- 7/7/2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Pound for pound, they were the most heavily armed fighting boats of World War II.
00:30These 50 tons of fast fighting fury were the smallest and most maneuverable naval craft and fully war loaded could exceed an amazing 45 knots.
00:46Screwed 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.
00:55And 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.
01:07Using extraordinary archive film and color re-enactments, Battle Stations goes out hunting with a ship with a sting in its tail.
01:19The Mosquito Fleet of the deadly PT boat.
01:31Patrol torpedo or PT boats are built for an astonishing variety of missions.
01:37They ambush, hunt and maraud Japanese supply barges, earning them the nickname, The Devil Boats of the Night.
01:46These giant killers carry out high speed torpedo runs on heavily armed cruisers and when ordered, sneak into enemy held territory to drop off spies.
01:55The 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.
02:08The story of the patrol torpedo boat begins with the development of the Mosquito Fleet Sting, the torpedo.
02:20Torpedos have been around since the American Civil War, but they were massively unreliable.
02:27In 1866, Robert Whitehead, an English engineer, developed the first self-propelled torpedo.
02:34It was a technological breakthrough.
02:39Here you have a weapon that could be launched at some distance, not necessarily from a ship the size of a battleship,
02:46that could sink just about anything afloat.
02:48On June the 10th, 1918, the world set up and took notice, when an Italian motor torpedo boat sank the huge Austro-Hungarian battleship, Sent Istvan.
03:05Despite this spectacular success for the small torpedo boat, America concentrated on building up her fleet of big battleships and later aircraft carriers.
03:14Surrounded by deep oceans, its navy had no place for a fleet of motor torpedo boats that were designed for narrow seas and coastal waters.
03:29During the 1920s and 30s, a new pastime swept the USA, speed.
03:34Hundreds of thousands watched as adrenaline-fueled speed boat racers competed in a series of death-defying duels.
03:45The technologies used by these super-fast craft would later shape the design of the PT boat.
03:54One of the leading British innovators was Hubert Scott Payne.
03:57In 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.
04:12Scott Payne and Wood's futuristic craft travelled at top speeds of over 100 miles per hour.
04:17This 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.
04:30In September 1931, across the Pacific Ocean, Japan invaded Manchuria.
04:41It was the beginning of a blitzkrieg across the Far East.
04:49The US Navy, wary of the security of its Pacific Islands, was forced to develop a fast-attack craft for their defence.
05:00In 1939, the building of eight PT boats was given the go-ahead, but most were considered obsolete even before they were completed,
05:07as the US Navy showed more interest in the designs of Scott Payne.
05:12He was pretty much a speed freak.
05:15From his aviation background, he was into materials technology, lightweight structures, high-powered engines, aero engines.
05:22So he was combining the whole sort of aircraft industry and put it onto the water.
05:26He was, you know, years ahead of other builders.
05:27By 1939, Scott Payne's latest boat, the PV-70, was impressing designers on both sides of the Atlantic.
05:37The American company Elko was keen to take a closer look.
05:41Erwin Chase, the chief designer from Elko, came to the British Powerboat Company, went out on trials on the PV-70,
05:46and were just amazed at its sea-keeping qualities and the way it could take large amounts of armament with relative ease.
05:55It was quite a, you know, phenomenal boat.
06:00At the same time in Europe, Hitler's Nazis had begun their onslaught.
06:04On September the 3rd, 1939, war was declared.
06:11For the US Navy, finding the right boat design had become less of a precautionary measure and was now a top priority.
06:22Just two days later, Scott Payne and his PV-70 arrived in New York.
06:27It was renamed PT-9 and put through its paces in front of a Navy trial board.
06:35Scott Payne himself was at the helm and the officers that were involved in the trials was very complimentary about the handling of the boat.
06:44In January 1940, Elko started construction of ten 70-foot PT boats based on the PT-9.
06:51In July 1941, the plywood derbies were held, where the next generation of these fast attack craft were pitted against each other.
