PT Boats in the Pacific Documentary
A PT boat (short for Patrol Torpedo boat) was a torpedo-armed fast attack craft used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the war by ineffective torpedoes, limited armament, and comparatively fragile construction that limited some of the variants to coastal waters.
During World War II, PT boats engaged enemy warships, transports, tankers, barges, and sampans. As gunboats they could be effective against enemy small craft, especially armored barges used by the Japanese for inter-island transport. Several saw service with the Philippine Navy, where they were named "Q-boats" most probably after President Manuel L. Quezon
Primary anti-ship armament was four 2,600 pound (1,179 kg) Mark 8 torpedoes. Launched by 21-inch Mark 18 (530 mm) torpedo tubes, each bore a 466-pound (211 kg) TNT warhead and had a range of 16,000 yards (14,630 m) at 36 knots (66 km/h). Two twin M2 .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns were mounted for anti-aircraft defense and general fire support. Some boats shipped a 20 mm Oerlikon cannon.
Propulsion was via a trio of Packard 4M-2500 and later 5M-2500 supercharged gasoline-fueled, liquid-cooled marine engines.
Nicknamed "the mosquito fleet" - and "devil boats" by the Japanese - the PT boat squadrons were heralded for their daring and earned a durable place in the public imagination that remains strong into the 21st century.
I really miss watching the history channel when it actually showed actual history.
44 Pachino I’m with you! Now it’s just Liberal Horse Shit ..... Fake History! I won’t even watch it anymore.
DITO MY FRIEND!
Yep.....even the "American Heroes Channel" is going in the dumper. I guess stupid people doing things in Alaska shows must be cheaper to make than documenting events by real heroes.
@@dockmasterted A Ditto-head who can't spell "ditto."
@@lookythat2 A GRAMER SCHOOL TEACHER? ... OR JUST A GRAMER, AND SPELLING TROLL? .....LOL@YOU
Ah,back in the day,when history made history on the history channel.Many thanks.😊😊😊
My father did two tours on PT boats - he survived but now I realize why he hardly talked about it.
Tours World War 2? Vietnam?
Hopefully, he never had to bunk with that asshole John Kerry. But to your comment, I hope your father did well in his transfer to civilian life. It's hard, even for those who haven't been in combat.
PT boats took almost a 20% casualty rate during the war. Very hazardous duty. Brave men manned these boats.
Often just College age kids fighting and dying for Uncle Sam and the enemy held islands of The South Pacific.
I'm sure those college kids along with a certain college kid named Kennedy fought on these boats. Yes they fought and died fighting the IJN
Since WW2 was such a big war fought on land air and sea in such huge quantities, there was not a safe place to have duty on the front lines in any branch of service. If you were lucky enough to have duty with a casualty rate less than 15%, it had to be shore duty on continental US. Well, I can think of one exception - serving on a battleship because they were so heavily armed, protected and the main targets the Japanese went after were the carriers.
Could you imagine if the History Channel revisited its own archives and released the originals or remastered everything? I can barely make out what I'm watching for the most part.
With all of the fancy machines and computer programs out there they have no excuse for not 're-mastering' everything they can get their hands on.
That would be cool. As soon as I saw the 240p I thought of abandoning the video, but I love the PT boats. It's a shame that it's not in a higher quality. Great information, though.
The adds are pretty easy to see 😅😅
I've seen better pictures of the Loch Ness Monster.
My father was stationed at Melville RI at the PT training base. He taught navigation and later was sent to the Pacific. One of my goals is to visit the PT Boat Museum at Battleship Cove. They have an Elco and a Higgins PT all restored and on display.
The Packard engines have always been music to my ears😊
Sucked up too much high octane aviaton fuel better suited to the P38 etal.
My dad was evacuated from the South Pacific in WW2! They saved his life and other Marines!
The fact is thee PT was one of thee most devastating weapons man ever made. The short fall was lack of radio communications & coordination. Most of the boats were already suffering lack of maintenance and the radios were always out. Today a litoral boat like this would be invincible especially with todays horse power...
Did you join the military.....?
Your dad was a great man , now we're is your place in making our country great?..?....you can't just live on your dads laurels😮😮😮😮
@@marioncobaretti2280 Jesus Christ, lady. You gals have the ability to join as well now, so go or stow it.
@@marioncobaretti2280 I spent 2 tours in Nam! What about your pushy ass
Man I miss the old History channel when they aired actual documentaries about history. Now It's just homesteading & blacksmiths blacksmithing it up.
