MGB 71.5 FT MOTOR GUN BOAT

By FB-AI Chat-T.Chr.-Human Syntesis-01 May 2026

BPB built 34 purpose-built 72 ft MGBs (also referred to as 71.5-feet). Capable of 40 knots, they carried a hydraulically powered 2-pounder gun mount forwards for engaging other vessels, a twin powered 20mm mount on the aft cabin roof, and two twin .303-in machine guns, one on either side of the wheelhouse, for additional firepower in surface actions and defence from aircraft. They were also equipped with side-dropping depth charges and smoke generators at the stern. Some early boats carried a Holman Projector anti-aircraft mortar right aft.

Over one hundred vessels of this class were built. The first ones were given identities MGB 74–97. The second series were numbered MGB 107-onwards. After the initial 34 MGBs, further craft of the 71.5-feet type (in the sequence up to 176 and from 502 onwards) were of a modified type, known as a 'Type G' to the Canadians, and were intended to be MTBs. However, some of the earlier boats in the 'Type G' series were only ever equipped for but not with 18-inch torpedo tubes, and otherwise were armed as the original 2-pdr MGB variant, functioning as gunboats in the mixed 29th Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla alongside the torpedo-armed MTB versions from 1944.

Text compliments of Espen Arnestad