07:03Prototypes from Elko and rival companies Higgins and Huckins competed in heavy seas.
07:11But 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.
07:18PT-9 was basically the prototype for all PT boats to follow.
07:25Now that's not quite the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
07:29Andrew Jackson Higgins had his own ideas about how a boat should be designed,
07:34but the 70-foot Elko that the PT-9 was based off of was pretty much the mainstay of the early part of the war.
07:41Elko, Higgins and Huckins went on to build over 500 PT boats for the US Navy.
07:49An Elko 80-foot redesign was constructed to deal with heavy armament, and this became the Mosquito Fleet's main vessel.
07:57Built around a mahogany frame, the fully war-loaded 80-foot PT boat weighed in at 50 tons.
08:03Aircraft fabric soaked in marine glue was sandwiched between two layers of mahogany planking.
08:12This, along with nearly half a million screws, gave the wooden wonder its strength.
08:18Below decks, the powerhouse.
08:21Three 12-cylinder Packard engines were fed by aviation fuel stored in tanks that held 3,000 gallons.
08:27At full throttle, 500 gallons an hour were needed.
08:34The boat carried two twin 50-caliber machine guns.
08:38Later, a 20-millimeter cannon was added to increase its sting against aircraft.
08:43As the boats took on different enemy targets, more machine guns and even mortars were put in place.
08:48Most boats carried four Mark 8 torpedoes with a range of over five miles and an awesome 300-pound warhead.
09:01The PT boats would not have to wait long for action.
09:07As the Japanese advanced, they would be at the heart of one of the most audacious rescue bids of the Second World War.
09:14On December the 7th, 1941, carrier aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing America headlong into a new world war.
09:38Within 55 minutes, 2,400 people were dead, and the main battle line of the American Pacific Fleet was crippled.
09:52Amid 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.
10:05After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese embarked on an ocean blitzkrieg.
10:17A totally unprepared America was rapidly driven back.
10:22The Asiatic squadron that was based in the Philippines, the major naval ships were pulled back because the Navy was afraid they were going to lose them.
10:31So here you have a squadron of PT boats that is basically, they're orphans.
10:36They have no support, all their bases have been bombed, their supplies are gone.
10:40People were desperate. There was little hope that you could get out. The question was how you would survive.
10:44In December 1941, there were just 29 PT boats in the entire US Navy.
10:52They were fighting to earn respect from a Navy that was far more concerned with its big ships.
10:57The naval hierarchy used nicknames like Spick Kit, Plywood Wonder. It just didn't fit into their world. And they didn't want it in their world.
11:08They figured we were some joyriders on fast yachts.
11:12Before the war, the top brass was unsure of what to do with the PT boats. Many thought they should be relegated to the sidelines on support duties.
11:22But the determined fight back of Squadron 3, based in the Philippines, would change everything.
11:31Against all odds, these beleaguered boats took the fight to the Japanese.
11:35Most famously, they carried out near-suicidal torpedo attacks deep in enemy-held waters.
11:45They were led by Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley, a maverick who would go on to earn the nickname, the Wild Man of the Philippines.
11:52The man was a hero. What he did was done on sheer leadership and force of personality.
12:02Despite the heroics of Bulkeley Squadron 3, the Japanese juggernaut continued.
12:08By February 1942, they had advanced to the Bataan Peninsula.
12:13General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters on the fortress island of Corregidor were under threat.
12:18President Roosevelt ordered him to escape, and Squadron 3, led by Bulkeley, were given the assignment.
12:27Many regarded it as mission impossible.
12:32Watson Sims was a 22-year-old radio man aboard PT-32, part of the four-boat rescue squadron.
12:40We were to run two nights, hiding by day, among the islands of thousands of islands in the Philippines.
12:45As night falls, Bulkeley's PT-41 moors at the besieged Corregidor to collect General MacArthur and his family.
