Battle Stations: PT Boats (War History Documentary)

pound for pound they were the most heavily armed fighting boats of world war ii these 50 tons of fast fighting fury were the smallest and most maneuverable naval craft and fully war loaded could exceed an amazing 45 knots screwed and glued together on a hull made of wood they took on the enemy at close quarters with greater frequency than any other type of surface craft and in one of the greatest stories of survival in world war ii the pt would play a vital role in the making of an american president john fitzgerald kennedy using extraordinary archive film and calorie enactments battle stations goes out hunting with a ship with a stinging its tail the mosquito fleet of the deadly pt boat patrol torpedo or pt boats are built for an astonishing variety of missions they ambush hunt and maraude japanese supply barges earning them the nickname the devil boats of the night these giant killers carry out high speed torpedo runs on heavily armed cruisers and when ordered sneak into enemy held territory to drop off spies the words of john paul jones give me a fast ship for i intend to go in harm's way seem to have been written for a boat that is reliant on speed for its survival the story of the patrol torpedo boat begins with the development of the mosquito fleet sting the torpedo torpedoes have been around since the american civil war but they were massively unreliable in 1866 robert whitehead an english engineer developed the first self-propelled torpedo it was a technological breakthrough here you have a weapon that could be launched at some distance not necessarily from a ship the size of a battleship that could sink just about anything a float on june 10 1918 the world sat up and took notice when an italian motor torpedo boat sank the huge austro-hungarian battleship sent island despite this spectacular success for the small torpedo boat america concentrated on building up her fleet of big battleships and later aircraft carriers surrounded by deep oceans its navy had no place for a fleet of motor torpedo boats that were designed for narrow seas and coastal waters during the 1920s and 30s a new pastime swept the usa speed hundreds of thousands watched as adrenaline-fueled speedboat races competed in a series of death-defying duels the technologies used by these super fast craft would later shape the design of the pt boat one of the leading british innovators was hubert scott payne in a legendary race of the interwar years scott payne's futuristic boat miss britain 3 just lost out to american legend gar wood in his four-engined miss america 10. scott payne and woods futuristic craft travelled at top speeds of over a hundred miles per hour this would later take inspiration from their lightweight materials and high octane engines to provide the pt boat with the 45 knots it would need to survive in combat in september 1931 across the pacific ocean japan invaded manchuria it was the beginning of a blitzkrieg across the far east the u.s navy wary of the security of its pacific islands was forced to develop a fast attack craft for their defense in 1939 the building of eight pt boats was given the go-ahead but most were considered obsolete even before they were completed as the u.s navy showed more interest in the designs of scott payne he was pretty much a speed freak from his aviation background he was into materials technology lightweight structures high-powered engines aero engines so he's combining the whole sort of aircraft industry and put it onto the water he was you know years ahead of other builders by 1939 scott payne's latest boat the pv70 was impressing designers on both sides of the atlantic the american company elko was keen to take a closer look owen chase the chief designer from elko came to the british powerbook company went out on trials on on the pv70 and were just amazed at its sea keeping qualities and the way it could take large amounts of armament with relative ease it was quite a phenomenal boat at the same time in europe hitler's nazis had begun their onslaught on september the 3rd 1939 war was declared for the u.s navy finding the right boat design had become less of a precautionary measure and was now a top priority just two days later scott payne and his pv70 arrived in new york it was renamed pt9 and put through its paces in front of a navy trial board scott payne himself was at the helm and the officers that were involved in the trials was very complimentary about the handling of the boat in january 1940 elko started construction of 10 70-foot pt boats based on the pt-9 in july 1941 the plywood derbies were held where the next generation of these fast attack craft were pitted against each other prototypes from elko and rival companies higgins and huckins competed in heavy seas but it was the elko boat based on scott payne's designs that emerged as the victor and won the lion's share of the navy's contracts pt9 was basically the prototype for all pt votes to follow now that's not quite the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth andrew jackson higgins had his own ideas about how a boat should be designed but the 70-foot elko that pt-9 was based off of was pretty much the mainstay of the early part of the war elko higgins and huckins went on to build over 500 pt boats for the u.s navy an elko 80-foot redesign was constructed to deal with heavy armament and this became the mosquito fleet's main vessel built around a mahogany frame the fully war-loaded 