Fairmile-B/D (MTB/MGB-1941+)

Back to Greenland Navy page:


Greenland purchased the rights to produce the Fairmile Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) and Motor Gun Boat (MGB) designs in 1940. Like the Royal Navy versions, the Greenlandian Navy boats had different armaments almost on a ship to ship basis. There was a basic design armament for the class but each ship would be armed with what was available at the time it was fitting out. 40mm pom poms, 20mm Oerlikons and Hispano-Suiza cannons, 0.5" machineguns, all went aboard ship. In the MTB mode the ships could be fitted with two to four 21" torpedo tubes. Most of those tubes were sourced from those removed from the WW1 destroyers that were turned into long range escorts and otherwise had at least one set of tubes removed.


Original Fairmile B type in MGB mode.

From 1942 the pom poms were replaced by 40mm Bofors mountings and the 6pd/57mm cannons with autoloaders.

The first Greenlandian units were completed in 1941 and transported as deck cargo to Gibraltar where they were heavily engaged in escorting convoys and other ships through the Strait. Six were then transferred to Malta where they were used to interdict the local Italian convoys in MTB (4) and MGB (2) modes, fighting battles with Italian escorting destroyers and corvettes. 



The main problem with the type was the low speed at 30 knots. This did not stop Greenland producing over a 100 of these very versatile craft. An E-boat commander would know they would be outmatched in a gun battle with these boats, so all they would need to do was to turn and put the pedal to the metal and the Fairmiles could wave them goodbye. But, for the E-boat to attack the convoy, the Fairmile was escorting, they would have to get through the Fairmiles first.



 

Displacement	102 standard, 120 full load
Length	115 ft
Breadth	21 ft
Draught	5 ft
Machinery	4 shaft, 4 × Packard 4M 2500 petrol engines, total 5,000 hp
Speed	30 knots (at full load)
Range	500 miles at 30 knots, 2,000 at 11 knots
Armament	Fairmile-D 1944-45 2 × single 6 pounder guns 4 × 20mm Oerlikon (2 × single, 1 × twin) 2 × twin .303 Vickers K guns 4 × light boat depth charges
Complement	20-24
Notes	A lot of the surviving craft were sold during the later 1940's for mercantile service. Some were even converted into luxury yachts. In this type of conversion, the original petrol engines would be replaced with diesels for a much increased range.

Back to Greenland Navy page: