HMS Beehive’s Story

The Story of HMS Beehive – Landguard Felixstowe, Suffolk

At Landguard viewing point, there’s a rough granite memorial, about a metre high, with a metal plaque. It commemorates the men and women who served at HMS Beehive between 1940 and 1945, a modest salute to the magnificent efforts which helped ensure Britain’s survival in World War II.

The war was only hours old when the need for some kind of coastal force that could protect merchant shipping became clear. Soon after the declaration of hostilities on September 3, 1939, the SS Athenia was torpedoed near Rockall in the Atlantic, by German submarine U-30. She was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany and was the Donaldson Line’s greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France.

Just a week later, the war came to the Suffolk coast when people enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon on the beaches of Sizewell, Thorpeness and Aldeburgh saw a blinding flash, followed by a huge explosion. The 8,641 tons SS Magdapur had struck a mine three miles off Thorpeness. She sank in full view of the onlookers, but thanks to the efforts of the Aldeburgh lifeboat and other local vessels, 74 of the crew of 80 were saved.

It was clear that Britain’s vital supply of food and other essential raw materials was in peril. Merchant ships needed protection. The answer was to group them into convoys as they crossed the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. But there were also coastal convoys, who ran the gauntlet of enemy action in the narrow seas along the east coast of Britain and in the English Channel. Their safe passage was critical to the nation’s survival.

At the time of World War II, London was Britain’s largest port and handled about a third of the country’s maritime trade. The capital depended on coastal shipping to supply food and raw materials, especially coal for power stations, gas works, railways, industry, and domestic heating. London alone needed more than 10 million tons of coal a year, too much for road or rail transport, so it had to be delivered by sea. The collier ships which transported the coal – known as ‘flat irons’ because of their shape – were a familiar sight, two-thirds of the 104,792 ships that passed the east coast during the war, an average of 61 a day.

The colliers were slow, filthy and far from beautiful, but their crews were brave. Day and night, in all weathers, they navigated the narrow channels that had been swept for enemy mines, between the shallow east coast and a protective offshore minefield. But they still fell frequent victims to enemy attack by mines, aircraft and E-boats.

Just two months into the war, Admiral Raeder, head of the German navy, boasted that 770 mines had been laid in this area. The waters from Felixstowe to South Foreland on the North Kent coast became known as ‘E-boat Alley’. The effect was catastrophic. By January 1940 south east England had just two weeks’ supply of coal left. Something had to be done.

HMS Beehive was commissioned in January 1940.

It was to be home to up to 40 small naval vessels and was Britain’s coastal forces’ most successful wartime base.

The Story of HMS Beehive – Landguard Felixstowe Suffolk

HMS Beehive was tucked away in the Felixstowe dock basin between the port’s Landguard and Trinity terminals, which it shared throughout the war with a flourmill. In 1940 there was a wide slipway and hangers for the RAF’s flying boats that operated out of Felixstowe, and pontoons for their rapid search and rescue motor launches. It was here that Lawrence of Arabia served some of his time in the RAF in the guise of Aircraftman Shaw.

HMS Beehive was home to up to 40 small naval vessels and was Britain’s coastal forces’ most successful wartime base. Here were MTBs (Motor Torpedo Boats), whose main role was to attack enemy shipping along the coast of occupied Europe, MGBs (Motor Gun Boats) which intercepted E-boats, and Motor Launches, which laid mines, hunted submarines, escorted merchant ships and searched for downed aircrew. The Pier Hotel, alongside the basin, became the wardroom and serving men and women were housed in Nissen huts. The average age of crews was about 20.

Beehive’s 1st Flotilla of nine MTBs arrived from Malta via France’s canals. They had a crew of 17; a captain (Skipper), first lieutenant (Jimmy), a petty officer motor mechanic and three stokers to look after the machinery, another petty officer and nine seaman to operate the weapons, and a telegraphist who was usually lurked – ‘volunteered’ in naval language – as the cook as the wireless office was close to the galley, which was nothing more than a primus stove and a sink.

At just over 70 feet long, MTBs and MGBs were similar in size and performance, but built to different designs by Vospers (MTBs) and The British Power Boat Company (MGBs). They had double mahogany planking on wooden frames with a hard chine – the change in angle in the cross section of the hull – which lifted the hull on to the plane above the water at high speed.

Propelled by three enormous Packard V12 petrol engines, each producing up to 1,500 horse power, they could reach speeds of over 40 knots. With 1,500 gallons of high octane petrol and several thousand rounds of ammunition on board, plus a limited supply of fresh water, accommodation was basic and incendiary, so the crew slept ashore when possible.

The MLs were 112 feet long. They had the same three Packard engines but could only make 25 knots because they were not designed to plane. They could, however, stay at sea longer, and had an operational range of 1,500 nautical miles. Crews of the comparatively spacious MLs lived aboard according to Admiralty rules, although a cook wasn’t deemed necessary, so that duty usually fell to a lurked able seaman.

From 1940 the Battle of the Narrow Seas, as the coastal conflict became known, intensified. E-boats began operating from the ports of occupied Holland, Belgium and France and in 1942 88 merchant ships were sunk off the east coast. In response, MTB, MGB and ML production was stepped up and increasing numbers of RNVR members (Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve) were trained to man them.

Many of these volunteers had been yachtsmen or dinghy sailors, like solicitor Robert Hichens who took command of MGB 64 at Beehive Felixstowe in January 1942. Hichens, or ‘Hitch’ as he was nicknamed, was the first RNVR officer to captain a naval ship in the war and played a major role in developing the tactics that inflicted heavy damage on enemy efforts to disrupt Britain’s vital supplies.

Hitch persuaded authorities to arm the MGBs’ with a 2lb QF ‘pom-pom’ forward, a twin 20mm Oerlikon aft and a Lewis machine gun on either side of the wheelhouse. His MO was to lie in wait for E-boats in the middle of the North Sea. When he detected their engines or propellers, he would close, at speed, to less than 100 yards before opening fire, often releasing more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Another tactic was to pass, at maximum speed, about 10 feet in front of an enemy merchant ship, releasing a depth charge as he crossed its bow.

Hitch died in action on the night of April 12/13, 1943, off the Dutch coast on his 148th operation. He was 34 and had twice been awarded the DSO (Distinguished Service Order), as well as the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross), and was Mentioned in Dispatches three times. At his funeral service, in St John’s Church in Felixstowe, the white ensign from MGB 77 was draped over the altar. It still hangs in the church in his memory.