Amanda G

Hi Bruce, Thanks so much for this - I really appreciate it. The character will be collecting information from Norwegian resistance cells, and I've based him very loosely on Patrick Dalzel-Jobs, so I'm going to give him the same special duties and rank etc. PDJ was a total outlier really, but great to have his history to work from. Am I imagining things or did I see somewhere on another topic you mentioned the destruction of many ship logs in the 50s? Can't find it now, but that comment brought me to Model Ship World. I don't suppose you can shed light on my second question about how vessels were identified by the resistance (if they weren't visibly named?)? Many thanks again, really great to know about the lack of nicknames, and I've taken that onboard (pardon the pun!). All best wishes, Amanda

Thanks so much, alross, that tallies with what I found, interesting that US PTs commonly had nicknames. I might sneak a nickname used by RN crew perhaps, but it sounds like something like MTB 34 would be how the craft were referred to within documentation.

Good morning, I hope this is the right part of the forum to ask a couple of general history questions relating to ships/naming conventions during WW2. I'm an author who writes historical mysteries and I wanted to fact check a few things with experts - these are embarrassingly noddy questions, so many apologies in advance. 1) I have a character who is aboard various British Motor Torpedo Boats moving up and down the Norwegian coast from 1940-42 and I wondered if anyone could tell me if these torpedo boats were ever given original names, or were always identified by MTG xxx (then later: MTB xxx)? How would these boats be referred to in dispatches? 2) Also: the naming of larger boats: cruisers, troop carriers etc. Were the names visible on any Allied/Axis vessels at all during WW2, particularly in the north Atlantic? If not, how were the vessels identified? For example (and this doesn't occur in the book!) - during the search for the Tirpitz, how did the Allies and/or Norwegian informers (who were often islanders without knowledge of the navy) know what they were looking for if the battleship was unmarked? I don't want to waste anyone's time, and for that reason I'm hesitant to press 'submit', but I have searched for hours and for a layperson like me definitive answers are difficult to find (perhaps there aren't any definitive answers, which would be useful to clarify too!). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Amanda