US PT Boats of WW2 - Guide 369
2024 ж. 5 Қаң.
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The PT Boats, fast attack craft of the United States Navy, is today's subject.
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
And in the 70s to 90s we had the PHMs. I love the Pegasus class. But then I lived in Seattle when they were being built.
Did Kamchatka get first viewing of this video?
A similar video about the Schnellboote would be nice. And maybe some sort of comparison of the German, British and US boats taking into account the different needs of the different navies.
Assuming that the IJN builds another 2 Shokakus instead of the Yamatos (accounting for the fact they can’t build more than this anyways due to infrastructure and time limitations), how much longer would the IJN carrier arm survive before being overrun by the Essex swarm? Assume the not-Yamato Shokakus manage to enter service with pilots but that Japanese pilot training doctrine otherwise remains the same as historically.
Any shows featuring warships that you recommend?
Love getting coverage of the smaller vessels of WW2. Something on how Britain fought the E-boats in the channel would also be great
Hey, I've been waiting four years for this... enjoy!
Yes that would be great
One detail of E-Boats I recall is that they were lousy AAA platforms, which made running into RAF or USAAF aircraft rather one sided.
@@jimtaylor294 I wouldn't call them lousy? Just equiped with limited dual purpose weapons for the job. Hitting an airplane from a 80 ft boat in seas, without a stabilized mounting can be a challenge.🛥🛩
@WALTERBROADDUS I was paraphrasing an old Osprey Guide to them, but the point was that they were poor AA gun platforms re' stability, which by late war when the allies had increasingly more numerous, fast, long ranging and heavily armed aircraft... the E Boats had better odds of surrviving from manoeuvring & trying to throw off the pilot's aim, than they had of downing the attacker. Similar situation with Submarines, except that the Germans had always known that crash diving was the best option.
The crews did not steal anything, the strategically transferred equipment to alternate locations. The locations tended to be the pt boats. Not a strange coincidence, totally accidental.
"Tactically Acquired"
They tripped and fell onto the boats
They received the armament from the Midnight Requisition Division of BuOrd
It’s a rational reallocation of assets to maximize war effort. It’s patriotic!
@@gerardlabelle9626 Why let it sit in a warehouse?
My grandfather hand-built a pop-up camper trailer out of materials salvaged from a WWII PT boat. Passed it down to my dad and I remember camping in it until I graduated from college in 2000.
Did it have various salvaged weaponry fastooned to it?
@@jehl1963 not that kind of salvaged material… more like planking and plywood. I think he and my great-uncle wanted to put the war behind them once it was done. I specifically remember the sides of the camper came from the boat’s hull.
The Higgins company built those late in the war. The war ended before they got a contract, so they put them on the market. The folding top was 2 canopy frames mounted opposite each other, with the tent being made in house. There's an episode of Flipping R.V.s with the guy restoring one for his son. They also had a gasoline lantern branded Higgins. I'm not doubting your Granddaddy, but they were a thing. There's also ads from the late 40s for them. Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, NatGeo, etc.
Unfortunately, it was then struck by a torpedo from an Eboat camper, and went down on an even keel.
@@nomadmarauder-dw9re Higgins didn’t build this one. my dad helped hand-make this thing in the late 40’s. They made the top in one solid piece of fiberglass. The tent was hand stitched, waterproofed heavy canvas. The riser springs and the base/tongue/axle assembly were probably salvaged from some other trailer, but grandpa did all the wiring and plumbing himself.
At 6:29, the PT boat shown is PT-59, shown rifht after her conversion to a gunboat. She has extra 50 cals where her torpedo tubes were and a 40mm on the stern. If you look at the cockpit, one of those men is LTJG John F. Kennedy, who took over this boat and saw its conversation done. Of course, this is after his previous boat, PT-109 had been sunk. Instead of going home like he rated, he choose to stay and take command of the 59. He was in command for just a few months before having to finally go home because of a back injury caused during 109s sinking. One thing that happened before he left was the 59 was sent on a mission to cover and eventually rescue some Marines who were being evacuated from a small landing party. During the trip back, a badly wounded Marine died in Kennedys bunk and the boat ran out of fuel since she was sent out not fully fueled. But they did save over 50 Marines that night.
Thanks for the story, PTs were given many varied missions.