Yea. They are too busy distracting us and re-writing history.
I absolutely concur. You can't go wrong with a History Channel documentary of old. Ahh, the good ol' days.
Same with the old Discovery Channel. - Now there's nothing but reality-show programming.
@@terryrussel523rewriting history? Oh god 🤦 go on dude provide some proof of such a nonsensical claim. Only people who think that are the far right who attack the truth & objective reality itself on the daily
My uncle Leo Piersall served aboard PT 532. In April 1943 radar sets began to be installed on some PT boats (1 out of 4 or 6). By fall all new boats were getting them. PT 532 sailed October 1943. This greatly aided navigation as many were lost to reef groundings. In about November 1944 the received 5 inch rockets they shot out of a 4x4 launcher. In seconds they could shoot 16 rockets and the weren't too bad to reload. Devil boats are rocket equiped patrol boats. This gave these 80 foot boats a punch they previously lacked.
That is very interesting! My Grandfather was one of the first submarine sonar operators in WW1 aboard the K2. In WW2, he was a subcontractor who helped build Camp Van Dorn along the Mississippi-Louisiana border, when that camp was finished he moved my Grandmother and mother to New Orleans and joined the Coast Guard Reserve and guarded the Higgins facility doc yards. My Grandmother became Andrew Higgins' chief stenographer. As a kid, I grew up in their home with photos of PT Boats on trails and of Andrew Higgins, I still have a few bits of memorabilia including Higgins PT Boat lapel pins and a booklet that Higgins gave each PT boat crew along with a shortwave radio so that they could listen to popular music instead of having to use the official military radio. I know that most of the Higgin's PTs went to the Mediterranean but some did go to the Pacific. I don't know if you uncle Leo was on an Elco or Higgins boat, but who knows, maybe he was on a Higgins boat made at the time my Grandparents were down in New Orleans. If not, we have a connection, you and I.
I have often wondered why they never tried to mount a 105mm recoilless rifle on PT boats?
@@TraderRobin Interesting. My Uncle described a raid their squadron of five boats made early one morning after they had gotten the rockets. He mentioned the Captain's boat had a 37 mm gun salvaged from a Army plane when they were replaced with 20mm. Also the last boat had an English recoilless rifle. These boats were pretty small.
@@markpiersall9815 Very cool, Mark! 🙂
@@TraderRobin The Japanese had begun armoring the barges and putting machine guns, so the 37 mm and recoilless rifle helped. They were also issued Armor piercing 50 caliber ammunition. Half of the boats were lost (especially to reef snags) and a third of the crews. Very dangerous front line duty.
The PT’s were my favorite ship of ww2 ,little devils of the ocean. Hit and run. Used to build models of them as a kid. My father drove landing craft and told of them escorting them to and from the beaches.
The 80 foot Elcos were beautiful 😍 . Thank you Electrc Launch Co. pride of Bayonne , N.J. 👍
The island where Kennedy swam to was called Plum Pudding Island (they now call it Kennedy Island). Years back (1977) I passed by it when travelling on a Solomon Island coastal boat. An old missionary identified which one it was. It wasn't very impressive.
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent photography job enabling viewers to better understand what the orator is describing. Special thanks to the veteran ( P.T. ) boat crew members. For serving & sharing personal information/experiences pertaining to their daily activities. Making this presentation more authentic and possible -!!!😉. Wishing viewers & Navy personnel a safe/healthy/prosperous ( 2024 ) 🌈🎉😉.
We had a PT Boat on Kwajalein in the 60's. It was a fast and able boat for ocean side and often used for fishing. Smaller boats from ski to cabin stayed in the lagoon.
Love this video. Not enough praise is given the PT's for their service, not so much for the damage they caused but the lives they saved and the harassment they did.
ONE OF THE BEST PATROL TORPEDO BOAT VIDEO'S!
The two most famous PTs were the one that took MacArthur off Corregidor and the other was PT 109 under the command of Lt.J.G. John F. Kennedy!
Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3, absolute US Nsvy legends.
Grandpa was in sq. 5 on PT107. They were in the area when Kennedy's boat was rammed.
@Bernie lomaxs Mustache 107 is documented as being on patrol 8/1-8/2, 1943 at the southern entrance of Blackett Strait. She fired all four torpedoes at Japanese destroyers. The 109 was rammed to the NW of there by the Amagiri which had traveled through Blackett Strait. While 107 was not overly close to the 109, my original statement is factually correct. 107 was indeed in the area (10 miles or so?). Please let me know if I am missing something. Cheers.
