Spitfires of the Sea

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After the fall of France during the Second World War, Britain became an isolated nation - dependent on the strength of it's coastal forces to keep the Axis powers at bay. The task to protect the small island nation fell on 2000 small, wooden boats to fight back against the enemy no matter the weather. But how successful were these forces, and why did they earn the nickname the 'Spitfires of the Seas'?

In todays episode, James is joined by archaeologist and historian Stephen Fisher, to help shine a light on this often overlooked subject. Looking at the origins of these vital boats from both World Wars, through to their repurposed lives now - what do we know about the Spitfires of the Sea?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	They've become known as the Spitfires of the sea, the little ships of the
0:07.2	Royal Navy's coastal forces that defended Great Britain between 1939 and
0:12.4	1945 and thanks to a Great Britain between 1939 and 1945.
0:14.3	And thanks to a suggestion by one of our regular listeners,
0:16.8	Jared, today on the warfare podcast,
0:19.3	we're going to be hearing all about their small but mighty role during the Second World War.
0:24.4	I'm your host James Rogers and joining me to explain just how important these 2,000 small boats were
0:30.9	is maritime historian Stephen Fisher. Stephen is the author of the Hayes manual
0:35.4	on motor gunboats and an advisor to the new Coastal Forces exhibition at the National Museum of
0:41.6	the Royal Navy.
0:43.0	From daring seaborne dogfights to ambushes in the channel.
0:47.0	I know you're going to find this one fascinating.
0:49.0	But now here is Stephen Fisher on the Spitfires of the Sea. Enjoy.
0:55.0	Hi Stephen, welcome to the Warfare Podcast.
1:00.0	How's the start to your new year going?
1:02.8	Not too badly, yeah, pretty good.
1:04.8	Getting some work done and some writing done on the book I'm working on.
1:07.6	But the weather is foul.
1:09.6	So you might even hear the wind and rain beating on my window I'm afraid. Well no worries about that yes the
1:15.7	weather is foul but it kind of sets up a moody misty rainy day that would have been I
1:22.1	suppose the staple for the coastal forces that
1:24.8	would we be talking about? Indeed yes they had to go to see in all sorts of
	...

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