Previous Talk

Blyth Battery

The entry below is a synopsis of our speakers talk on 08th April 2026.

An interesting presentation was given by Mr Colin Durward at the latest meeting of the Cullercoats Men’s Group entitled “Blyth Battery P3” which discussed some of the drama of The Blyth Battery.

Colin started by saying this will be a brief talk about the window grills that we had made a couple of years ago to commemorate people and things associated with Blyth in the past. George Phillips was the commander of HMS Hercules, he was in the Royal Navy and he was born in October 5th, 1905. He commanded quite a few vessels, but his favourite one was the Ursula, a small vessel and he really appreciated his crews. He thought so much about them that he went to Bathurst of South Shields and he had two-piece waterproof suits made for his crew for when they're standing watch duties. He was based in Liverpool. His responsibility was the safeguarding of all the convoys coming across the Atlantic. And every morning, he'd be up at 6 o'clock to go to work in what looked like just a plain unimposing sandstone building, it's a bit like Churchill's War Bunkers, but it was the nerve centre for the Western Approaches.

HMS Turf. HMS Tuna. Two of probably the most famous submarines that were in flight in the Second World War, HMS Turf was used for the man that never was, Operation Midshipman, where they came up with a plan of dropping your body off the coast of Spain, knowing quite well that the Spanish would give it to the Germans, not the British. And there was a suitcase, a target case, chained to his hand with false plans for an invasion of Sicily. Tuna. Tuna was used by the cockle-shell heroes. These were a group of Royal Marine Commandos who came up with the idea that if we canoed up the river and stuck liquid mines on a ship, and blew it up when it was in, Harber, it would put the Harber out of use.

The Mollisk was an ex-Royal Yacht, and it was used for examination duties on Bligh. One day it got called out to an examination during an air raid, and it took a direct hit from an aeroplane and started to sink. The crew radioed for assistance, and two boats were launched from the harbour as well to rescue the crew. There were many other encounters with Blyth being a submarine port and rescue centre for our own ships.

For further information Click on the link The Blyth Coastal Defence Battery

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