12:54After vowing to return to the Philippines, MacArthur and his party sneak out into Manila Bay.
12:59Waiting just beyond the islands' minefields are PT boats 32, 34, and 35.
13:07They plot a course through 560 miles of Japanese patrolled waters along the Mindoro Strait,
13:14past the islands of Pane and Negros, and onto Cagayan on the island of Mindanao, where they are to deliver MacArthur.
13:21The squadron moves out into deeper and rougher waters to avoid enemy lookouts on the surrounding islands.
13:32Below decks, MacArthur is seasick. His wife, Jean, has to comfort him through her own bouts of nausea.
13:41In the pitch black, running on wrecked engines that have gone three months with little repair, the PT formation begins to separate.
13:52PT-32, one of the support boats, makes a mistake that nearly ends in Bulkeley's PT-41 being blown out of the water.
14:01Watson Sims was on lookout aboard PT-32.
14:06I could see way back on the horizon, there was some kind of craft pursuing PT-32.
14:12And I was ordered by Vincent Schumacher, a skipper, to help throw off gasoline drums.
14:16He was tossing off the 50-gallon drums of gasoline to try and gain speed, because the boat, whatever it was, was gaining on us.
14:23Schumacher said, stand by your guns. We've prepared the fire.
14:27And to this day, I think he did say, commence firing.
14:34And one of the generals that don't shoot, it might be somebody else,
14:37that turned out to be Buckley with MacArthur's aboard.
14:41And Buckley was screaming, what the hell is going on up there?
14:45After the confusion, the squadron struggles to the midway point, to Goyan.
14:50As the boats refuel in a secluded cove, Buckley assesses the situation.
14:55PT-35 has fallen behind and is missing, and PT-32 has no gasoline left after jettisoning its extra drums.
15:06He decides to continue the mission with just two boats.
15:09That evening, PT-41 and PT-34 leave the cove and immediately spot their worst nightmare, a Japanese warship.
15:21Normally they could outrun her, but in their worn-out condition, they are an easy target.
15:27Anxious minutes pass. Eventually the warship moves on.
15:33The two boats miraculously make it to their destination.
15:37After 35 sleepless hours, General MacArthur is safely delivered.
15:42Mission impossible accomplished.
15:44Later that day, even PT-35 struggles in to Mindanao.
15:48MacArthur expressed his gratitude by saying, you have taken me out of the jaws of death.
15:55The PT's have earned their keep a thousand times over.
15:59The General was flown to Australia to begin his preparations for the fight back in the Pacific.
16:04John Bultley was presented to the American people as a hero.
16:10PT boats are wooden craft, manned by iron man.
16:15Welcome into the service. Good luck to you, and hit them hard.
16:21A boat that was ignored at first had proved its worth to a sceptical navy that needed a quickly-built vessel with a killer punch.
16:29Over 200 of these wooden wonders could be built in the time that it took to construct a battleship.
16:39And made out of wood, they didn't use up valuable steel resources.
16:45Hundreds of PT boats were built around the clock, in shipyards from New Jersey to New Orleans.
16:50At Melville training camp in Rhode Island, rookie PT boaters got the first glimpse of their new steeds.
17:03I asked one of the Navy personnel as to what kind of a boat was that that was going up there.
17:10And they said, oh, that's the PT boat, so you'll love them.
17:13From that point on, I knew I was destined to become a PT boater.
17:1620,000 enlisted men and 2,500 officers trained at Melville over the next five years.
17:24The now legendary Bulkley gave the men the benefit of his experience.
17:30You men are about to get trained in one of the most fascinating and adventurous branches of the Navy.
17:37A branch in which you'll be able to come to close grips with the enemy.
17:40I wanted close grips to deliver a blow with one of the most powerful craft this war has developed and exploited.
17:49The motor torpedo boat, the PT.
17:52With its swashbuckling image, young Ivy leaguers and college sportsmen rushed to sign up for the new boats.
