Completed 24 Length 110 ft (34 m) | Displacement 72 tons | |
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Name Fairmile C motor gun boat Preceded by Fairmile B motor launch Succeeded by Fairmile D motor torpedo boat | ||
The Fairmile C motor gun boat was a type of Motor Gun Boat designed by Norman Hart of Fairmile Marine for the Royal Navy. An intermediate design, twenty-four boats were built in 1941 receiving the designations MGB 312 - 335.
Contents
Design
The Fairmile Type C was a reuse of the hull form of the Type A but with the lessons learned from the Type A incorporated in terms of steering and deck layout.
Service
Five boats of the twenty-four built were lost to enemy action.
The class was mainly involved in close escort work with east coast convoys, and some boats were engaged in clandestine operations. MGB 314 took part in Operation Chariot, the daring raid on the St Nazaire docks (the only facility on the axis-held Atlantic coast suitable to refit Bismarck-class battleships).
Only two survive to this day, one at Hayling Island and the other at Bembridge (UK). A third survived in Shoreham until 2002.