Amazingly 59 was returned to the states but was misidentified at surplus so during her long post war civilian career no one knew its identity. It eventually rotted away and sank at a pier in New York city. The remains were identified and raised a few years ago.
they should of named that boat "hedgehog".....with all those guns mounted on it......
There's also a 40mm Bofors on the foredeck as well, if you look carefully enough.
pt 59 recently found partially salvaged from the east river
"The PT's distinguished themselves that day at Cavite by shooting down at least three dive bombers. After that, the incoming planes gave the PT's a wide berth, concentrating on less nimble, less ferocious targets. The chief of staff later sent Lt. Bulkley a message in which he said: "the latest report is that three dive bombers were seen being chased over Marivales Mountain by an MTB. Don't you think this is carrying the war a little too far?" "The Black Coast: the story of the PT Boat by Basil Heater", p. 17 My favorite PT boat anecdote!
Rebuilt one of the PT Boats that is now at Battleship Cove. Quite an experience, worked with many PT veterans. This was around 1984ish.
I saw one there just a few months ago. Well done.
My fathers name is on a plaque (RON 30) in the PT Museum inside Big Mamie. The Director let us board the Higgins and the Elco. My father gave us a tour of the Higgins like it was yesterday to him. What a great place to visit.
They also often carried a 60mm mortar that was mainly used to launch parachute flares to illuminate Japanese Landing Barges (i.e. Landing Craft) ...
PT Boats and MTBs are a big favourite of naval history for me. Reading about coastal forces was something I generally found more interesting than the majority of fleet actions.
Same here. The small boat operations of ww2 are the naval equivalent of dog fighting. Shame this hasn't been covered more
Torpedo Boats?... Kamchatka has joined the Chat. Flying Binoculars intensifies!
I needed this comment this morning, bravo zulu 😂
Kamchatka, the only ship in mankind history that was armed with binoculars launchers!
@khaelamensha3624 I thought the Kamchatka was the target of the Binocular barrage 😂
Love the 5 minute guides that regularly run to twice the time, never change Drac.
amen!
Hey! It says more or less. Just because it has never been less, doesn't mean Drach doesn't know how to tell time. He just can't help himself.
About 20+ years ago, one of these Elco boats was shown in a high-end dept store catalog, available for mail order, with all guns, torpedoes, and depth charges included (deactivated of course).
Every home should have one 😌👌
That would be PT 728. Not actually an American PT, but a Vosper built for the UK and modified to look like a PT, it now resides in Ohio along with another Vosper the museum plans to put in original configuration
Of the the prototype aluminum PT-boats (PT-8) is actually currently on sale for half a million USD. It’s at 2:52 in this video
Darn. Those depth charges would've been great for getting gophers out of the garden!
One of the only surviving Higgins version was restored and part of the exhibits at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. For a brief time, they actually had it in the water and you could get rides on it. Link to the museum source below. Nice to hear other boats exist.
They don't do that anymore? I did it back in 2018. Was pretty fun albeit a bit scary (we did it in pouring rain). They had us sitting on benches adjacent to where the Torpedo racks/launching tubes would have been. They ride very heavily between 10 and 25 knots but anything under or over that and the ride was surprisingly smooth.
Isn’t The iconic Higgins boat at that museum a landing craft, not their earlier submission to the PT boat trials? unless there is more than one there?
@timkohchi2048 it isn't at the museum. They have a Higgins landing craft IN the museum. But they own/are in good corporate relations with a party that has an actual Higgins PT off-site. It is a later production 200 foot PT - #305.
There is another restored Higgins out in Washington I think it is that is still running and giving rides. Sadly no ELCO boats currently are operational.
There are three Higgins boats in Argentina.
PT boats were devastating to Japanese supply barges.
Once the barges were grounded on the beach, the PT boats shot them up, right? Maybe that, and reconning the local area, and harassing the enemy on the beach was worth it.
@@treyhelms5282 Actually, the PTs ambushed them in between the islands while they were still in transport. The heroic image of torpedoe boats attacking warships was not that common; rescue, recon, interdiction; these were the main duties of the PT boats.
@@fearthehoneybadgerIirc the largest warship sunk by PT-boats was the destroyer Teruzuki. I think Nishimura’s battleship group was attacked by PT-boats in the Surigao Straight, but that’s probably the closest to that image that happened
@@fearthehoneybadger the Japanese barges that were used for shuttling men and supplies between islands were designed to be armored if the threat environment required. The armor was heavy enough to limit the effectiveness of the 50 cal and 20mm PT armament, hence the search for something heavier, like the 37mm that was carried by the P39. A tactic often used against barges was to maneuver behind the barge and shoot at the helmsman, as his armor shield only protected against fire forward of the barge.