17:58We did have a lot of football stars and a couple of All-Americans on our squadron.
18:06I guess we were kind of hot shots, I suppose. I don't know.
18:11Getting used to the PT boat's notoriously rough ride was crucial for these novice crews.
18:17They tried to get us a little seasick, so they had pork chops for us the first time I was out.
18:26Some of the trainees had a little trouble keeping the pork chops down, I can tell you.
18:32The graduates of Melville would soon be put to the test.
18:36Battling 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.
18:517th of August 1942. The fight back in the Pacific begins when US Marines invade Guadalcanal.
19:01The Japanese ran destroyers along the slot, a deep channel of water that separates the Solomon Islands.
19:11Nicknamed the Tokyo Express, they carried essential supplies to enemy forces on Guadalcanal.
19:18Orders were given to stop them from reaching their terminal.
19:22For its cruise, the PT boat was about to become a true home away from home.
19:28A typical PT boat provided fighting and living space for two officers and ten enlisted men.
19:36Above decks, gunners were positioned throughout the boat, at the bow, amidships and at the stern.
19:42The torpedo man was located next to the tubes or racks to loose the deadly fish during a run on an enemy ship.
19:53The officers were normally found on the bridge. This was the boat's nerve centre. It's from here that attacks were coordinated.
20:02Just under cover, below the bridge, was the radio man's station.
20:09The main sleeping and eating quarters were here in the bow of the boat.
20:15Next to the main living area were the officers' quarters, where future attacks were planned.
20:22Towards the stern was the engine compartment, where the Packards were lovingly maintained by the motor machinists.
20:33They tried to ensure that the PT boat reached high speeds from its 100 octane gasoline.
20:38But this highly flammable liquid made it vulnerable to air attack. One bullet in the fuel tanks and the whole boat could explode.
20:47Consequently, the PT boats mostly operated at night.
20:52Since the boats were not equipped with radar, everything had to be done by somebody seeing something, a glint of something, but that was about it.
21:02Sometimes the only way they knew the destroyers had gone through was the boats started bobbing around from the wake of the destroyers.
21:09And then when the boats did go into attack, they launched their torpedoes and hoped the torpedoes didn't flash, hoped the torpedoes ran right.
21:16If the destroyers spotted them, they would open up and run like all get out, trying to get away.
21:20After a night taking on the Tokyo Express, the crews returned to base, where there were few home comforts.
21:33These men were at the end of the supply chain, and it showed in their rag-tag uniforms.
21:38Mostly it was dungarees and t-shirt or no shirt at all. And sometimes even tied a gun rag around your middle and let it go at that.
21:51We would take our clothes and drag them through the water so that they would be rinsed by the ocean.
21:58It was not always nice because you picked up a lot of salt in your shirts and in your pants.
22:03The boats, or a base camp made up often of tents or native huts, became home for the crews.
22:10My first night aboard, I was given a bunk, a lower bunk, and I wound up with the greatest headache I think I ever had from the heat and the humidity.
22:19From that point on, I slept topside.
22:22The small crews were a true band of brothers, led by their young officers.
22:26They were only like maybe 24 years old. And you know, their crew members are only 18 or 19 years old.
22:36In such a small boat, a special esprit de corps developed.
22:40There was not a great deal of distinction between officers and enlisted men as on the larger naval ships.
22:47I guess it was resembling bomber crews, where they had small numbers involved and became very close.
22:56You had to depend on everybody else.
22:59Crews were further united by the abilities of their onboard cook.
23:04You took your hat off when you sat down to Karpinski's food.
23:07I don't know if they were chickens or seagulls, but we had a lot of some kind of fowl.
23:13We went on invasion, we were treated much better, we got ham and steaks.
23:18After a few days, we ran out of ham and steaks.
23:22We had cans of spam.
23:25We had no limit on the spam.
23:29Food would sometimes be accompanied by the PT boaters' favorite drink, torpedo juice.
