Forte IV

A new plaque has appeared on the Square which was unveiled on Saturday 19 June by Lady Mary Holborow, Lord Lieutenant of the county. This has been provided by the Coastal Forces Heritage Trust to recall the work of the WWII Special Forces who operated from landing stages at this end of town.

The granite comes from Ludgvan quarry.

HMS Forte IV was commissioned on 8 July 1941. The base initially supported the assembly of Coastal Forces Motor Torpedo Boats, Motor Gunboats and Motor Launches for Operation Chariot, the raid on St Nazaire on 28/29 March 1942. Therafter, it was home to several flotillas of Motor Gunboats and, particularly, Moto Launches which were heavily involved in clandestine operations: the ferrying of SOE agents to and from enemy-occupied France. It was decommissioned on 6 November 1944.

The location of the plaque is significant as it is in the vicinity of the former submarine pier, used by the Gunboats. Opinions differ as to the line of the original submarine pier as the landscape was so changed by the works during the war and in the 1990s.