HMS Tormentor (WWII shore establishment)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Tormentor.

HMS Tormentor
Warsash, Hampshire
Women's Royal Naval Service personnel at HMS Tormentor
HMS Tormentor is located in Hampshire
HMS Tormentor
HMS Tormentor
Coordinates50°50′42″N 1°18′11″W / 50.845°N 1.303°W / 50.845; -1.303
TypeCombined Operations Base
Site information
Controlled by United Kingdom
Site history
In useJuly 1940 – May 1946
Garrison information
GarrisonRoyal Navy

HMS Tormentor was a shore establishment of the British Royal Navy during World War II, based near Warsash, on the River Hamble.

Service history

The area around Warsash on the Hamble had been the site of earlier Royal Navy use when part of the shore was used as a training site for boys.[1] This included construction of a pier for the Admiralty built in 1913.[1] The pier onto the Hamble was later rebuilt in concrete in 1938.[1] Following the outbreak of World War II, the Royal Navy requisitioned the remaining part of the grounds and buildings located on the shore of the River Hamble just south of Warsash village. This included the old Coast Guard House and RAF wireless station at Warsash, as well as the home of the Household Brigade Yacht Club.[2] In July 1940, HMS Tormentor was officially commissioned as a combined operations base.[3] The purpose of the base was the training of landing craft crews and British Commandos.[3][4] As well as serving as a training establishment, the site also served as a base for cross-channel raids.[5]

From 1940 until 1942, the establishment was under the command of F. N. Cook, DSC, a Commander in the Royal Australian Navy.[6]

In 1942, the Southampton School of Navigation was relocated to the Warsash site and after the war, the RN establishment was decommissioned with the campus eventually becoming the Warsash Maritime School.[7]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. undertook intensive training at HMS Tormentor in 1942, which provided some lessons in tactics that would eventually assist his founding of the US Beach Jumpers.[8]

On 13 August 1942, Major Herbert Hasler and Captain J. D. Stewart visited HMS Tormentor to attend a demonstration of fast motorboat training, in preparation for Operation Frankton.[9]

In 1944, Patricia Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten, was serving as a signals rating on the base.[10]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Tormentor (shore establishment).
  1. ^ a b c Easdown, Martin; Safe, Linda (2011). Piers of Hampshire & the Isle of Wight. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445623832.
  2. ^ Sharp, Nigel (2015). Troubled Waters. Leisure Boating and the Second World War. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445651613.
  3. ^ a b Tim Saunders (25 July 2012). Commandos and Rangers: D-Day Operations. Pen and Sword. p. 42. ISBN 9781844158683.
  4. ^ Robin Neillands; Roderick De Normann (26 July 2012). D-Day 1944: Voices from Normandy. Hachette UK. p. 5. ISBN 9781780224565.
  5. ^ Neillands, Robin (2005). The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition. Indiana University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-1845131661.
  6. ^ Searle, Adrian (2016). Churchill's Last Wartime Secret. The 1943 German Raid Airbrushed from History. Pen&Sword Military. p. 80. ISBN 9781473823815.
  7. ^ Aldridge, M.H. (1996). A history of the Southampton School of Navigation. The Southampton Institute. p. 7-9.
  8. ^ Dwyer, John B. (1992). Seaborne Deception. The History of U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers. Praegar. p. 3. ISBN 9780275938000.
  9. ^ Oldfield, Paul (2013). Cockleshell Raid. Pen&Sword Military. p. 30. ISBN 9781781592557.
  10. ^ Hicks, Pamela (2014). Daughter of Empire. My Life as a Mountbatten. Simon&Schuster. ISBN 9781476733821.