Title:SKAGERRAK BLOCKADE-BREAKING MOTOR GUNBOATS IN TRAINING [Main Title]
Film Number:MGH 679
Other titles:
Summary: Short film showing the 27/28 knot Camper and Nicholsons motor gun boats used in the Skagerrak blockade-running operations, in training in early 1945.
Description: This film, made privately on the suggestion of the SOE, shows various fast Motor Gunboats 504 - 508, Nonsuch, Master Standfast, Gay Viking, Gay Corsair and Hopewell, converted for the Sir George Binney series of Skagerrak blockade-breaking operations in the winters of 1943/4 and 1944/5. The boats had been converted by the removal of the heavier guns and replacement by cargo space - each ship converted to carry up to 40 tons of cargo. The ships' lighter armament consisted of two twin Oerlikons and two twin and one quadruple Vickers 0.303-inch machine guns. The boats, length approximately 110 feet, were powered by three engines, each 1000 hp, diesel fuelled and made by Paxman - Riccardo.The film was shot early in 1945 on trials off Aberdeen and off the South Coast of England. Shots of Hopewell crew show Brian Reynolds, Peter Fitzwilliam and Jim Woodeson.