23:34Taken from the torpedo's fuel, it was nearly 100% alcohol.
23:40If you put about a teaspoonful into an 8-ounce glass, it made a pretty good drink.
23:45We had a still going quite often, and they were distilling the stuff out.
23:49It was really powerful.
23:51They put a poison in it, so you had to get that out of there.
23:55But I've known taking a loaf of bread, cutting the heels off of it, and filtering it through that.
24:01So this guy had a canteen hanging on his belt.
24:06I said, man, could you give me a drink of water?
24:09And I took a big swig out of that, and it wasn't water.
24:13It was torpedo juice.
24:15I thought I was on fire.
24:17I just about jumped over the side.
24:19But there was little time for rest and recreation.
24:21The PT boat's attacks against the Tokyo Express had started to choke enemy supply lines into Guadalcanal.
24:30In February 1943, the Japanese were forced to evacuate.
24:35It was a turning point in the Pacific War.
24:37But victory celebrations were short-lived, as the Mosquito Fleet was given its next assignment.
24:45The battle for New Georgia.
24:48The Japanese learned from their casualties at Guadalcanal, and were no longer willing to risk cruisers and destroyers to supply their island forces.
24:55They started to use coastal barges, low-slung vessels that carried guns of up to 40mm caliber, equal to the heaviest armament of a PT boat.
25:06Only four or five feet of these vessels were below the waterline.
25:13The PT's torpedoes only worked effectively in depths of below five feet, so passed harmlessly underneath.
25:21The PT boaters were forced to come up with new tactics.
25:25So you had to have something else to destroy them, and so why use torpedoes and instead we'll use guns?
25:33The 37mm cannons actually came from the Air Force. That was not standard issue.
25:43I'm sure the naval regulations were horrified at the idea, but we were looking for all the firepower we could get.
25:52Modifications to the PT boats transformed this swift torpedo attacker into a rugged gunboat.
25:58Torpedo tubes were removed, losing thousands of pounds in weight. This increased the speed of the boat.
26:07Machine guns and even mortars were added to the regulation armament.
26:14Armor was also fitted to provide added protection from the hail of fire from the coastal barges.
26:20These new, heavily armed vessels soon earned the nickname barge busters, and were out hunting every night.
26:30We didn't see them burst into flame or anything like that.
26:34A lot of times the firing would stop and they'd say, well either we got him, or since he didn't fire we just assumed that he was gone.
26:43These firefights took their toll on the wooden boats as they were ripped apart by return fire.
26:51Repair was carried out alongside motherships called tenders, or by the men of the shore bases.
26:56Being a wooden hull of very simple construction, repairs were pretty straightforward.
27:01I mean if you had a shell hole you could patch it up or replace planks.
27:05Unless it was major structural damage, then they could be pretty well put back together.
27:10A little glue and some more plywood and a couple of bolts and you screw them together, you know.
27:16They're pretty easy to patch up.
27:19They're out on petroleum.
27:26Whilst 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.
27:35These 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.
27:46They were eager to share their giant killing tactics with their new allies.
27:56Most of the new arrivals were sent straight out on patrol in the Mediterranean.
28:00Our job in the Mediterranean was to attack the F-Lighters.
28:08They were shallow barges, very heavily armoured, and they carried the freight to the German front along the western Italian coast.
28:21The F-Lighter was 170 feet long and could transport 120 tons of cargo, including the fearsome Tiger tank.
28:30They travelled at approximately 10 knots and had a mixture of armament up to the mighty 88mm gun.
28:37The 88 was a deadly weapon and was used very successfully by the Germans almost.
28:44And 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.
29:02The PT boats changed tactics and concentrated on a different target, the pride of the German Navy.
29:09The E-Boat, short for Enemy War Motorboat, was 106 feet long and weighed 78 tons.
29:18Longer and heavier than the PT boat, it was powered by three 16-cylinder diesel engines.