80-foot pt boat weighed in at 50 tons aircraft fabrics soaked in marine glue was sandwiched between two layers of mahogany planking this along with nearly half a million screws gave the wooden wonder its strength below decks the powerhouse three 12-cylinder packard engines were fed by aviation fuel stored in tanks that held three thousand gallons at full throttle 500 gallons an hour were needed the boat carried two twin 50 caliber machine guns later a 20 millimeter cannon was added to increase its sting against aircraft as the boats took on different enemy targets more machine guns and even mortars were put in place most boats carried four mark eight torpedoes with a range of over five miles and an awesome three hundred pound warhead the pt boats would not have to wait long for action as the japanese advanced they would be at the heart of one of the most audacious rescue bids of the second world war on december the 7th 1941 carrier aircraft of the imperial japanese navy attacked pearl harbor bringing america headlong into a new world war within 55 minutes 2 400 people were dead and the main battle line of the american pacific fleet was crippled amid the chaos and carnage two gunners on board one of the new pt boats were credited with bringing down the first japanese aircraft of world war ii after pearl harbor the japanese embarked on an ocean blitzkrieg a totally unprepared america was rapidly driven back the asiatic squadron that was based in the the philippines all the major naval ships were pulled back because the navy was afraid they were going to lose them so here you have a squadron of pt boats that is basically their orphans they have no support all their bases have been bombed their supplies are gone people were desperate there was little hope that you could get out the question was how you would survive in december 1941 there were just 29 pt boats in the entire us navy they were fighting to earn respect from a navy that was far more concerned with its big ships the naval hierarchy used nicknames like [ __ ] kit plywood wonder it just didn't fit into their world and they didn't want it in their world they figured we were some joyriders on fast yachts before the war the top brass was unsure of what to do with the pt books many thought they should be relegated to the sidelines on support duties but the determined fight back of squadron 3 based in the philippines would change everything against all odds these beleaguered boats took the fight to the japanese most famously they carried out near suicidal torpedo attacks deep in enemy held waters they were led by lieutenant john d bulkley a maverick who would go on to earn the nickname the wild man of the philippines the man was a hero and what he did was done on sheer leadership and force of personality despite the heroics of bogplay squadron 3 the japanese juggernaut continued by february 1942 they had advanced to the bataan peninsula general douglas macarthur's headquarters on the fortress island of corregidor were under threat president roosevelt ordered him to escape and squadron three led by bulkley were given the assignment many regarded it as mission impossible watson sims was a 22 year old radio man aboard pt 32 part of the four boat rescue squadron we were to run two nights hiding by day among the islands of thousands of islands in the philippines as night falls bugley's pt 41 moors at the besieged corregidor to collect general macarthur and his family after vowing to return to the philippines macarthur and his party sneak out into manila bay waiting just beyond the island's minefields are pt boats 32 34 and 35 they plot a course through 560 miles of japanese patrolled waters along the mindoro strait past the islands of pani and negros and onto cagayan on the island of mindanao where they are to deliver macarthur the squadron moves out into deeper and rougher waters to avoid enemy lookouts on the surrounding islands below decks macarthur is seasick his wife gene has to comfort him through our own bouts of nausea in the pitch black running on wrecked engines that have gone three months with little repair the pt formation begins to separate pt32 one of the support boats makes a mistake that nearly ends in bulkley's pt41 being blown out of the water watson sims was on lookout aboard pt-32 i could see way back on the horizon there was some kind of craft pursuing pt-32 and i was ordered by vincent schumacher a skipper to help throw off gasoline number tossing off the 50 gallon drums of gasoline to try and gain speed because the boat whatever it was was gaining on us schumacher said stand by your guns we've prepared the fire and to this day i think he did say commence firing and one of the generals that don't shoot it might be somebody else that turned out to be buckley with macarthur's a board and buckley was screaming what the hell is going on up there after the confusion the squadron struggles to the midway point to [ __ ] as the boats refuel in a secluded cove bulkley assesses the situation pt pt-35 has fallen behind and is missing and pt-32 has no gasoline left after jettisoning its extra drums he decides to continue the mission with just two boats that evening pt 41 and pt 34 leave the cove and immediately spot their worst nightmare a japanese warship normally they could outrun her but in their worn out condition they are an easy target anxious minutes pass eventually the warship moves on the two boats miraculously make it to their destination after 35 sleepless hours general