Royal Navy
Stationed at HMS Hornet, a Coastal Forces shore base in Gosport, he was involved with a plan to attack the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The plan involved a motor torpedo boat specially modified during construction by Vosper Thornycroft, the MTB 74, which was specially built to house torpedo tubes on its foredeck instead of midships. The mission would be to fire the modified torpedoes over the anti-submarine net in Brest harbour where they would sink to the sea-bed and explode after a time delay. The weapons were nicknamed 'Wynn's weapons'. The MTB entered service in December 1941. However while this experiment was being trialled, the ships made a daring escape from Brest to the Baltic, nicknamed the "Channel Dash". Left without a mission, MTB 74 was instead re-tasked to the St. Nazaire raid where it was proposed she could torpedo the inner caisson of the Normandy Dock or a lockgate to the Submarine Basin. Further tests were carried out prior to the raid on St Nazaire and adjustments made to the delayed-action mechanism of the torpedoes which were fired by MTB 74.
Read more about this topic: Michael Wynn, 7th Baron Newborough, Military Career
Famous quotes containing the words royal navy, royal and/or navy:
“The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island.”
—William Blackstone (1723–1780)
“a highly respectable gondolier,
Who promised the Royal babe to rear
And teach him the trade of a timoneer
With his own beloved brattling.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“We all know the Navy is never wrong, but in this case it was a little weak on being right.”
—Wendell Mayes, U.S. screenwriter. Otto Preminger. CINCPAC II (Henry Fonda)