@@sirboomsalot4902 A number of PTs engaged the Nishimura group that night, damage against Japanese cruisers and destroyers was claimed though I don't know that any were sunk. One battleship was claimed sunk by destroyer torpedoes. The PTs value in this fight was in keeping the Japanese on edge, not permitting them any time for rest, keeping them confused thus ensuring the Japanese who got that far along were totally unable to respond effectively when Admiral Oldendorf's battleline finally opened fire.
Watching Jingles and Drach I've learned one thing "ship classification is a farce."
There is just something I love about torpedo boats. No idea why.
It is like the sport cars, fast a lot of punch, sun tanned crew... Like them too for these reasons 😉
The hull shape should be familiar to those of you that are offshore fishermen. The bow on Elco boats especially was designed with the "Carolina flare" which was, and is, very common on gamefishing boats intended for deep water use, as it makes for a very smooth and dry ride. It doesn't work as well in shallower waters of the continental shelf, where the swells tend to be closer together. You can easily recognize the lines in current boats made by Grady-White in the US.
@@khaelamensha3624That nails it!
@@91Redmist With your name you obviously like sport car 😂
@@tjh44961 if I had to choose an eboat will be my choice, bigger but able to go farther in the great ocean, may it be green or blue 😁
One of my favorite movies, They Were Expendable, featured PT boats in the Philippines in early 1942. Robert Montgomery spent time in PT boats during the war, and he directed some uncredited scenes in the movie when John Ford broke his leg. You get a sense of the desperation and hopelessness of the campaign. Southern Florida stands in for Bataan and the central Philippines. MTB 3 had 6 Elcos, but they used 2 newer Elcos and 4 Huckins.
Love it
It's a great movie. 👍 Can anyone tell me what PT John Wayne served on during the war? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well-known to older folks from the TV series "McHales' Navy" (1962, 4 seasons). Thanks.
FUN FACT... the boat used in the TV show was actually a Ex-USAAF Crash boat. As the name implies that was designed to pick up downed Pilots. And notably its former owner was Howard Hughes. Who used the boat as a chase boat for his testing of the Spruce Goose Flying boat...
Don't forget the gloriously terrible late 90s movie with Tim Curry in it! Kinda want to watch that again, now...
@@WALTERBROADDUS Very nice knowledge bomb...🤯
@@Normandy1944 🙆🏽♂️ hopefully, it'll be a Jeopardy Daily Double one day....
@@WALTERBROADDUSThey used multiple boats, including an actual PT boat, PT-694, which was as Vosper design completed post-war and then sold to Hughes. As I understand it was used for most shots of the PT boat operating amd modified crash boats were generally used for shots of characters and such.
My Great Uncle worked at ELCO back then. He was involved in the testing of the early PT's, but I don't know the details. My Grand mother had a Christmas card that showed the boat roaring across the water with a group of guys on the bridge. He added a note "That's me on the left".
My grandfather S1C James R. McCoy served aboard PT-108, an 80-foot Elco for a year and a half before wounds would lead to his retirement from service. When he learned of what befell his boat which had survived the war but like many was beached then burned. my grandmother said this hurt him deeply. I have his uniforms, awards and his Sterling Silver PT badge which was provided to each boat by Elco to be awarded by the boat captain after completion of work-up training in theater. The US Navy never came up with a PT badge like the surface warfare one.
General MacArthur and family were evacuated from Corregidor Island on board a PT boat. Thanks for this: I always fancied myself a dashing PT boat commander.
There's that great film about it. And the one about j.f.k during ww2
Disruption + delays = Dislays. New words by Drach !
It's a perfectly cromulent word.
@@pauldietz1325 indubitably
?
@@CFG-eb3my 7:18 His mouth started to say disruptions but his brain was thinking delays and so we end up with dislays.
As the cycle continued, the USN commissioned the Asheville class PGs, Patrol Gunboats. I had the pleasure of being the commissioning CO of USS Beacon PG-99. They were wonderfully well designed and very useful. Of special note was the CODOG propulsion combination of one LM-1500 Gas Turbine (also used in the F4 fighter) and two diesels interfaced with an excellent SSS clutch system resulting in both high speed and long range endurance. A few small combatants, with their small, high skills crews, will always be useful in a big navy.