macarthur is safely delivered mission impossible accomplished later that day even pt 35 struggles into mindanao macarthur expressed his gratitude by saying you have taken me out of the jaws of death the pts have earned their keep a thousand times over the general was flown to australia to begin his preparations for the fight back in the pacific john bulkley was presented to the american people as a hero ct boats are wooden crabs manned by iron man welcome into the service good luck to you and hit him hard a boat that was ignored at first had proved its worth to a skeptical navy that needed a quickly built vessel with a killer punch over 200 of these wooden wonders could be built in the time that it took to construct a battleship and made out of wood they didn't use up valuable steel resources hundreds of pt boats were built around the clock in shipyards from new jersey to new orleans at melville training camp in rhode island rookie pt boaters got the first glimpse of their new steeds i asked one of the uh navy personnel as to what kind of a boat was that that was going up there and they said oh that's the pt but you'll love him from that point on i knew i was destined to become a pt voter thousand enlisted men and two thousand five hundred officers trained at melville over the next five years the now legendary bulkley gave the men the benefit of his experience you men are about to get trained in one of the most fascinating and adventurous branches of the navy a branch in which you'll be able to come to close grips with the enemy i wanted close grips to deliver a blow with one of the most powerful craft this war has developed next boy the motor torpedo boat the pt with its swashbuckling image young ivy leaguers and college sportsmen rushed to sign up for the new boats we did have a lot of uh football stars and a couple of all-americans on our squadron um i guess we're getting kind of hot shots i suppose getting used to the pt boats notoriously rough ride was crucial for these novice crews they tried to get us a little seasick so they had pork chops for us the first time i was out some of the trainees had a little trouble keeping the pork chops down i can tell you the graduates of melville would soon be put to the test battling against an increasingly deadly enemy the men have to adapt their tactics and their boats if they are to win the bloody war in the pacific 7th of august 1942 the fight back in the pacific begins when u.s marines invade guadalcanal the japanese ran destroyers along the slot a deep channel of water that separates the solomon islands nicknamed the tokyo express they carried essential supplies to enemy forces on guadalcanal orders were given to stop them from reaching their terminal for its crews the pt boat was about to become a true home away from home a typical pt boat provided fighting and living space for two officers and ten enlisted men above decks gunners were positioned throughout the boat at the bow amidships and at the stern the torpedo man was located next to the tubes or racks to loose the deadly fish during a run on an enemy ship the officers were normally found on the bridge this was the boat's nerve center it's from here that attacks were coordinated just undercover below the bridge was the radio man station the main sleeping and eating quarters were here in the bow of the boat next to the main living area were the officers quarters where future attacks were planned towards the stern was the engine compartment where the packards were lovingly maintained by the motor machinists they tried to ensure that the pt boat reached high speeds from its 100 octane gasoline but this highly flammable liquid made it vulnerable to air attack one bullet in the fuel tanks and the whole boat could explode consequently the pt boats mostly operated at night since the boats were not equipped with radar everything had to be done by somebody seeing something a glint or something but that was about it sometimes the only way they knew the destroyers had gone through was the boat started bobbing around from the wake of the destroyers and then when the boats did go into attack then launched their torpedoes and hoped the torpedoes didn't flash hope the torpedoes ran right if the destroyer spotted them they would open up and run like all get out trying to get away after a night taking on the tokyo express the crews returned to base where there were few home comforts these men were at the end of the supply chain and it showed in their rag tag uniforms mostly it was dungarees and t-shirt or no shirt at all and sometimes even they tied a gun rag around here a little and let it go with that we would take the uh our clothes and we dragged them through the water so that they would be rinsed by the ocean it was not always nice because you picked up a lot of salt in your shirts and in your pants the boats or a base camp made up often of tents or native huts became home for the crews my first night aboard i was given a bunk in the lower bunk and i wound up with the greatest headache i think i ever had from the heat and humidity from that point on i slept top side a small crews were a true band of brothers led by their young officers they're only like maybe 24 years old and you know their crew members are only 18 or 19 years old in such a small boat a special esprit de corps developed there was not a great deal of distinction between officers and enlisted men as on the larger naval ships i guess it was resembling bomber crews where they