You seem to like having problems to solve. I am trying to build a view of my father's war service record as a member of No 12 Commandos during 1942/43. He was killed in action June 10th 44. I have several letters and postcards which give me dates and places, but I have come to a dead end with a letter sent from HMS Fox III with no date. I have found references to HMS Fox as a naval base in Lerwick - No 12 Cdo were involved in several operations to Norway, but I have drawn a blank with 'Fox III'. Can you help? Has this been lost or just forgotten, or was it a secret reference to yet another commando training area in Scotland?

Hi typhoont.

I'm afraid (for myself at least) we can't come up with a Fox II, let alone a Fox III, having tried our usual sources of obscure information.

Probably stating the obvious, but just in case, we have some info on the original HMS Fox and also, given the mention of Norway, a secret base that was established at Peterhead.

From some other hunts we've done, it might be worth mentioning that the addressing of HMS Fox III has the potential for being deliberate disinformation, intended to interfere with spies, and there might be no such place - or rather it was simply HMS Fox. Just conjecture, but worth at least keeping in mind as mindsets were different in those times.

If you haven't found it already, you might give the folk at Shetlopedia a try too.

Now that the question's been asked, we'll be watching for anything new that might appear.

Hi Appollo

I found Hans Houterman's web site a couple of days ago which contains a direct reference to HMS Fox at
http://www.unithistories.com/units_british/RN_CoastalForces.html#Shore%20establishments. I contacted him via eMail with my enquiry about Fox III, and he replied with knowledge of FOX II - viz: "The naval base at Lerwick was HMS Fox, and the Coastal Forces base there being indicated as HMS Fox II."