"LRDG armed converted fishing boats" Topic

Since we seem to be on a coastal theme right now.While skimming through the web looking for some photos from the Western Desert I found this on the Imperial War Museums site,

The MV LA PALMA in Bari harbour. She was one of two converted fishing boats acquired by David Lloyd Owen to transport Long Range Desert Group teams in the Aegean. A jeep is carried on her forward deck, hidden by a tarpaulin.
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Does anyone have any more information on the missions? How were the fishing boats armed? Any encounters with enemy craft?
Robert

I have seen that someone else was asking about this on some other sites with not much luck. Robert

Hi, A book by Barrie Pitt called "Special Boat Squadron" (ISBN 0 7126 0180 2) includes a bit about the LRDG moving to the Aegean in September 43, just in time to get caught up in the German assaults on Cos, Simi & Leros. They operated alongside the SBS. Not too many ship vs ship encounters but some interesting ship vs shore engagements are mentioned.

Cheers

Julian

Thanks for that Julian. I'll have to see if I can find a copy. Robert

Found this photo too,

link

Perhaps if Dave sees this he could make a MV LA PALMA in the future . Robert

Speaking of Caiques, one of the engagements mentioned in Pitt's book involved some Caiques and would make an unusual scenario if one could get suitable models and players who were not concerned about a fair fight;
"…..the Germans were retreating towards the bay in which they had landed and in which waited two small caiques and a medium-sized schooner. They were getting out. The re-embarkation was carried out with Teutonic thoroughness and skill…..until the wounded and bulk of the infantry were on the schooner. As it moved out towards the entrance of the bay the caiques closed the shore, the rearguards fired their last furious bursts and ran down the beach…the German invasion force on Simi had been driven away….BUT…as soon as the British CO had seen that the Germans were re-embarking he sent one of his own caiques out from Simi harbour to intercept, and it caught the large schooner as it came around the point of Pethi Bay. Had the Germans been ready for it, their own available firepower would probably have enabled them to fight off the caique and possibly sink it, but this unexpected threat caused their skipper to veer closer to the coast in order to give his passengers time to organise themselves. And that small alteration of course brought the schooner directly under the Bren-guns sited on the top of School Hill. It is not known how many Germans were killed or wounded during those few minutes as the crew of the schooner valiently brought their craft around to sail it out of range of both the Bren-guns and the small arms on the caique, but the decks had been packed and they had been raked from above by MG fire…….."

JD

Thanks for that Julian . It does sound like a good one. Robert