had small numbers involved and became very close you had to depend on everybody else crews were further united by the abilities of their on-board cook you took your hat off when you sat down to karpinsky's food i don't know if they were chickens or seagulls but we had a lot of some kind of foul we went on invasion we were treated much better we got ham and steaks after a few days we ran out of ham and steaks and we had cans of spam he had no limit on the spam food would sometimes be accompanied by the pt voters favorite drink torpedo juice taken from the torpedoes fuel it was nearly 100 alcohol if you put about a teaspoonful into an eight ounce glass and made a pretty good drink they had a still going quite often and they were distilling the stuff out it was really powerful they put a poison in it so you had to get that out of there but i've known taking a loaf of bread cutting the heels off of it and filtering it through that so this guy had a canteen hanging on his belt i said man could you give me a drink of water and i took a big swig out of that and it wasn't water it was torpedo juice and i thought i was on fire i just about jumped over the side but there was little time for rest and recreation the pt boats attacks against the tokyo express had started to choke enemy supply lines into guadalcanal in february 1943 the japanese were forced to evacuate it was a turning point in the pacific war but victory celebrations were short-lived as the mosquito fleet was given its next assignment a battle for new georgia the japanese learned from their casualties at guadalcanal and were no longer willing to risk cruisers and destroyers to supply their island forces they started to use coastal barges low slung vessels that carried guns of up to 40 millimeter caliber equal to the heaviest armament of a pt boat only four or five feet of these vessels were below the waterline the pt's torpedoes only worked effectively in depths of below five feet so passed harmlessly underneath the pt boaters were forced to come up with new tactics so you had to have something else to destroy them and so why use torpedoes instead we'll use guns the 37 millimeter cannons actually came from the air force that was not standard issue i'm sure the naval regulations were horrified at the idea but we were looking for all the firepower we could get modifications to the pt boats transformed this swift torpedo attacker into a rugged gunbird torpedo tubes were removed losing thousands of pounds in weight this increased the speed of the boat machine guns and even mortars were added to the regulation armament armor was also fitted to provide added protection from the hail of fire from the coastal barges these new heavily armed vessels soon end the nickname barge busters and were out hunting every night we didn't see them burst into flame or anything like that a lot of times the firing would stop and you'd say well either we got him oh i said he didn't fire we just assumed that he was gone these firefights took their toll on the wooden boats as they were ripped apart by return fire repair was carried out alongside mother ships called tenders or by the men of the shore bases being a wooden hull of very simple construction repairs were pretty straightforward when you've had a shell hole you could patch it up or replace planks unless it was major structural damage then they could be pretty well you know put back together a little glue and some more plywood and a couple of bolts and you screw them together you know they're pretty easy to patch it without on petroleum whilst the devil boats fought their way through the hell in the pacific in europe they were at close quarters combat with nazi germany and its ally italy these 50 tons of fast fighting fury worked closely with the motor torpedo boats of the royal navy that had been fighting to keep britain's shipping lanes open they were eager to share their giant killing tactics with their new allies most of the new arrivals were sent straight out on patrol in the mediterranean our job in the mediterranean was to attack the f-lighters they were shallow barges very heavily armored and they carried the freight to the german front along the western italian coast the f lighter was 170 feet long and could transport 120 tons of cargo including the fearsome tiger tank they traveled approximately 10 knots and had a mixture of armament up to the mighty 88 millimeter gun the ada was a deadly weapon and was used very successfully by by the germans almost and the the metal boat was very shallow draft and we even tried wiring the rudders of the torpedo up to where it would run on the surface which was unsuccessful and finally decided that we were not equipped to really combat them the pt boats changed tactics and concentrated on a different target the pride of the german navy the e-boat short for enemy war motorboat was 106 feet long and weighed 78 tons longer and heavier than the pt boat it was powered by three 16-cylinder diesel engines with two torpedo tubes a 37 millimeter anti-aircraft cannon and a 20 millimeter gun on the stern this heavily armored vessel was a serious adversary for the all wooden pt boat mini boat was a pretty fearsome thing to come up against similar to the speed 43 44 knots a lot more firepower but not as maneuverable as a pt boat pt birds would attack in groups and packs and it was an element of surprise that you know would outwit the germans in the mediterranean the devil boats hunted for their prey using the new technology