Fun fact about ELCO, the original company was as a subsidiary of the Electric Boat Company, which is still in existence today.
The Hollywood film ‘They were Expendable’ gives a somewhat glamorised image of a typical Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron based on actual events starring John Wayne and Robert Montgomery who served as commanding officer aboard a PT boat in the Pacific theatre
Listening to this while hunting cargo subs in Boat Crew 👌
Thanks for the tip!
I once heard the Packard V12 engines of a surviving PT boat. Will never forget the sound of them.
afre3398 It is pathetic that the video producer went on so much about the armament and NOTHING said about the three PACKARD designed and built M2500 supercharged V12 engines that powered ALL US Navy PT's and many British MBT and MGB's !!! And NO these were NOT Packard built merlins. M2500 was 50% larger !!! !
PT boat crews, unsung heroes of you ask me, often overlooked and very under appreciated maybe even by their own colleagues in ships like destroyers upwards
3 V-12 Engines.. You gotta love that ..
stephenhendrickstrew YES M2500 Packard Marine engines powered all US Navy version PT boats and many British MTB MTG boats air sea rescue boats all supplied by USA via Lend Lease !! !
PT-658 is a museum in Portland, Oregon now. They did a great job with the restoration and you can occasionally see it on the Willamette River.
The classic case of "Eggshells armed with hammers"!
In D&D speak they are Glass Cannons.
Boat Crew on steam is quite a fun little PT boat simulator. At first I thought it was arcade-ey (and it is a little bit for other reasons) for the sheer number and variety of weapons it allows you to cram onto one of these boats, but this video shows that to be absolutely accurate.
My wife's father served as a torpedo man on submarines Ronquil and Drum. I know she'd love information on either or both boats. Thanks for all your videos.
I always miss the beginning because I click past the first thirty seconds, but I don't want to fuss about so I just over click. So I step into every Drach video... lost and flailing about for the topic. If I'm lucky, if Drach's lucky, it gels quickly.
You can't help feeling for the PT crews. Not only did they have to worry about the enemy, but they never knew when the Enterprise would loom over the horizon coming for their Oerlikons.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. commanded PTs for a variety of interesting commando-type operations in the Med.
I always thought that these things seemed like a better idea than they actually were in reality. Thanks for the info.
The first actions in Guadalcanal were crippled by defective torpedoes. They were crap WWI surplus and many ran deep or had defective fuses. However, they were the only thing preventing the Japanese destroyers from landing troops on Guadalcanal. Thier work in hunting down nighttime supply barges both in the Pacific as well as the Mediterranean was very valuable. It also has to be considered is that their unconventional construction was not a drain on traditional big steel shipbuilding industry.
Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.A. has an excellent exhibit with 2 actual WW2 PT boats preserved indoors. There you can watch a very interesting movie about the development and combat history of the PT boats.
Only one is on display now (the Elco I think). The other was damaged in a storm and walled off, Battleship Cove being Battleship Cove. They’ll probably quietly scrap it like they did the Hindensee
Both built after/right at the end of the war. Amazingly, 796 wasn't decommissioned until 1970!
@@sirboomsalot4902Getting volunteers to help rebuild things is getting harder.
@@arts.4014 I know, which means that it was still in commission when I was in the Navy. (by a few months) Yes, I'm THAT OLD.
Nah, that's not old, just no longer young... :^) @@powellmountainmike8853
Love this. Now Schnell Boot please.
I can remember seeing one of those pt boats when I was a kid in Miami river just sitting there .That was a good size boat.
Pretty sure there used to be a converted torpedo boat used for trips around Torbay (a tourist area of SW UK) during the 1960s. Can't recall any details - my memory is not what it was. But I do recall that I loved the idea of being on a torpedo boat when I was about 10 or 11 years old - exciting!
As a child in the 1970s, I recall a small paperback "Men at War?" with a set of short WW2 stories. In one story, the Japanese were sending battleships to bombard Guadalcanal and it looked like only PT boats would be able to try and stop the Japanese task force. The PT crews knew it was a suicide mission as darkness was falling. As they set out on this "Birkenhead Drill", Admiral "China" Lee came over the radio to tell them to stand down. The crews then relaxed on their plywood decks as if at a night baseball game and watched battleship shells arc across the sky as Lee and USS Washington dismembered the Japanese task force. I miss that book. Another story from it was called "Nine Men on a Four Man Raft."
