MTB 686 - Clarke's Story
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Lost But Not Forgotten
The following text contains personal information
supplied by the contributor of this article, R Clarke,
and as such much of the text cannot be verified by Shetlopedia.
A 65-year family mystery was recently solved thanks to Shetlopedia
Lyndhurst Rufus Clarke, Stoker 2nd Class in the Royal Navy, was reported "missing presumed killed" while serving at HMS Fox, Lerwick, on MTB686.
His death occurred when in his early thirties and during the calamitous fire on board MTB686 on 22nd November 1943. At the time, the fire spread to a second Motor Torpedo Boat and massive explosions reverberated through the town. 42 families were evacuated from the waterfront, roads were closed as a safety precaution. There was considerable damage to windows throughout North Ness as they were shattered by the third explosion. To prevent the further spread of the fire, the Navy ships in the harbour fired upon and eventually sank the two burning vessels tied to the wharf in North Ness. During the incident machine gun bullets and tracer fire ricocheted through town. Apart from the three documented explosions, the incident culminated with a great flash of blue lightening and immediate clap of thunder that many wrongly interpreted as a fourth explosion.
The Man
Lyn Clarke was a graduate of the prestigious Monmouth School, a preparatory school of the Haberdashers' Company. Lyn hailed from Pontypool, South Wales where he was the licensee/manager of the Colliers' Arms and then the Wrington Arms Pubs while working as a civil servant by day. Before entering the Royal Navy, Lyn was a rugby player of note having played for Usk, Brynmawr, Newport United and the renowned Pontypool Harlequins. Lyn ran his own haulage company immediately before being called up for service. Prior to being stationed in Lerwick, Lyn was a crew member of a Motor Gun Boat (MGB 53) stationed in Weymouth where MTB training lectures were conducted in the local cinema.
He was survived by his wife Betty (now deceased), daughter Ann (also known as 'Bunny'; now deceased) and son Lyn (currently aged 68 and living in Florida). Lyn II, who was three when his father died, followed in his dad's foot-steps as an accomplished rugby player (then coach) and worked through an engineering apprenticeship while eventually becoming a national sales manager in the USA and owner of a sports shop. In his retirement, Lyn became an author and wrote about his travels, adventures and growing up without a father, see: www.clarkebooks.com. Granddaughter Louise Clarke, a cancer nurse and radiographer, has conveyed the story of Lyndhurst Rufus Clarke to his only great grandson, Jack.
The Cause
According to the Len Reynolds book "Dog Boats at War", page 106:
"...Two day’s later on 22 November [1943] 686 was alongside at Lerwick with 626 outside her. [Boat] 686 was commanded by Lt A McDonald and had been the first of Gemmel's 58th Flotilla to arrive at Lerwick. The boats were loaded with extra fuel in petrol cans on the upper deck and the crews were making their final checks. Somehow or other, an Oerlikon gun on 686 was accidentally fired, the petrol cans ignited, and the fire spread like lightening to both boats. There were massive explosions as ammunition and the main petrol tanks went up, and both boats were destroyed. There was near panic on Lerwick, but no other boats were caught up in the disaster, which left 686 with four of her crew dead and 626 with one....."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dog-Boats-War-Action-1939-45/dp/0750918179
Grandson Richard Lyn Clarke found extensive records of craft spontaneously catching fire during the war in separate incidents including the following MTBs: 28, 30.9, 255 and 338. In one such case, the crew survived and described the fire as starting in the engine compartment. On 15th February 1945, more than a dozen MTBs caught fire in a single incident in allied occupied Ostend, Belgium, MTBs: 255, 438, 444, 459, 461, 462, 465, 466, 776, 789, 791 and 798. The boats, sometimes referred to as the ‘Spitfires of the Sea’, were powered by Rolls Royce aircraft engines that ran on high-octane fuel apparently making them vulnerable to fire. The accidental fire of the gun, possibly as it was being loaded with ammunition, was enough to begin a chain reaction that ended in several lost lives.
The Role of MTBs
Shetland-based MTBs conducted regular attacks on German shipping, and were used extensively during commando raids in Norway (including a highly successful raid launched from Lerwick on 23rd January 1943 involving seven MTBs and 50 commandos). Number 12 Commando Group based in Shetland and comprised of Welsh, Irish, and Norwegians, conducted seven raids in Norway during the period February-April 1943 alone. Operation Brandy took 6 Norwegian Commandos aboard two MTB’s for an attack in Florø harbour, Norway. Two German ships were torpedoed and a third struck a mine laid by the MTBs. One of the MTBs ran aground and had to be abandoned. One of the ways the Commandos supported the MTBs was to establish a protective perimeter around the camouflaged vessels hidden in German occupied Norwegian fjords as the MTB crews themselves readied to strike key German battleships passing through to the North Sea. Hitler had issued the 'Commando Order' during the time stating that all involved in commando missions should be shot on sight when captured.
