ROYAL NAVY SOUTH ATLANTIC COMMAND - ROYAL NAVY J K L M 14 SHIPS
14)MMS 107 (MINESWEEPER)
Photo. USS YMS 324 Photo. www.navsource.org
Completed: 1940
Displacement: 250 tons
Length: 119 ft
Beam: 13 ft
Draught: 9, 6 ft
Propulsion: Diesel engine, 100 bhp (75 kW)
Armament: 2 × 20 mm AA guns, 2 × machine guns
Speed: 10 kts
Although the Motor Minesweepers lacked the power to tow sweeps for contact mines they were suitable for handling equipment for combating magnetic mines and some later models were fitted with an acoustic hammer on a retractable "A" frame over the bows for countering acoustic mines.On 17 Apr, 1943, HMS P-615 (Lt C.W.St.C. Lambert, DSC and Bar, RN) left Freetown under escort by the British minesweeper HMS MMS-107 on passage to the South Atlantic Command to provide A/S escort training.Complement: 20
The MMS class were a class of 402 coastal minesweepers built for the Royal Navy between 1940 and 1945. They were of wooden construction to counteract magnetic mines. The coastal minesweepers had pennant numbers MMS 1 to MMS 312 and MMS1001 to MMS 1090. They were nicknamed ‘Mickey Mouse’.
On 17 Apr, 1943, HMS P-615 (Lt C.W.St.C. Lambert, DSC and Bar, RN) left Freetown under escort by the British minesweeper HMS MMS-107 (Skipper H.J. Craven) on passage to the South Atlantic Command to provide A/S escort training. During the night they lost contact but found each other the next morning. U-123 spotted both vessels at 03.44 hours and missed them with two spreads of two torpedoes at 05.34 and 06.47 hours, one of the torpedo tracks was sighted by the escort, but was put down to a porpoise.
On 18 Apr, at 11.54 hours, a spread of two torpedoes was fired at the submarine, which was hit by one of them on the starboard side, exploded and sank immediately about 100 miles southwest off Freetown. The commander, four officers and 39 ratings were lost. In the meantime a spread of torpedoes from U-123 hit British MoWT Empire Bruce which sunk on pos. 06º40’ N 13º17’W. Empire Bruce was loaded with a cargo of 9140 tons of linseed. MMS 107 rescued all 41 crew members and seven gunners.
