Like the earlier Elco PT's, the new boats were constructed from many materials: the hull was initially constructed upside down with frames made from laminated spruce, white oak, and mahogany, the keel made from spruce and oak, and the whole assembly double … Pieces of it were used to restore several PT boats, including one in Louisiana that actually sank two German ships during the war. Some of these presented here are pre-Vietnam War era to bring the history up to the end of that war. Their speed was 40 knots, they carried four torpedoes and typically one 40mm gun, one 20mm gun, and two twin-barrel machine guns. The most famous of these were the American Patrol Torpedo or PT Boats. A friend of my father, Milt Donadt served on Elco PT Boats in the Pacific during the Second World War. The 103 Class boats were initially armed with two sets of twin .50 caliber machine guns, a 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun, four torpedo tubes or two torpedo tubes and eight (four to a side) roll-off racks for depth charges (the 300 pound charge variety). E-boat of the S100 class with 117 tons. The majority of these were built by the Elco Naval Division, with 1-inch thick mahogany planking on mahogany frames. Initially, the boats were armed with Mark VIII torpedoes, leftovers from World War I that often proved defective. Dan says it was the development of polyester resin that started the fiberglass boat revolution. Entries are listed below in alphanumeric order (1-to-Z). Many PT Boats made field installations of army artillery cannons, and the 37mm automatic cannons from the P-39 fighter plane. The PT boat fully matured during World War I. PT boats made during World War I were powered by steam. Many of the motorized patrol torpedo boats, what were known as PT boats, used in WW II were also made by Higgins. Torpedo Boats. Higgins also made larger 56 and 70 foot landing crafts. On deck, they carried four torpedoes and two twin machine guns in turrets. The Japanese called them "Devil Boats". Others wood boats like the 136-foot YMS Class mine sweeper were built of wood to avoid setting off magnetically detonated mines. Over 200 S-boats had been built, of which about 50 % made it to the end of WW2. One of the most notable types of wooden crafts was the PT or Motor Torpedo Boat. They were made of mahogany plywood and powered by three 12-cylinder gasoline-fueled Packard 4M-2500 (and later 3M-2500, 4M-2500, and 5M-250) engines. NOTE: The Detail Specifications are based on Specifications for Motor Torpedo Boats PT 103 to 138 design No. The PT boats were small and generally limited to coastal operations. Restored to its wartime glory PT-59 (more on her later) is credited with sinking Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) submarine I-3 on December 9, 1942 near Guadalcanal. Some boats were fitted with more guns instead of the torpedoes. The rivers of the Vietnam War were ripe with friendly and enemy activity - giving importance to the fighting riverine forces of both sides. Early in WW2, four PT boats performed an important special operation by evacuating MacArthur and … It had been converted to a private boat. Higgins boats were the perfect vessel for the war front. Torpedo Boats. Some of these boats are outlined here. If you check out the Japanese fleets, you will notice that they even engaged Sampans. At this point the Japanese were frantically moving troops by barge in anticipation of American landings in the northern Solomons. These vessels continued to serve in the American Navy well into the 1970s. There were apparently PT Boat bases in Cairns and Darwin but I am unable to find any definitive details of these. As important as the technical aspects of the boats is the stories of the men that served aboard them. The PT boats were ordered to block the western and southern approaches to Choiseul Bay and intercept barges. By then, though, PT-658 was actually in the water again – running under its own power. Boats are commonly made of wood, aluminum, steel, fiberglass or any combination of these materials. Packard built 14,000 marine engines during the war on East Grand Avenue, Detroit and the US navy's 768 PT boats were fitted with three of them, two astern and one amidships for … Patrol Boat, River or PBR, is the United States Navy designation for a small rigid-hulled patrol boat used in the Vietnam War from March 1966 until the end of 1971. Higgins pleasure craft were designed after their big Brothers the PT Boats. I remember seeing one many years ago when I was a boy somewhere around the waters of Detroit. American PT Boats - there were two similar types of American PT boats, ELCO and Higgins. Crews needed to provide make-up water from their drinking water tank. I did recently find reference to a quantity of 11 British style Fairmile-B boats having been built at Lars Halvorsen's boat works in Ryde in N.S.W. The most famous of these were the American Patrol Torpedo or PT Boats. It’s surprising in one way that only two films have been made about PT boats, “Expendable” and 1964’s “PT-109.” PT boat logs could supply spectacle, adventure, action and drama aplenty for the movies. High-performance urea-based adhesives developed for aircraft manufacturers were widely used for the new technique of molding boat hulls – typically for PT boats. Pretty good compared to a lot of the larger ships out there. Overall, Balkoski says that the boats were extremely