Lee didn't want the PT boats attacking *his* ships by mistake.
@@pauldietz1325 That and I'm sure Lee didn't want his gunners wasting his training by hitting the PT boats by mistake after turning them into giant battleship snipers. I need to spend more time reading up on him. What I have learned so far was that he was a master at training the main gunners on ships to ridiculous standards. I can't imagine what he would have thought of a bunch og PT bumblebees getting in his way.
@@WayneMoyer I wonder if Lee knew how poorly the USN torpedoes were performing at this stage of the war. Tragic to think of the near sacrifice of those PT Boat crews who likely would have been launching duds the Japanese.
@@amerigo88 That's a good question with the damned MK 14.
My uncle, who was an Army Air Corps intelligence officer, had a harrowing experience on a PT boat while trying to relocate to a forward base along the coast of New Guinea during WW2. The boat was caught in an extreme storm and spent more than a day just trying to survive. My uncle said he spent almost all of that time strapped into a bunk to avoid getting tossed around the cabin like a rag doll as the boat was pitching so violently.
Good to see the mosquito fleets getting some coverage. Although the PTs were indeed faster than the RN's big Type D MGBs in the Mediterranean, the only S-boats deployed in that specific theatre were in fact the smaller and significantly slower-than-normal 'S-30' type. These were originally eight boats on order for China, which were requisitioned by the KM at the outbreak of war in 1939. Completed for in mid-1940 for service with the new (and soon to be S-boat hallmark) raised forecastle arrangement, as seen on the four larger contemporary boats of the 'S-26' type, the S-30s were far less powerfully-engined and capable of a maximum speed of 36 knots - even without the added weight of a 2cm cannon mount in the bow as new. Their larger cousins could reliably make about 39kts, flat out. Being slightly narrower and shorter than the S-26 & S-38 types, the slower S-30s could thus be stripped of armament and transferred through canals all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. There, they formed the 3rd Schnellbootflotille and, joined by eight new sisters, would receive various armament upgrades as they performed admirable service. Ultimately, the S-30s type boats of 3SF were joined by the *even smaller and slower still* eight boats of the 'S-151' type (which lacked a bow gun throughout their careers), forming the '1st Schnellboot Division'. These were the boats seen in the photos surrendering at Ancona and interned post-war in Malta, prior to their scuttling at sea. Up-armed early on with the classic 2cm bow gun, later with the addition of twin or triple 15mm machine-gun mounts behind the bridge and, by war's end, sporting either a twin 2cm flak or a 3.7cm M43 flak in place of the original single aft 2cm cannon - as well as field-modified armoured wheelhouses - these were definitely good gun combatants, if you ever happened to see them at least. But, at just 36 knots (and 35 for the smaller Type 151), they were no match, speed-wise, for a Higgins PT. - On the other hand, the S-boats serving in the Channel and North Sea were of the 38-39 knot 'S38' type, or the even more impressive 100-ton and 42 knot 'S100' class boats. And the short-ranged, smaller-hulled RN motor gunboats developed to fight *these* craft closer to home were the incredible British Power Boat Co 71.5-feet type; fully capable of 40 knots at just 40 tons, while still toting a power-operated 2-pdr pom-pom and twin Oerlikons. *These* boats were absolutely incredible *and we have one restored to running condition* (although not with the original 3600hp engines) - the beautiful MGB 81.
I wish I could give you 10 👍 for your post. I learned a ton from you. Thank you.
7:10 Giving the Japanese their own dose of "do you see torpedo boats?"
Haunted by the ghost of the Kamchatka :D
My dad and some friends actually bought one of these in the early 1950’s (stripped of weapons). I remember him saying how enormous these boats were for a boat considered small by the Navy. They didn’t have the money to restore it back to its wartime appearance and sold it a few years later. He said it was very loud too.
Yea I was surprised how large they are when I visited Battleship Cove at Fall River, MA. They have PT 617 and PT 697.
There are two PT boats across the river from where I live at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA. PT-617 and PT-796.
The national World War II Museum located in New Orleans, Louisiana has PT305. They have fully restored the boat and you are able to purchase an actual ride on Lake Pontchartrain for several hundred dollars. Lake Pontchartrain of course also is famous for where the Higgins boats(LCP) were tested.