29:27With two torpedo tubes, a 37mm anti-aircraft cannon, and a 20mm gun on the stern, this heavily armoured vessel was a serious adversary for the all-wooden PT boat.
29:38An E-Boat was a pretty fearsome thing to come up against, similar to the speed, 43-44 knots.
29:47A lot more firepower, but not as manoeuvrable as a PT boat.
29:53PT boats would attack in grids and packs, and it was an element of surprise that would outweigh the Germans.
30:00In the Mediterranean, the Devil boats hunted for their prey using the new technology of radar.
30:07They patrolled in threes, sailing side-by-side until the chance came to unleash their torpedoes.
30:15Side-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'd caught a lot of flack.
30:25When the firefights got too intense, the PT boats had another weapon which made them invisible.
30:31Smoke generators mounted at the rear of the boat.
30:34With the smoke screens, we were able to avoid, if they needed to be, we could combat them successfully indeed.
30:43At the end of a two-year operation in the Mediterranean, the PT boat's tally would be 23,000 tons of essential enemy shipping sunk.
30:55Much of this was the result of the pinpoint execution of a tried-and-true attack plan.
30:59So, as we go and start on our run, the first thing you do is rig out the torpedo tubes.
31:08So, the gunner's mates would go out and crank in these tubes.
31:14They would swing out. Each one had one torpedo.
31:16When you hopefully get a visual sighting, there's a little torpedo gauge affair that you used to, not very exacting actually.
31:30You would settle down so that you weren't waving too much and yell, fire, and it would fire the five-inch shell.
31:39The gas from the shell going off drove the torpedo out of the tube.
31:48Then you'd wait and hope you'd see an explosion. Then we would usually beat a hasty retreat.
31:54In 1943, a simple innovation revolutionized the use of torpedoes by the PT boats.
32:11The old torpedoes were fired from their tubes by using an explosive charge, which expelled them at 40 feet per second.
32:17But the accompanying flash often gave the boat's position away during a night attack.
32:29A lightweight rack system was developed. This enabled the torpedoes to roll off the side of the boat.
32:36On release, the torpedoes' motors started and powered the fish to their prey.
32:41This rack system was more efficient and lighter.
32:44We lost about 2,000 pounds per torpedo getting those big tubes off and getting this little simple rack.
32:54And from then on, the boats were faster and the torpedoes were more accurate.
32:59In July 1943, Allied forces invaded Sicily.
33:03As 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-draft vessels.
33:16D-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.
33:36Clyde Combs was a 20-year-old on board PT-515.
33:42During 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.
33:52We were blowing up floating mines with our 50-caliber machine gun.
34:04One thing that I remember was the darkness of the night and hearing the sounds of planes.
34:10And as soon as we got daylight, all of the C-47s carrying the paratroopers, they did a wonderful job.
34:19From our station point, you could see the landing craft.
34:24We were probably maybe a half a mile offshore.
34:29Throughout D-Day and the days beyond, the PT boats were on lookout at the western end of the invasion fleet for any German naval counterattack.
34:37We were constantly on alert with the radar again, but in our particular area during the early days of the invasion, the E-boats had stayed on around the other side of the Cherbourg Peninsula.
34:54The invasion of France signaled the beginning of the end for the Nazis.
34:59But the war against the Japanese still had to be won.
35:02In 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.
35:16By 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.
35:25The 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.
35:37On the morning of August the 2nd, 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.
35:52Jack was a very popular fellow.
35:55Jack was a very popular fellow. People admired him. He was just a good officer. He just was. That's all there is to it.
36:01He was a great boat handler, having had experience up north around his home, you know, in sailboats and things.
36:07He had a little wind-up patrol, and he brought records, and so he'd play those records, and we'd listen to them.
36:22But he had an 80-foot boat that had seen lots of service. The engines just weren't in apple pie order.
36:29The constant sorties have worn out the 109, but the enemy supply lines to the northern Solomons have to be stopped.
