal Naval Reserves were mobilised in August 1939, HMS Europa, usually known as Sparrow's Nest, became the Central Depot of the RNPS. Sparrow's Nest was located at Lowestoft, the most easterly point of Great Britain, and then the closest British military establishment to the enemy.
This eventually became the administrative headquarters for more than 70,000 men and 6,000 boats which included trawlers, whalers, drifters, MFVs (Motor Fishing Vessels), MLs (Motor Launches), and later MMS (Motor Minesweepers or "Mickey Mouses"), American produced BYMS (British Yard MineSweepers) and numerous requisitioned vessels.[1]
Sparrow's Nest was decommissioned in 1946.
[Between 1942 and its decommissioning in 1946 new construction] ships and craft manned by the Service totaled 1,637 of various kinds including converted trawlers, corvettes, fuel carriers, motor launches and naval seaplane tenders. Of this total, from September 1939 through to May 1945, approximately 260 trawlers were lost in action... This material loss however pales into insignificance when compared to the 15,000 or so, RNPS personnel who were killed during WWII, including the 2385 RNPS seaman who "have no known grave but the sea".[2]
The advantages of using small ships for minesweeping and other duties had been recognised during the First World War and many of the crews of the peacetime fishing fleets had been encouraged to join the Royal Naval Reserve. Because the majority were Reservists the RNPS became a "Navy within a Navy".[1]
Because it used out-dated and poorly armed vessels, such as requisitioned trawlers crewed by ex-fishermen, the RNPS came to bear a number of unofficial titles that poked fun at it, such as "Harry Tate's Navy", "Churchill's pirates" and "Sparrows".
The name 'Harry Tates' dates back to the First World War and was used as jargon for anything clumsy and amateurish. It originated from an old music hall entertainer who would play the clumsy comic who couldn't get to grips with various contraptions. His act included a car that gradually fell apart around him. By the start of WW2 it had been adopted by the Royal Navy and used for the purpose of poking fun at the trawlers and drifters of the Royal Naval Patrol Service. In true RNPS style they took it on the chin and the title of Harry Tate's Navy was proudly adopted. As the war went on it was to become a worthy password for courage.[3]
Because the peacetime crews become Naval seamen together they developed a special camaraderie. This camaraderie continued in the Service throughout WWII, even though by the end most RNPS members were "hostilities only"[4] who had had little connection with the sea before the war.[5]
The RNPS fought in all theatres of the war, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Far East, involved in convoy duty, minesweeping and anti-submarine work. Most particularly they kept the British Coast clear of the mines that were wreaking havoc with merchant ships.[1]
One RNPS member, Lieutenant Richard Stannard won the Victoria Cross while in command of the Hull trawler Arab during the Namsos campaign.
Its fighting fleet consisted of hundreds of requisitioned fishing trawlers, whalers, drifters, paddle steamers, yachts, tugs and the like, "Minor War Vessels" as the Admiralty called them.[6]