Skimmers

First World War 1914-1918 from the German perspective.

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phylo_roadking
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Skimmers

Post by phylo_roadking »

In 1918, a flotilla of RN "Skimmers" or CMBs as they were officially called, very shallow draught fast motorboats, the 40ft model carrying one and the 55ft model carrying two torpedoes - operated out of a base on Osea Island in the Blackwater River in Essex in Eastern England and four other smaller bases.

This flotilla carried out a number of very successful raids on German bases on the North Sea coast through 1918, including supporting Roger Keyes' raid on Zeebrugge on 22nd April, 1918...and of course went on to later cripple the Soviet Navy's warship capability in the Baltic in the leadup to British involvement in the Russian Civil War. But apart from Zeebrugge there is little mention of their other North Sea coastal raids. Can anyone point me to details of these?
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greenhorn
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Re: Skimmers

Post by greenhorn »

The Baltic Episode (Naval Institute Press '63) is a good starting point, it documents Agustus Agar V.C. early career and the CMBs flotilla?
He won his VC for the Kronstadt raid '19, where CMB4 sank the cruiser Oleg.


Didn't know he was also the Captain of HMS Dorsetshire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Agar

Hope this helps.
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Richard Hargreaves
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Re: Skimmers

Post by Richard Hargreaves »

Sadly, Zeebrugge only, but an interesting read. It begins after the sport section:

http://publishing.yudu.com/A7njl/navyne ... s.co.uk%2F

:[]

Skimmers these days refers to any surface ship in the RN. Or as submariners call them... targets.
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