successful in both Europe and the Pacific. Kennedy, now promoted to full lieutenant, took PT-59 on eight similar patrols during the next ten nights. "PT" is the US hull classification symbol for "Patrol Torpedo". These boats were made out of wood and able to move at over 46 miles-per-hour. PT Boats were very active in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO). Of course at that time it really wasn’t that old. PT boats were bigger than most realize. MTB-houseboat German E-boats preparing for the next mission. The PT Boats in the MTO came up against every kind of boat and ship the enemy could throw at them. Only one in four boats was equipped with radar—a fact that explains some of the confusion on the night of PT-109’s collision. While PT-boats had an option to muffle their engines by routing the exhaust underwater, no such option was on either the 63' or 85' rescue boats, so with straight pipes, stealth operations were never an option. JFK captained one and became a hero because of his dramatic exploits rescuing his crew after his boat was sunk. PT crews were not typically experienced sailors and received little training specific to their boat. The PT boats were lashed together and set on fire at the end of the war. Congress has recently commissioned a Gold Medal of Honor for Andrew Jackson Higgins to recognize the efforts of all the workers and his work during the war. My PT Boats information The following is a bibliography of PT-Boat books I used to find information when building my PT-Boat models: (further down is a description of some of the modifications I made to the kits.) They were based on British designs, with American engines. PT-109 joined MTB Squadron FIVE and shifted to Panama, replacing the first eight PT boats that sailed on transports for the south Pacific in early September. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". As the Vietnam war was drawing to a close more modern craft were being introduced. The Higgins PT Boats ruled this Theater. They represent a best effort on my part, please confirm dimensions and information given here for yourself if errors cannot be tolerated. The majority of these were built by the Elco Naval Division, with 1-inch thick mahogany planking on mahogany frames. "PT" is the US hull classification symbol for "Patrol Torpedo". The Packard 4M 2500 engine powered most, if not all, of the US built PT Boats. PT 109 was one of the hundreds of motor torpedo boats (PT) of the PT 103 class completed between 1942 and 1945 by Elco Naval Division of Electric Boat Company at Bayonne, New Jersey.The Elco boats were the largest in size of the three types of PT boats built for U.S. use during World War II. On deck, they carried four torpedoes and two twin machine guns in turrets. Although personal cameras were not officially allowed Milt brought a Kodak Brownie camera with him and took a number of photos of life on a PT Boat base in the Solomon Islands. Fast and maneuverable these wooden boats weren’t the best attack vessels but they did sink a few ships and had many other uses. A second shot of the Higgins PT Boat. But steam engines eventually gave way to … The boats were incredibly lightweight but had a strong frame. The boats were incredibly lightweight but had a strong frame. It turns out there were several earlier boats made of fiberglass and various plastic resins, but most of them were too brittle for practical use. in 1942 but I would be interested in any further information, where did they serve? It made its first trip in September 2004. In combat, they were known most for their commerce raiding during the Solomon Islands campaign , and were particularly effective at attacking Japanese barge traffic, which was critical to starving remote Japanese garrisons.. However, there were some hiccups during the D-Day invasion of … PT-105 underway.. PT boats were a variety of torpedo-armed fast attack craft used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. PT-191 was one of the last boats in the first series (PTs 103-196)of the PT-103 Class. The fact that the PT boats were made of wood was the reason that so few survived the war. They targeted enemy warships, barges, transports and tankers. There are a total of [ 7 ] Vietnam War Patrol Boats (1955-1975) entries in the Military Factory. BUREAU OF SHIPS NAVY DEPARTMENT 31 March 1944. They were also faster and could turn on a dime than most any runabout of the time. Some adhesives required baking in an oven to cure and hot-molded hulls were developed, though there were size limitations governed by access to industrial ovens. Connelly, T. Garth; 'PT Boats in action'; Ship Number 7, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1994 2. The Navy and its squadron of PT boats held a memorial service for the crew of PT-109 after reports were made of the large explosion, but Commander Warfield, to his credit, ordered an aerial search by Royal New Zealand Air Force P-40 fighters that spotted a few remains of the wreck, but not the crew who had already swum to safety. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet" because of their small size, high speed and maneuverability. Six of the Elco boats, PTs 109 through 114, were then transferred to MTB Squadron TWO on 26 October 1942 and prepared for deployment to the Solomon Islands. 1. Dimensions given were found on the drawings or derived from them. 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