The landing craft were part of HMS Quebec, a department of the WW2 shore based Combined Training Centre at Inverary. The coastal nature of the area, together with its sheltered inland sea access, meant it offered near ideal conditions to carry out training operations for many service personnel, not least those of Combined Operations. HMS Quebec specialised in training Army and Navy personnel in minor landing craft operations. HMS Quebec’s primary role was to provide and maintain craft for training operations and to accommodate personnel drafted in for the training of units at the CTC. HMS Quebec supplied craft and crews to work with Major Landing Craft Flotillas and the military units in both day and night operations
CTC Inveraray was set up in October 1940 and continued almost without interruption until July 1944 – a month after D-Day which was the largest amphibious landing in the history of warfare. Training was provided for commandos, brigade groups in the assault role, formations in follow up and building up, port operating companies, squadrons of the RAF Regiment and RAF and servicing commandos. There was no training manual to follow. New ground was being broken at Inveraray in terms of the scale of the operation and the technology of warfare which had changed greatly since the Great War of 1914 – 1918. This was therefore a time of experimentation, innovation evaluation and redesign. There was a constant turnover of service personnel as units left the area on completion of their training while others arrived to take their place.
In the more advanced stages of training mock landings took take place under realistic war conditions. 516 Squadron based at RAF Dundonald in Ayrshire laid on low level 'attacks' strafing the beaches or laying smoke while landings were in progress. Mortar shells fired from nearby positions and small arms fire completed the hazardous effects. Injuries and even deaths were not unknown during these exercises but the greater need was to give the men a taste of conditions they were likely to face against the enemy. It is possible that these craft were sank by mortar fire or that they were ovewhelmed by rough weather on the Loch.