My grandfather was a .50 cal gunner aboard PT-174 in the pacific from late ‘44-‘45 if memory serves me correct. He used to talk exactly about what you said in this video, doing night raids to intercept Japanese barges, and some raids against coastal defenses the Japanese had setup. They also ferried Australian troops and Pacific Islander resistance fighters deep into the islands, and I actually have an Australian Army rising sun badge, and craft made Philippine Moro knife/sheath he traded rations for
PT boats are one of my favorite vessels and I’m glad to see them getting some recognition !!!
In the Mediterranean in, IIRC, '43 the book 'Dog Boats At War' mentioned that the British MGB/MTB patrols liked to operate in company with newer US PT boats, as they'd begun having PPI equipped radar sets installed as standard equipment. The British boats, many of which were a bit older, either lacked radar or had a set equipped with the older, harder to use, A-scope. When operating in company with a PPI equipped boat gave the group better situational awareness; while the more heavily armed MGBs gave them the firepower to take on some of the the tougher smaller opponent in those waters.
Grandpa served on a PT boat in the Philippines. The only story he would ever tell about his time in the war was about how he got home. The big ships were leaving to take soldiers home, and he & his crew were all packed and ready, when some officer comes up and demands they take him to another Island. This would make them miss this round of ships going back to the US and increase their stay by an extra month or more. So they head out, and Grandpa notices something in the water. “Sir, is that a submerged log?” “Yup” “Shouldn’t we change course so we don’t hit it?” “Yup.” Crash! PT boat springs a leak, the skipper apologizes profusely but says there’s no way they could risk a trip to another island now. The moment the boat hits the dock they grab their bags and sprint to the transport ship. And that act of sabotage is how my grandpa came home from the war.
Now that's initiative! Promote now!!!
Another thing that we kind of keep having cyclical nature in our thing and well. This is outside the scope of the channel wind up recreating something similar to the PT vote whenever we needed to. Work The rivers and coastline in vietnam. The US navy still has designs and even has modern versions of the P. T specifically for working in harbor and river environments.
Perfect timing since I just finished the game boat crew
My first exposure to PT boats was in the SNES game Super Battleship where you swarm a battlecruiser with a squadron of them
Mine was black lagoon
One of my favourite game. Beyond it's time.
I can just picture the Battlecruiser laughing, adjusting aim and deleting the boats from existence 😂 . Ironically also one of the few opponents a MTB couldn't outrun.
@jimtaylor294 Wrong & wrong. Study PT history. No WWII Battleship I'm aware of ever did even close to 40 knots. Their guns werent designed to shoot low and close in surface vessels. Big target for a mosquito boat.
@@stepanbandera5206 heys talking about a game I think
Thank you for sharing a great video. PT's have become an interest of mine now that I am affiliated with the Oregon Military Museum of which part of our restoration crew are also the crew that takes care of PT-658 in Portland, Oregon. I was given a private one on one tour of PT-658 a few weeks ago by Jerry who really knows his stuff when it comes to PT's.
You should do a special on three systems that kept America in the war: PBY Catalina, Submarines and PT Boats. Normally it is just all about pointy war fighting things. Logisitcal support and special systems can make the difference in winning or losing the fight and the war.
I hope you do a deeper dive on these boats in the future. Awesome video!
Maybe a 5min guide to each type?
When I was a child my mother told me stories about the surplus PT boat that her father bought after WWII and that they would take out on the water in New Jersey for family outings. Later on I learned that all the PT boats had been destroyed and that it wouldn't have been possible for her father to buy one. It turned out that what her father had bought was a surplus pontoon boat, a thing the army used for bridging rivers and that had a top speed of about 3 mph (instead of 45 mph). My mom had thought "PT" stood for "Pon Toon" so that's what she called it. When I told her that's not what PT meant, she admitted that she had never understood what JFK was doing in the Pacific fighting the Japanese in such a clunker. This all would have been very disappointing, except that at the same time I learned that a friend of her father's had actually purchased a surplus Air Sea Rescue boat, very similar to the PT boats except that it had only two of the big Packard engines. Since it was a bit longer and slimmer than the PT boats, it had the same top speed of 45 mph. The (rich) family friend had purchased it for $10,000 which was a LOT less than its original $190,000 price tag; there is a belief in the family that his means of acquiring it were at least somewhat sketchy. He ended up selling it because the engines caught fire three times, but my mom got to take some rather thrilling trips on it as a child before that. I think some of those stories got mixed up with the pontoon boat stories, leading to my belief that my family had once owned a PT boat.