of radar they patrolled in threes sailing side by side until the chance came to unleash their torpedoes side by side was much better because if you were the third boat in a line of boats the fish had already gone and alerted the enemy and you've got a lot of flack when the firefights got too intense the pt boats had another weapon which made them invisible smoke generators mounted at the rear of the boat with the smoke screens we we were able to avoid if they needed to be we could combat them successfully and did at the end of a two-year operation in the mediterranean the pt boats tally would be 23 000 tons of essential enemy shipping sunk much of this was the result of the pinpoint execution of a tried and true attack plan so as we go and start on our run the first thing you do is rig out the torpedo tubes so the gunner's mates would go out and crank in these tubes they would swing out each one had one torpedo when you hopefully get a visual sighting and you there's a little torpedo gauge affair that you used to not not very exacting actually you would settle down so so that you weren't waving too much and he'll fire and it would fire the five-inch shell the gas from the shell going off drove the torpedo out of the tube then you would wait and hope you would see an explosion then we would usually be the hasty retreat in 1943 a simple innovation revolutionized the use of torpedoes by the pt birds the old torpedoes were fired from their tubes by using an explosive charge which expelled them at 40 feet per second but the accompanying flash often gave the boats position away during a night attack a lightweight rack system was developed this enabled the torpedoes to roll off the side of the boat on release the torpedoes motors started and powered the fish to their prey this rack system was more efficient and lighter we lost about 2 000 pounds per torpedo getting those big tubes off and getting this little simple rack and from then on the votes were faster and the torpedoes were more accurate in july 1943 allied forces invaded sicily as the drive into occupied europe began the pt boats patrolled the beachheads and defended ground troops where coastal minefields made it too risky to use deep draught vessels d-day the 6th of june 1944 the largest amphibious invasion force in history was amassed protecting the 5 000 allied ships was a squadron of pt boats clyde combs was a 20 year old on board pt515 during the invasion the purpose of the pt boats basically initially was a screening operation for the landing forces that went into the beaches at normandy we were blowing up floating mines with our 50 caliber machine gun one thing that i remember was the darkness of the of the night and hearing the sounds of planes and as soon as we got daylight all of the c-47s carrying the paratroopers they did a wonderful job from our station point you could see the landing craft we were probably maybe a half a mile offshore throughout d-day and the days beyond the pt boats were on lookout at the western end of the invasion fleet for any german naval counter attack we were constantly on on alert with the radar again but in our particular area during the early days of the invasion the evils had stayed on around the other side of the sherbert peninsula the invasion of france signaled the beginning of the end for the nazis but the war against the japanese still had to be won in the pacific ocean a 26 year old lieutenant who would later become president faced an ordeal that would become the most famous pt boat story of world war ii by august 1943 the pt boat and its constant attacks against the coastal barges and the warships of the tokyo express had started to take their toll the factories in america had supplied these pacific raiders with squadrons of new boats and the men who sailed in them were keen to take their fight to the japanese on the morning of august the second a young lieutenant named john f kennedy is out commanding pt 109 which is part of a 15 boat group patrolling off the island of new georgia jack was a very popular fellow people admired him he was just a good officer he just was that's all there is to it he was a great boat handler having had experience up north around his home you know in sailboats and things he had a little wind up uh the troll and he brought records and so he'd play those records and we'd listen to him but he had an 80-foot boat that had seen lots of service the engines just weren't in apple pie order the constant sorties have worn out the 109 but the enemy supply lines to the northern solomons have to be stopped kennedy is out hunting again at one o'clock on that fateful morning in his pack of marauders are pt boats 162 and 169 nearby the japanese destroyer amagiri has dropped off its supplies and is on a collision course with kennedy's patrol accompanying the 109 is lawrence oglethe a 21 year old gunner on board pt162 kennedy took the lead and we were loafing along there on one engine which is not really what was recommended but to save gas and you couldn't see where you were going the amiguri has to get out of these waters before daybreak when air attacks are a real threat it increases its speed i saw the outline of the destroyer then right in front of me he must have been doing about 30 knots suddenly out of nowhere before the 109 can react the amagiri emerges out of the black knight and slices pt-109 clean in half in a fireball two of the men die instantly and the boat's fuel tanks rupture the sea becomes a blazing