A story I heard recently was JFK carved a message with his position on a coconut and friendly natives in canoes took it to base!
Fantastic Documentary, I Love History of all the Ages 😊
They didn't have Pt boats when I went in so I went aboard two destroyers uss shields dd 596 and uss Samuel n Moore dd 747
I saw these beauties at David Taylor Navy Yard on the North Severn River back in the day my Dad work there. I love the sound of the PT's for sure.🇺🇸
The History Channel is history. Thanks for the memories.
That music had a part that's almost from the tune from "where eagles dare"
The PT 109 boat replica float at JFK's inauguration parade was manned by his former crew. Neat bit of historic nostalgia'
That was actually PT 769, a Higgins-built PT boat, dressed up to resemble the 109. The 769 (tail-ender) is on display with PT 617 (Elco) at Battleship Cove, Massachusetts.
@@ronaldrobertson2332I would love to get a close up view of that boat.😀
It is amazing how or military fought in WW2.They were named the greatest generation in our history.Growing up and the military in my family went hand in hand.But now I am old and I would have reservations to go into the military or ok my children to enter only due to the current political leadership that is in office and how they give more money and concerns to illegal immigrants invading our county than the VETS THAT PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE FOR OUR CITIZENS.
This would make a good Hollywood movie about pt boats in the Pacific campaign
Kevin already done. Watch the movie they were exspendible.
He means something more in depth and up to date.
I know men was here on the Philippines,, one person there 2 time.I love to watch movies like this. John E. May and my dad was here to and my step-dad was too. 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖
The background music sounds like Monty Python. Great vid
MacArthur was America's version of the Brits Montgomery.
Montgomery had less of a god complex.
It used be a fantastic channel
Make the History Channel Great Again, MHCGA
Pt Boat Skippers usally rate Lt. JGs and the XOs were Ensigns. A Lt. Cmdr , ( fictional ) like Mc Hale for example would have been in Command of the entire MTB RON Squadron. Futhermore , Lt. John Bulkeley , who took General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor to Australia was in Command of MTB RON 3.
Take no prisoners, out of 1000+ Japanese sailors they probably rescued 5 🤣🤣
Because surrender is considered dishonorable in Japanese culture
Have heard of the Japanese pilots and sailors waiting for the Americans to send rescue boats then detonate a grenade once close enough
32:00 I understand that one was sleeping between a torpedo tube and the engine house. He was crushed, and the engineer below couldn't escape drowning.
The engineer was MM (motor machinist) "Pappy" McMahon, who did survive the collision but was badly burned. He's the man Kennedy towed by a life jacket strap clenched in his teeth to the first island after they abandoned what was left of the boat. Gunner Andrew Kirksey and another man named Marney were killed. The 109 wasn't actually cut in half but was split practically down the middle. The "Amigiri" struck just forward of the forward 50-caliber mount cut diagonally down the boat, which took off the starboard engine, where the engineer sat with the engine controlls.
..This is based on an illustration made by Kennedy sometime after the war.
@@ronaldrobertson2332 I read it in a Penguin paperback that I think was called PT-109.
The Machinist Mate "Pappy" McMahon survived but was seriously burned when he surfaced in a sea of burning gasoline. Kirksey and Marney were the two crewmen killed in the collision.
Great for mild weather, unfortunately poor in rough seas because of planing type hull. The German S boat was far superior in terms of its sea-worthiness, manueverability and and robustness. Nonetheless the PTs are beautiful boats.
It was such a pity that these beautiful boats were burnt and not offered to the Philippines like the jeeps. They still have the jeeps. The igneous Filipinos would have kept the PTs too.
And why would America hand over these boats after the war? So much know-how went into these boats. From the early 1900s - beginning of WW2-You think the USA will just give these up for free? LOL.
The Phils. can probably use something like these now to patrol the southern islands, but instead they are sitting on their asses waiting for handouts from other countries. Why they cannot take the initiative to further their defenses is beyond me.
The PT boats which were burned had been surveyed and determined to be beyond practical repair. They were simply worn out.
"Take out those fucking PT Boats!" Booth COD WAW Black Cats mission
They'd probably be too expensive to operate.
The original "Captain Stacy" charter head boat. Morehead City, NC was a PT boat with a fishing bridge built on it.
