Official documents of Coastal Force operation during Second World War with notes on the flotillas between September 1930 and July 1945.

Administrative / biographical background
Coastal Force Predecessor The Royal Navy had previously operated flotillas of small torpedo- and depth-charge-armed craft (Coastal Motor Boats) during World War I (1914-1918). They operated as often in action against the enemy coast as in defence of British coastal areas. Coastal Force Establishment During World War II (1939-1945), the first Coastal Forces headquarters was set up at HMS Vernon in 1940 under Rear Admiral Piers Kekewich, Flag Officer Coastal Forces. The Chief Staff Officer to the Rear Admiral was Augustus Agar, VC, who had commanded coastal motor boats during World War I and in British operations in the Baltic Sea in 1918 and 1919 in support of White Russian forces during the Russian Civil War. Coastal Force World War II operations Royal Navy Coastal Forces craft operated mainly in the English Channel and North Sea waters, especially in the build up to the Normandy invasion of 1944. They were also used in the Mediterranean and off Norwegian coastline." They raided St. Nazaire and Dieppe. They were used to attack German convoys and their S-boat (known to the Allies as "E-Boat") escorts, carry out clandestine raids and landings, and pick up secret agents in Norway and Brittany. The coastal craft were manned by various Allied nationalities including Dutch, Norwegian, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealanders." A number of Captain-class frigates were configured to operate as "Coastal Forces Control Frigates" (CFCF). Operating with Coastal Forces officers embarked and responsible for controlling and providing radar support to groups of Coastal Forces motor torpedo boats intercepting German motor torpedo boats in the North Sea, these frigates were involved in the destruction of at least 26 E-Boats. By 1944 Coastal Forces numbered 3,000 officers and 22,000 ratings. Altogether there were 2,000 British Coastal Forces craft. Affectionately known as the Royal Navy's "Little Ships", they fought over 900 actions and sank around 400 enemy vessels, including 48 E-boats and 32 midget submarines. They fired 1,169 torpedoes, shot down 32 enemy aircraft and carried out many mine laying operations. 170 of the "Little Ships" were sunk or otherwise destroyed.