The Northern Patrol in WW2

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by Tony BARNES, Feb 19, 2018.

  1. Tony BARNES

    Tony BARNES Member

    The Northern Patrol was restarted in Sep 1939 - see; Northern Patrol - Wikipedia What I'm not sure of is when it was discontinued. The Home Fleet war diaries make no mention of it after early 1942 when it was possibly superseded by Patrols BLACK and WHITE between Iceland and the Faroes.

    Does anyone know when it was discontinued? TB
     
  2. Maybole1599

    Maybole1599 Member

    I have an excellent book Trawlers Go To War, which goes into some detail about the Northern Patrol. I will dig it out and have a look. From memory the Northern Patrol consisted of steam drifters crewed by fishermen and spent most of the patrol time just battling appalling weather conditions.
     
  3. Maybole1599

    Maybole1599 Member

    The book is by Paul Lund and Harry Ludlam. It describes the adventures of Harry Tate's Navy, the many trawlers which defended Britain in the early years of the war when the navy had too few ships. Typically they carried a single Hotchkiss gun which was of little value against the German navy and air force.

    The Northern Patrol operated out of Kirkwall, Orkney (where I work.) If they saw a U Boat it was a rarity. They had no Asdic.

    From reading the book it seems that the trawlers of the Patrol were simply . reassigned to more practical duties.

    Trawlers continued to play a critical role in World War 2 as they had in World War 1 escorting convoys, minesweeping, submarine hunting and of course the revictualling and servicing of capital ships.
     
  4. Maybole1599

    Maybole1599 Member

    timuk and RosyRedd like this.
  5. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Thanks for the link to the book - will read it later

    TD
     
  6. Maybole1599

    Maybole1599 Member

  7. Maybole1599

    Maybole1599 Member

  8. Tony BARNES

    Tony BARNES Member

    Many thanks for all the posts on the N/Ptl. I've downloaded the book, part 7 of which contains a lot of useful information on the N/Ptl, and the IWM photograph of the NORTHERN SKY. Much appreciated. TB
     

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