inferno we thought that oh man they're gone you know that kind of an explosion and the fire and everything we didn't think that they could possibly still be alive sam reynolds was a young officer aboard pt162 yes he just came out of nowhere and cut him in half and started firing at us and we ran of course zigzagging and laying smoke and got away from them and we left all the 109 in the crew there and we took off for some place buoyancy keeps some of the twisted wreckage afloat and the men crawl onto what's left of their boat as dawn breaks kennedy decides to take the 11 surviving crew ashore to plum pudding island where he hopes they will not be discovered by patrols from the nearby japanese garrison on gizo he leads the way dragging a badly burned crewman with a strap of his life jacket clenched in his teeth it takes the exhausted crew four hours to swim to the beach just three and a half miles away the next night kennedy packs a revolver and lantern and swims out into the strait he hopes to alert a rescue vessel but is not spotted the survivors are marooned for four days their diet of coconut dwindles but kennedy refuses to give up on the fifth day natives spot them and kennedy carves a message on a coconut asking for rescue which the natives take to a u.s navy base on another island orders are given to pt boat 157 which picks the men up their terrifying week-long ordeal is finally over their 26-year-old lieutenant john f kennedy had risked his life to ensure his men's safety he was hailed as a hero and awarded the navy and marine life-saving medal when he became president a replica of pt-109 was paraded through washington the story became a classic chapter in the history of the pt boat for the next year the shorelines of the solomons and new guinea became a battlefield as the devil boats clashed with the heavily armed barges but starved of supplies the japanese retreated on october the 24th 1944 general macarthur fulfilled his pledge to the filipino people i said to the people of the philippines once i came i shall return the invasion of the philippines began at laity protecting the invasion force were 45 pt boats that have made an incredible 1200 mile journey from new guinea japanese naval squadrons tried to burst through the surigao straits to the south of laity pt boats would act as scouts for the u.s battleships and cruisers frequently they found themselves in the first line of defense and came under attack from enemy gunners and aircraft when someone said there were aircraft approaching you uh began to weave back and forth and once he settled down into his approach that's when you gave full throttle and turned one way or the other the whole time you tried to bring your guns to bed but we would never stay long enough for him to line up on march the 2nd 1945 pt boats proudly took general macarthur back to corregidor from where he'd escaped nearly three years earlier the mosquito fleet had come full circle the pt boats continued the fight until the final victory over japan but there was no place for them in the post-war fleet built out of wood not metal there was no way there could be mothballed for future use so in september 1945 on a small island in the philippines most of the pt boat pacific fleet were lined up on the shore i had been assigned to the 17 and at that time that was where they had brought a lot of these boats onto the beach without ceremony one by one the pt boats were set ablaze they just kind of followed them up like kindling wood and burn you did all you could to protect that boat for the time that you were on it and just see it burn you know like it was nothing you know it's kind of hard maybe you could compare it to a wonderful automobile that you had and you saw the thing crushed to pieces or something you know a sadness maybe obviously there's a certain communication between you and the boat and then to see it go up in flames it just didn't seem right 121 boats were destroyed in this vast funeral pyre at samar island it was an ungracious end for a boat that had done such an amazing job from the hell of the pacific to the invasion of europe this giant killer with the heavyweight punch will be remembered forever by the men who served on it i've been on many ships and i think probably my greatest love affair was the pt votes you still think i guess of your first love maybe there was no other comparison actually as far as boats are concerned because there is only one attack boat and that was the pt boat i think they were very successful and as far as i was concerned played the most important part in world war ii it was a boat that struggled for early recognition but the brilliance of its design the daring of its missions and the courage and sacrifice of its crews will ensure that the pt boats of the mosquito fleet will never be forgotten you

Channel: Military Learning

Views: 1,881,461

Keywords: PT boat, boats, boat, amphibious, navy, b17, bomber, bombers, d-day, normandy, tank, tanks, battle, war history, war, history, documentary, history documentary, ww2, wwii, world war, world war 2, germany, united states, educational, warfare, military, army, air force, firepower, weapons, guns, technology, electricity, degree, credit, claim, classes, online, software, mortgage, lawyer, attorney, loans, loan, donate, rehab, soldier, soldiers, general, generals, greatest, best, coolest, awesome, world, time, historic

Id: FtMJFROT2zk

Length: 44min 44sec (2684 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 27 2014