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 The Home Fleet war diaries make no mention of it after early 1942 when it was possibly superseded by Patrols BLACK and WHITE between Iceland and the Faroes.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
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.
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.
Here's some photos from the Northern Patrol in 1942 WITH A TRAWLER ON THE NORTHERN PATROL. MAY 1942, ON BOARD HM TRAWLER NORTHERN SKY, OPERATING ON THE NORTHERN PATROL FROM SCAPA. MEMBERS OF THE CREW OF HMS NORTHERN SKY ON ONE OF THE TOUGHEST JOBS AT SEA, THE NORTHERN PATROL. | Imperial War Museums
The trawler in those photos above had an impressive history, see this. S.T. Northern Sky LO162 : The Bosun's Watch
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