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BPB 72 feet-type class, MTB 494
Vehicle Design and service history:
British Power Boat Company were a prolific manufaturer of motorboats for the Royal Navy and RAF during WW2 with the 72 foot class being just one of numerous designs they produced enmass during the conflict. The 72-ft MTB was a class of 90 ships that was a evolution of the 72-ft MGB design (currently represented in game by MTB-75), which involved the addition of more powerful cannon armaments, along with two torpedo tubes. The class was a total of 90 vessels, with any surviving examples of the 34 MGB’s built also being converted to this standard to fill up the numbers. The ships that were converted were MGBs (412-418, 430-432, and 534-500), which involved the addition of two 18-inch tubes and a 6-pdr mollins gun in place of the 2 pounder pom pom of the gunboat design. This refit increased the overall weight of the vessel by 10 tons, though this only removed about 1 knot from the ships top speed, leaving it with a respectable 39 knot top speed. The torpedo boats were designed for missions that variously involved high speed, operating at night, low speed ambush, and manoeuvrability to allow them to get close enough to launch their torpedoes at enemy vessels. Because of this the boats possessed no significant armour, and instead relied upon surprise and agility at high speed to avoid being hit by gunfire from bigger ships. This weak armour rendered the boats rather weak to enemy fire, and 12 of the ships in class were lost during the course of ww2, with MTB 494 being one of them when she was rammed and sunk by a German MTB in the North Sea on 7 April 1945
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