The changing roles of motor launches, motor torpedo boats, and motor gun boats form the episode's central problem. Craft built to threaten large warships increasingly needed guns to defeat other small, fast vessels. That change also connected coastal combat to convoy escort and anti-submarine work. Coastal craft therefore became a force-structure and doctrine story as well as a family of designs.
Chapter · 8:18-9:02
Why torpedo boats became gun boats
European and Mediterranean coastal warfare shifted from torpedo attacks on major ships toward armed fights between fast coastal craft.