Description

The Forgotten Flotilla is not a story of the big ships or those with memorable names. Rather it tells of a group of smaller ships allocated only numbers. This is the tale of a flotilla of ‘minor war vessels’ and their intrepid crews that it seems history has overlooked.

At the time of its development, the Tank Landing Craft, the TLC Mk1 (‘A’ lighter), was a secret, prototype vessel. Their real, and often unexpected battle capabilities had yet to be tested. Without the TLCs’ participation a great number of Allied operations of WWII would not have been successful. One such operation was Demon, the evacuation of British and ANZAC troops from mainland Greece in 1941.

Most exploits of the TLC Mk1s and their crews rated only a short and generally unspecific mention in reports. The Forgotten Flotilla presents a detailed approach to not only the development and deployment of this vessel type but also tells something of their heroic crews.