"US PT-Boats in the Pacific" Topic

Writing in Naval History magazine, Admiral James L. Holloway III (who was gunnery officer on DD Bennion at Surigao Strait) recalls seeing the PT-boats advancing to set up an ambush for the oncoming Japanese fleet:

I had never heard such a racket. We could hear the PT engines five miles away and see them at even greater distances, because they were engulfed in a cloud of their own exhaust fumes. It was my first encounter with PT boats; I was not impressed.

How would you evaluate the usefulness of US PT boats in the Pacific in WWII?

I'd read ALL the literature, including after-action reports, and then decide, instead of taking one tin-can sailor's anecdote as gospel truth…

My dad loved them! His boat hat 3 confirmed sub kills!

Very useful and versatile. Quiet with the mufflers engages. Best used at night where exhaust smoke was not an issue. They never lived up to their ideal of being a cheap way to deal with capital ships, but they were great in small coastal actions and giving the larger enemy one more complication to worry about.

Great for scouting, and ambushes, but as mentioned, didn't perform as well as was hoped against larger units.

My guess is a lot of that can be blamed on some of the poor early torpedoes.

Certainly, as more reliable, and better ones became available, they were more of a threat in coastal areas.

I'd read ALL the literature, including after-action reports, and then decide, instead of taking one tin-can sailor's anecdote as gospel truth…

Be my guest.

My uncle was no fan of the PT Boat, but then he was in one based in Shetland and not the Pascific.

Like any weapon system, highly effective when deployed and used as intended, less so when used outside of their "comfort zone". Highly effective against enemy small craft and an appropriate level of force to use against them (often far more effective than DDs and DEs due to their speed, size, manoeuvrability and ability to operate closer inshore).

Well in the Philippines, I understand THEY WERE EXPENDABLE!

way-ooh!

-TV

-seriously one of the best US war movies ever made. Wayne is even good in it.

even good in it? Hmm… a bit of a backhaned compliment, methinks. We'll be watching you, pilgrim.

PT boats were one of the tools that made sweeping and securing, then scouting and defending, many of the tiny chains of islands in the Pacific an achievable task.

Remember that a PT boat had 3 Packard Merlins down in the belly. You can hear a Lancaster bomber or a B17 coming for miles, too.

What made PT boats dangerous was their speed, but they were *severely* let down by the Mk15 torpedoes, just like the subs were let down by the Mk14s (basically the same design).

Note that almost every navy in the world still uses the descendants of PT boats: missile-armed FACs.

@Security Minister Critter 1: Which boat(s) did your dad serve on?

For their mission they were great. It was when they were given tasks more suited to DEs or DDs that they failed in their mission. In the pacific the two most common opponents (see my artilcle in Time Portal Passages) were gun emplacements and Japanese barges.

As I recall from reading their history years ago the torpedoes were a problem early and later there weren't targets that justified carrying torpedoes.

After the early campaigns as I recall they ended up as gunboats.

From what I have read they were pretty much used modified as gunboats too as the guns were more effective then torpedoes. Alot of their targets were the Japanese armored barges. Robert

Pretty sure my buddy's father loved them. He was based in the Pacific on them and as far as we can tell he never saw anything related to the enemy and spent a lot of quality time on various islands protecting them from getting too much alcohol or unattached native women.

I truly don't recall if he ever told me the hull number. I know he was on DE 188 after the war. I'm not sure of the hull number there at the moment either, but know there is a picture of the crew at some point.
As an aside, my grandfather was one of the Merlin designers.

My Grandad was on one. Usde to have a picture of it until it was soaked in a bad rainstorm(bedroom window left open).

Like any weapon system, highly effective when deployed and used as intended

For their mission they were great

Their intended mission was to take out enemy warships, and they mostly failed at this. Used as fast gunboats, they did fine work against Japanese shore-to-shore troop barges, and were also effective scouts. (I'm paraphrasing Morison.)

Many wound up removing two of the four torpedo tubes and carrying extra guns instead. One of the boats on display at Battleship Cove (Fall River, MA) carries a 40mm, a 37mm, a 20mm, and two twin .50's, in addition to torpedoes and depth charges. It might also have an 81mm mortar, I can't recall for sure.

I would say PTs were useful as the wet service's cavalry.

One correction, folks: the PTs did NOT use Packard Merlins. They used Packard marine engines.

And as far as their being heard from a US destroyer: at that time the PTs were deploying at speed to take up their stations. Their method of attack was to sneak in on muffled engines, not roar in at full throttle leaving a telltale wake!