I got to see PT-658 running a few years back on the columbia river. The guys did a absolute amazing job restoring that beautiful boat, Yoiu cannot fathom how good those engines sound in it.
what a timely video considering the popularity of the early access game Boat crew
My dad was stationed in the Pacific theater as was his brother who was stationed on a PT boat. He got to visit his brother and stated that his visit was the best time. They fished with C4 and then returned to the island and had a luau with the fish and the alcohol that they drained from the torpedoes. He said it was the best part of his tour of duty during WW2. Both him and his brother made it home safely. His other brother was wounded landing at Normandy but made it home
About time you got around to these valiant craft and the brave men who crewed them.
Nice coverage on these small craft
For those interested in PT boats in fiction, check out the Japanese anime series Black Lagoon. A freelance group of outlaws uses a refitted PT boat as their primary transport while operating in a lawless South Pacific port. From piracy to Nazi gold, to gangster shootouts, to shooting down a Hind gunship with a torpedo, it is a lot of fun.
Thank you for the high quality content. 👍
Great timing on this video's release! I was just watching a video from The Operations Room about the Battle of the Surigao Strait, in which PT boats played a part. Nice to get a sense of the type's broader use during the war in such short order.😊
I learned everything about PT Boats from McHale's Navy. (1962-1966)
Its amazing how personalized these little boats got as time went on.
I'd love to learn more about these boats. I'm fascinated by these things
I always loved the PTs All of that add-hoc and in the field upgrading, official and unofficial makes me smile. If the sailors needed it they got it by hook or crook. Had a book that showed one PT Skipper had a 60 mortar on the roof of his command position for shooting illumination rounds in night actions.
I have waited soooo long for this. Thank you, Drach!
Oh goody! I’ve been waiting for you to cover these smaller vessels
Thanks Drach.
My grandfather's brother was a marine durimg ww2. On one occasion a Lt John F Kennedy asked him to pull the 20mm Oerlikon off and replace it with something with more punch, like a 40mm bofors. When Lt Kennedy came back to his PT boat, my uncle has mounted a 105mm Howitzer on the front of the boat. Kennedy was shocked and surprised. After asking if it was safe, securely mounted, being assured by my uncle that it was well mounted and would stay put, Kennedy took the boat out to do a bit of target practice; he and his crew were delighted the gun's mounting easily handled the gun firing, and they happily put it to use in the line of duty, the only PT boat in the US Navy that sported a 5" gun during the war if i remember correctly, though Kennedy's superiors were interested in doing likewise with more PT boats when they caught wind of it. My grandfather told me all that on one of the occasions he was telling my brothers and I about his time in the Navy as a CB in the South Pacific.
Before I watch this, just like lightweight cars are my favorite type of vehicle to drive the Mosquito Fleet would've been where I would've wanted to serve in WWII. But I have to admit Hollywood helped romantisize them for me with PT-109 and McHale's Navy. A great book I found on Audible is PT-105 by Dick Keresey. It covers this man's tod in the Solomons as skipper of PT-105 in the same area as John Kennedy during the same time. Was out on patrol with the 109 when it was cut in two by the japanese destroyer. A great read and first hand account of the sea battle for Guadalcanal. Thank you Drac. The old pics of the original PT-1, 2.... were great to see.
Good mentioning of the ride roughness. Boats of this type are all semi planing vee hulls with one or more steps. The Swedish Navy did a test to find out if it's better to have more than one step. They built two boats that were virtually identical with the main difference that one of them had one step and the other three steps. In calm sea the one with three steps was a little faster, but in rough sea it was better with only one step. So from then on they only procured torpedo boats with one step hulls.
Been waiting on this one. Worth it.
Cool! Nice to see you working down into some of the less well known, and dusty corners of nautical military crafts. I can't wait to see which obscure corner of design you'll go to next!
The APD would be nice. None of the first ones survived the war. But the concept did. The Navy built new ones, or converted more hills for them, but that's where the story ends.
Great video Drach...They were expendable after all ;)
Thank you for the information
Been waiting for coverage of these! Original McHale’s Navy fan! No mention of the excellent Packard engines though.