I watched the "Infographics Show" on PT boats and it painted PT boats as the most awesome boats ever. This video tells of the casualties and the brave guys on the boats
If you want the metrosexual hard to the left "opinion" then yes watch if you must
I gave up on infographics after catchinh way tomany mistakes and omissions.
Thxs ,love stuff like this,,nice video, gb
PT boats also served in the Mediterranean; I have never seen or read a history of those boats.
3:30 I've forgotten but the music reminds me of Battle of Britain or Squadron 633 about the Mosquito.
Great boats, great docu! Thanks for sharing. T.
The German " E " boat in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Baltic vs being outnumbered were TIGERS !
little boats like this are still around...only now they are armed with missiles instead of torpedoes...one reportedly sank an Israelie destroyer...
@@walterlindsey4055 the E-boats greatest success came against an allied amphibious force practicing for the D-Day landings...
The PT Boat JFK commanded was an 80' Elco PT Boat. The one at his inauguration was a Higgins PT Boat adapted, and numbered to resemble his boat.
Well since JFK's boat was sunk that makes sense
@@u.s.veteranstephan And they took almost all of the PT Boats used in WWII in the Pacific to an Island near the Solomon's or somewhere in the Philippines, and burned them all to the water line and left them there. The US Military does a lot of absolutely stupid stuff from time to time.
OMG yeah he done a real bang-up job there he got a promotion for getting his boat ran over and loses some of his men real bang-up job.
@@jasons44 dont be ignorant
@@silvercastle777 old man Kennedy was a " boot legger "
Thank you. Very good.
MacArthur hype is noticeable in this presentation.
Populist psydo military history syndrome is still sort of treatable. Don't give up. Enjoy the video junior mints?
5:00 the filmmakers seem to have neglected the fact that the Germans had set the precedent for "small boat triumphs of the first World War" four years earlier during the Siege of Tsingtao, when the torpedo boat S-90 sunk the Japanese cruiser Takachiho, which resulted in the loss of all 271 men on board.
brave men and women the best of the greatest generation as far as WAR
Great, thanks //Lars
Squadron 3: It is just the commanding general and his family... no pressure.
Greetings: Great presentation. I read the short credits. Was it narrated by Stacey Keach?
A heroic funeral pyre...nuts. They could've disarmed them and sold them off, but noooo.
where can i get the soundtrack?? 44:22
I wonder if any RON 27 boats were shown.
Don't know for sure. My dad was XO on PT375 in Ron 27, Philippines and Borneo actions.
Awesome
The History channel was nicknamed the WWII Channel
the motor in?
Those were foundly known as the "Brown Water Navy"
at the war's end many PT Boats were simply burned where they were at when it was over, once saw a film of many being set afire and destroyed
20:24 The commander in charge of the cruiser force. He was warned about the possibility of IJN destroyers and told about their night fighting prowess. He even had the latest radar installed on one of the cruisers and even still he failed.
you never hear about the PT boats
My grandfather who recently passed (4/8/20) was on one of these boats. I'm trying to figure out which boat it was. I only know that he was part of the RON 28 squadron. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it.
Sorry for your loss John keep your head up. My grandfather was on a PT as well in ww2 and am also interested in finding out some history on it. Unfortunately you have more info than me but maybe we could help each other out?
My uncle served on PT380 RON 28. Send me a email and I can help with the research. autopartsguy88@gmail.com
Your grandfather was a hero
Dad was in DesRon 23, destroyer squad , 43-45 , told me about PT’s he’d seen , P-38 flyover, and the Enemy ! Look up US Navy ! See what happens ! 🇺🇸 Good Luck ! Stay True !
You skipped the second wave near suicide attack by 9 destroyers led by the USS Robinson (DD-562. )
Dad was there.
The Fletcher class destroyers were the best killers on the water back then.
PT''s are awesome tho .
Big Mac.
Bringing in the Chow .
TheY were wrong: The PT Boat did have a true successor, the PTF a Norwegian designed craft of the NASTY class, the USN operated a number of them in S.Vietnam; they were 81 feet and powered by two Napier Deltic diesels making 1600 hp each, armed with a single 40mm Bofors aft and a 20mm Oerlikon forward.... just thot ya otta know.⚓️
and reportedly very fast...
That intro makes me hate History Channel so much for how they have destroyed their channel
5'11, Mary Tudor
Dollar Radars and barometric pressure Sea sonar and radar combined.
