«British Power Boat» class fate.

Excuse for a mistake, photos are taken from the book dr. ing. Cristian Craciunoiu " Vedetele Torpiloare din Marina Romana "

On the site forums.airbase.ru, somebody wrote on Feb.2006 :
From the Romanian section of the future dictionary "МК" (?) about All East and South Europe WW2 (?) - as preliminary :
Torpedo boats of type "ТМ" (6 units) :
“Vedenia”, “Vantul”, “Vijelia”, “Viforul”, “Vartejul”, “Vulcanul”.
Have entered into system 1942.
32 tonns, 21,34×4,1×1,4 m; 3 gasoline 2850 HP; 35 kts. Crew 14, 2 - 533 mm TT, 2×1 - 20 mm.
Former Dutch TMB series ТМ 52, which were under construction on shipyard Gusto in Shiedam (British Power Boat licence). The Dutch numbers, presumably, TM-62 – TM-67. In May 1940 are grasped by Ge. on building berths and included in Ge.Navy as S-203 – S-208 (?), in the end of 1941 are sold (?) to Romania, in not complete condition, towed on Danube to Galatzi Shipyard 20.3.1942, on the way having received ice damages. Were complete motorised and armed since Jun. 1942. Named No. 4-9. First three ready 22.11.1942, other three 24.12.1942. Actually because of absence of engine couplers and of some other systems, long time were disabled. “Vedenia”, “Vantul” and “Vulcanul” was definitively completed by the end of 1943, and the others three – only in Apr.-May 1944. Wooden hulls (?), engines Rolls-Royce Merlin III, but the absence of spare parts has generate considerable difficulties. Were armed by 20 mm aviation guns Hispano-Suiza, at some low-caliber MG's were mounted. Just limited applications, basically escort missions. Five units 5.9.1944 have passed under Sov. control in Constanza. “Vedenia”, some time used for Sov.Command needs, then seized Sep.10, 1944. In Sov.Black Sea Fleet as ТК-951 – ТК-954, ТК-956 - TK-957. Returned to Romania Oct.12, 1945 in Galatzi, but not re-included in Ro.Navy because of bad technical condition and absence of spare parts. Later have been broken.

This post has been edited by Petre on October 18, 2011 08:27 am

This is very informative. Where did you find this material?

It started with Google search :
http://www.netherlandsnavy.nl/TM51_his.htm
(Try to read all links before.)
Then, my conclusion has come.
But I found something new :
http://s-boot.net/sboats-kriegsmarine-types.html

The Navy Museum in Constanta has little information on the Gusto MTBs, but they still have one of the turrets from such a MTB on display.

To help you with your research, it is worth considering that the design is based on the British Power Boat Company (BPB) 70ft Private Venture (PV70) MTB.

Google "British Power Boat Company PV70 MTB"

This was also built by Elco as the "Elco 70ft PT" but with a variety of elaborate upper structures and was further developed into other very successful types.

The RAF used it also a a "rescue launch" (no torpedo tubes, light armament).

If you are into MTBs, a very good book that is worth reading is "Allied Coastal Forces of World War II, Volume II: Vosper MTBs & U.S. ELCOs" by John Lambert & Al Ross.
The book has no info on the BPBs in Romania (though it deals briefly with the Romanian Vospers), but it shows the lineage and development of the BPB PV70 in America.

HTH
Radu

Here is a color picture of "Viscolul" from WWII (Military History of Romanian People, vol. 6):



What are those flags?

Flag semaphore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_semaphore

Later edit. Looks like the photo may be a "colourised" black and white photo. The flag should be blue and white not red and white.

HTH
Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on April 09, 2011 10:15 am

It is not colorized, in fact it has the characteristic hues of Agfacolor films. I've digged up a bit about the flags and it seems they are the letter "C" in German flag code. I'm not sure about their significance, though.

I just looked in the Modelism book on Romanian MTBs and there is one more photo that shows the flag was red and white.
Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on April 09, 2011 11:16 am

The Netherlands web site gives a clue about why this matter has been so confusing for me. Lenton's book about the Dutch Navy confuses the TM51 type with the larger TM54, saying that the Bulgarians got enough TM54's (the German S151-158 type) to have a total of eight MTBs (though I believe they had only seven, according to Todorov's book The Ships of the Bulgarian Navy). Maybe the Dutch hull numbers have caused the trouble. The smaller boats were numbered (apparently) TM51-53, 63-70, overlapping the larger boats TM54-61. (Where is TM62?) My older Groner edition makes a little error in forgetting S210 (TM70).
Todorov describes all Gusto boats as the same size.
The sovnavy-ww2.by.ru site appears to make the same mistake as Conway's Fighting Ships, saying the Romanians got only four Power boats. Because it forgets Viforul and Vijelia, I think it must be because of the reused names.
Groner does not mention S159-166, so I think navyworld.narod.ru site must be mistaken on that.
Does sovnavy-ww2.by.ru, vimpel.boinaslava.net, or navyworld.narod.ru list its sources?

http://sovnavy-ww2.by.ru/books.htm
http://sovnavy-ww2.by.ru/links.htm
http://vimpel.boinaslava.net/index.php?module=links
http://navyworld.narod.ru/Links.htm

Hallo Tiornu!
Furthermore Groener, I use a large number of other sources.
http://navyworld.narod.ru/Bibliography.doc

On the boat S-159-166 can be found here:
http://www.deutschekriegsmarine.de/hauptte...il_typ_s_26.htm
http://www.dutchfleet.net/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=2615&start=15
http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/shi...1940/ships.html

Regards, Senotrusov Viatcheslav (www. navyworld.narod.ru)

Excellent! Thank you very much.