One Tin can sailor at our VFW used to say "Get out the Old Blue Ointment, the Crabs disappointment, It burns and it itches, but it kills the sonsabitches!" The greatest generation has passed.🇺🇸
Rode one in Ocean City,Md. back in 70. Up on plane was sweet,
In "Japanese Destroyer Captain," the author Capt Hara mentioned the Imperial Japanese Navy making their own versions. But this was late in the war for the defense of the home islands. He also mentioned that their versions were inferior because they were using old surplus aircraft engines and whatnot. Japan was in no shape to make new engines for their torpedo boats in '44-'45.
I watched one documentary that stated that at in the end of the war, in the Philippines they took dozens of the boats, stripped the weapons and a few other things off of the boats, poured gas on them and set them on fire. Such a shame. For you silver headed folks reading this and can remember the old TV show Mccales Navy, they didn't use a PT Boat. It was actually a rescue boat that looked similar.
Thanks Drach
Thank you for this Video
Been playing a ton of “Boat Crew” lately, this video couldn’t come at a better time.
I'm lucky to have one of only two fully restored and functional PT Boat near my home. They run it once or twice a year, nothing sounds like it, it's an amazing machine to see running.
Neat, I by chance started building a model kit of a PT boat last night.
I have one on backorder that is now in stock in Japan, quite looking forward to building it. Ironically enough, it looks like my Kamchatka kit will be in the same shipment 🤣
I recently built the Atlantis repop of the old Revell Higgins PT Boat, and have a couple Revell 1/72 Elco PT Boats in my stash. 😎👍
@@marvindebot3264THANK YOU 👍, FINALLY a reference to the Kamchatka WITHOUT jokes of flying binoculars or monkeys with opium cigarettes...
I used to design my own brick torpedo boats as a kid using Legos. These days, if you like Brick models and you don't want to design your own, there's actually a pretty nice one by Cobi for PT-109 (Set # 4825). On rebrickable you can get plans for a S-Boat (S 100 schnellboot by Lepetitlegoneuf) - you would have to buy your own bricks which you can do from bricklink. The relatively small size of these vessels means you don't lose as much due to scale. Cobi does have some big warship models as well, I haven't built one but people seem to like them.
I never got to go to sea in a PT boat, or one of our hydrofoil boats that were last stationed at Key West. But I was honored to have had the chance to drive a PBR, and in fact road with what must have been the last operational squadron of PBR'S out of Roosy Roads NAVSTA in Puerto Rico. My last two ships were a LPH (LPH-7, USS Guadalcanal) and a CV, (CV-62 USS Independence)- so you know how old I must be. Our mission was to deliver special forces to various islands, such as SEALS and EOD teams, and Marine Raiders. What a bunch of highly trained those men were! I was lucky just to have been associated with them even for a brief period. My proudest service was as an officer aboard a PBR.
Somewhere on the intercoastal waterway in Virginia there was a handful of PT boat hulls just sitting there. It was about 20 years ago I saw them. Fantastic craft and forefathers of the brown water Navy
Might those have been Vietnam retirees?
Drach, ELCO was started as a division of the Electric Boat Company in 1893. The purpose of the division was to build electric launches for the Chicago Colombian World’s exposition that year.
Elco Naval however, was spun up in the 1930s :)
I remember asking about this in a livestream some time back. I’m glad it finally happened! I played Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, when I was just a kid. The first mission of getting blasted off the California during Pearl Harbor, and getting picked up by a PT boat
There is just something cool about these small boats.
The Sea Scouts in Kearny, NJ had a PT boat on the Passaic River for many years.
Boat Crew is pretty cool
Many PT boats carried depth charges not for anti-submarine warfare but to deter Japanese destroyers from following them in shallow water. It was quite a tactic, as several destroyers were badly damaged when a depth charge detonated near their hulls and so Japanese commanders were leery of trying to chase down the PTs. After several disastrous attempts at supply troops on Guadalcanal and other islands the Japanese resorted to using barges under the cover of darkness. The PT boats thus added bigger guns to stop these attempts and were quite successful at it. John Kennedy's boat had a 37mm cannon from a wrecked P-39 on it's bow for instance, when it was rammed by the Japanese destroyer.
The PT Boats went under crucial evaluation and testing during the early years of WW II in Narragansett Bay. They had their HQ right here in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, which happens to be my home state...☺