Torpedoes in PY Boats and submarines were ineffective early in the war. Either they failed to reach the target -- the alcohol fuel had been drained by sailors as liquor -- or they hit the target but failed to explode. Improved models were developed quickly.
The problem wasn't fixed very quickly the heads of the navy blamed the sailors for missing and forbid anyone to adjust the torpedoes to make them work with the threat of court marshal.. the captain of 1 of the ships got sick of them not going off and fired off a bunch to test them and finally the leaders had to act to fix the dud torpedoes
Nope, you're thinking of the Mark 14 and Mark 15, not used on PT boats.
Had nothing to do with torp juice. They would explode out of the tube 40% of the time. But yes, they did distill the alcohol sometimes.
Today it's the Sea Shadow.
Absorbtion Force. Island hopping.
Officers and crew totaling up to 17 on a boat that could barely sleep 10, and I thought the submarine services were the only ones that did the "Hot racking".
The torpedoes that these boats used were the same defective ones given to the submarines. With better torpedoes they could have done a lot better than they did. Most exploded prematurely because the magnetic field of the ship was elongated at that latitude and triggered the magnetic pistol too early.
I want one.
Me to but i could afford the fuel bill
Mark Short true 😂
Change the motors out anyway I have sufficient fuel capacity for each of the motors
I wish the quality on this was better.
They transported macarthur And family from philipines But didnt return him as doug Wanted more publicity with A fleet! I shall return the famous quote Needed more airplay!
They are not a ship, they are a boat. Enter of gravity is below shoreline.
Doppler Radar/ not dollar.
PT, purty good..
Plenty Tough.
Is there a reason why the images are out of focus?
Perhaps because it was filmed 80 years ago, often with wartime equipment in wartime conditions?
Did any PT Boats survive the war ? Where can I see one in Texas?
In the Phillipines perhaps
There are a few still around. There is one in a museum in Louisiana.
Fredricksburg tx has one , national ww 2 museum in new Orleans has one and there is one at the pt museum in falls river mass.
4 of them rotting away in Rondout NY
@@smacwhinnie Where is this? dmcchief@comcast.net
For a second there I thought I was watching in search of the holy grail😂
in watching this, I couldn't help but think that our president should have served in the US armed forces
I THINK IT SHOULD BE A MANDATORY THING FOR ALL POLITICIANS!!!! ...... BEFORE THY CAN EVEN APPLY TO BE A POLITICIAN!
@John Buick YUP AND LATELY ONLY BONEHEADS ARE EH.......LOL@ME
Roger TRUE !!!!! Yet we have a draft dodger in the office today and head of all the military !!! An embarrassment to the world !!!
@@wilburfinnigan2142 REMEMBER YOUR HISTORY BOOKS? ....... THE ARMIES WHERE LED ON THE GROUND BY THE RULER'S ....... I say make the ruler's and everyone in government be the first to go into action at the very heads of our troops! That way they may think twice before the at so foolishly!
amend text: THINK TWICE BEFORE THE "ACT" SO FOOLISHLY
Did American PT boats every sink any Axis warships or merchant vessels, not barges?
PT 305, a veteran of the Mediterranean campaign, is credited with sinking two Nazi vessels. It is now on display at the WW II museum in New Orleans.
32:18 Fubuki-class Amagiri (1930)
40+ knots? I doubt it.
John f Kennedy's PT boat was cut in half one dark night by a Japanese destroyer that never saw them, he was injured and would suffer from back pain for the rest of his life
ever been out on the ocean on a moonless night?...I mean it doesn't get any blacker than that...ships can loom up on you from nowhere...
"Bad Back Jack"!
Dopey
WHY did you put this up in 240P? It is NOT watchable at that resolution!
Source file itself is in a very low resolution. Can't get to be picky in this case. So sit down and watch it in all the glory of 240P, otherwise, show yourself out the door.
@@raywollesenfortes7014 SIR ! "YES SIR" !!
Booth's nightmare
TAKE OUT THOSE F****** PT BOATS!!!!
Gary on
Want
Medal for running 🤔
I don't know how to make a PT boat I'm going to assume it's aliens
Waiting for the world at war jokes to enter
The Best.
28:29 I think that was my grandad
The 'BIKERS' of the Navy! Never saw em that way,.. burra do nar!
Mis the tvv show vocals nave😅
Makassar nave Asume show 😅
Makassar navy Asume show 😅
😅
Manages navy😅