with a special incendiary fuel (called "Agar's special mixture"). The wartime need for oil tankers was so great that only vessels unfit for convoy work were available to Agar. The very poor mechanical condition of these ships hampered the enterprise. Bad weather or mechanical breakdowns forced cancellation of the first attempts. The last attempt seemed set to be successful until the command ship with Agar aboard, , a Hunt class destroyer, hit an acoustic mine mid-Channel and was severely damaged. She had to be towed back to England, being shelled by German coastal batteries on the French coast on the way back, but without receiving a hit. The season was now too late for another attempt and, in any case, the threat of invasion had receded. Coastal Forces On 25 November 1940, Agar was appointed chief staff officer to the rear admiral commanding Coastal Forces. This was a critical position as the Germans were vigorously attacking the coastal convoys running down the English Channel and up and down the east coast from Scotland to the northeast of England down to London. The threats were from aircraft, mines and fast German motor torpedo boats called E-boats. Britain had let her coastal forces deteriorate since the days when Agar had himself commanded CMBs. One coastal convoy in the fall of 1940 lost fourteen of twenty-five ships between London and Bristol. The toll on the East Coast convoys was just as great, with the threat of E-boats making a quick dash from ports in the Low Countries. The problem was that if coastal convoys were discontinued, the British rail network could not handle the extra traffic and factories would be idle for lack of raw materials. The vessels used in the coastal trade were small and specially designed for the service, and of limited utility on ocean convoys. The traffic in coal from the northeast of England to London was especially important. Agar worked hard in this role from November 1940 to July 1941 when he was given a new seagoing command. HMS Dorsetshire Agar was appointed captain of the 9,925 ton heavy cruiser in August 1941. The ship carried a catapult operated reconnaissance aircraft (a Supermarine Walrus), had a great range and was designed for finding and destroying enemy commerce raiders. She was assigned to convoy protection duty in the South Atlantic and left Scotland on her first mission escorting a slow