Allied naval bases in Shetland were used by Special Ops (SOE) for running arms, spies and supplies to the Norwegian resistance. They would also smuggle out Norwegians about to be arrested by the Nazis. The work was done at night and extremely dangerous, as the Nazis were aware of the operation, and for good reason. The Allies informed them about some of the missions through the double-cross system. The reason was simple: the Allied diversion plan was to get the Nazis to suspect that Norway was going to be part of the Allied invasion of Europe. As a result, the Nazis kept 16 divisions (about 250,000 soldiers) in Norway ready to repel an invasion that never came -- and never was planned. The Normandy landing could not have succeeded without tying down German divisions in Norway.
For further information on MTBs and Wartime Shetland, follow these links:
From Son, Lyn Clarke II
After sixty five years I have finally found out what happened to my father concerning his death. My mother did not like to talk about it, and she would tell me that his boat just blew up and all hands were lost. From this I wrongly assumed that his boat hit a floating mine, went down at sea and that there would be no place for me to visit and pay respects to him. In light of this new information that the boat exploded while moored at Lerwick Harbour [where the plaque marks the accident], and that five of the rest of the crew were buried in a nearby cemetery, after all these years I have found out that there is a place that I can visit. Whether that place be [the plaque in] the Harbour or in the cemetery, I now feel better about the whole incident. I will be visiting Britain from Florida this coming September, and perhaps a trip can be arranged for myself and my son to visit the Shetland Islands. This would be a once in a lifetime event that will finally put closure to the whole episode. I would like to thank my son Richard for diligently researching this whole mystery. If anyone out there who might have had a loved one in this or similar circumstances, or who witnessed the events of 22nd November 1943, I would be delighted to talk to them. My telephone number here in the USA is: 001 941-779-0500.
The Reflection
Richard reflected on the incident and the period in his granddad's life, "I cannot imagine heading out on a boat no larger than a pleasure craft with a handful of men... through churning subarctic seas during the long winter nights... to the sound of a racing marine engine... with the smell of Chordite, salt air, octane and engine grease... bouncing and jostling through splashing waves and sea spray... with commandos and/or norwegian resistance spies cheek by jowel... into the most hostile waters on earth patrolled by U-Boats, Battleships, Heinkel 111s, Stukkas, and assorted other Axis military hardware... and while travelling to distant lands... in order to conduct nigh on impossible missions on a regular basis."
Clarke continued, "These men were ordinary in their daily lives before the calling of their country, but they undertook extraordinary deeds day-in and day-out without complaint or dissemblance and as their comrades fell. It is truly humbling to reflect on how these men lived and died in duty to their country and with the ultimate commitment to the greater good while risking their own potential... their own relationships... truly everything. My family and I consider ourselves profoundly privileged and deeply proud to have been related to one of them. Even if I never knew my grandfather, I can finally understand an aspect of the life that he led and the heavy burden that he willingly carried upon his young Welsh shoulders. I now appreciate why as my own father observed that in his early Royal Navy photographs granddad appeared jocular and imbued with the spirit and the optimism of youth, and why in his later photos his young face appeared gaunt, troubled and yet stoic. He had come to terms with his own mortality. And yet he soldiered on while carrying the hopes of Shetland, of the Nation, of Norway and beyond... firing up that powerful marine engine each morning with a fire in its belly... as if he was a mythical dragon rider... while gulls reeled and screeched overhead... and while the islanders, from children to the elderly, looked wistfully to the harbour through their yet unbroken windows."
Archival Information
For more information on the incident in Lerwick Harbour, see the Shetland Archives regarding the Thursday, December 9, 1943 issue of The Shetland News reference the article: 'EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES ON VESSELS AT A WHARF'. The incident was also covered in the international press including the New York Times (the pre-eminent newspaper in the States). See article on 10th December 1943 entitled 'EXPLOSIONS ON SHIPS ROCK BRITISH TOWN' that is available online via the New York Times digital archive. If you are interested in conducting your own research online re. ships lost during WW2, a useful tip is to use the date lost and the ship's designation code in your Google browser.