36:38Kennedy is out hunting again at 1 o'clock on that fateful morning.
36:42In his pack of marauders are PT boats 162 and 169.
36:49Nearby, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri has dropped off its supplies and is on a collision course with Kennedy's patrol.
36:56Accompanying the 109 is Lawrence Ogilvie, a 21-year-old gunner on board PT 162.
37:04Kennedy 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.
37:17The Amagiri has to get out of these waters before daybreak when air attacks are a real threat. It increases its speed.
37:25I saw the outline of the destroyer right in front of me. He must have been doing about 30 knots.
37:31Suddenly, out of nowhere, before the 109 can react, the Amagiri emerges out of the Black Knight and slices PT 109 clean in half.
37:41In a fireball, two of the men die instantly, and the boat's fuel tanks rupture. The sea becomes a blazing inferno.
37:50We thought that, oh, man, they're gone, you know, that kind of explosion and the fire and everything. We didn't think that they could possibly still be alive.
38:03Sam Reynolds was a young officer aboard PT 162.
38:07Yes, 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 him.
38:22And we left all the 109 and the crew there, and we took off for someplace.
38:31Buoyancy keeps some of the twisted wreckage afloat, and the men crawl onto what's left of their boat.
38:38As 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.
38:50He leads the way, dragging a badly burned crewman with a strap of his life jacket clenched in his teeth.
38:56It takes the exhausted crew four hours to swim to the beach, just three and a half miles away.
39:02The next night, Kennedy packs a revolver and lantern and swims out into the strait.
39:11He hopes to alert a rescue vessel, but is not spotted.
39:14The survivors are marooned for four days. Their diet of coconut dwindles, but Kennedy refuses to give up.
39:24On the fifth day, natives spot them, and Kennedy carves a message on a coconut asking for rescue, which the natives take to a US Navy base on another island.
39:34Orders are given to PT Boat 157, which picks the men up. Their terrifying week-long ordeal is finally over.
39:45Their 26-year-old lieutenant, John F. Kennedy, had risked his life to ensure his men's safety.
39:50He was hailed as a hero and awarded the Navy and Marine Life Saving Medal.
39:58When he became president, a replica of PT 109 was paraded through Washington.
40:04The story became a classic chapter in the history of the PT boat.
40:08For the next year, the shorelines of the Solomons and New Guinea became a battlefield as the devil boats clashed with the heavily armed barges.
40:20But starved of supplies, the Japanese retreated.
40:24On October the 24th, 1944, General MacArthur fulfilled his pledge to the Filipino people.
40:30I said to the people of the Philippines whence I came, I shall return.
40:40The invasion of the Philippines began at Leyte.
40:43Protecting the invasion force were 45 PT boats that have made an incredible 1,200-mile journey from New Guinea.
40:52Japanese naval squadrons tried to burst through the Sirigao Straits to the south of Leyte.
40:57PT boats would act as scouts for the US battleships and cruisers.
41:08Frequently they found themselves in the first line of defense and came under attack from enemy gunners and aircraft.
41:16When someone said there were aircraft approaching, you began to weave back and forth.
41:23Once he settled down into his approach, that's when you gave full throttle and turned one way or the other.
41:33The whole time you tried to bring your guns to bear, but we would never stay long enough for him to line up.
41:39On March the 2nd, 1945, PT boats proudly took General MacArthur back to Corregidor, from where he'd escaped nearly three years earlier.
41:53The Mosquito fleet had come full circle.
41:58The PT boats continued the fight until the final victory over Japan.
42:04But there was no place for them in the post-war fleet.
42:08Built out of wood, not metal, there was no way they could be mothballed for future use.
42:13So in September 1945, on a small island in the Philippines, most of the PT boat Pacific fleet were lined up on the shore.
42:24I had been assigned to Vase 17, and at that time that was where they had brought a lot of these boats onto the beach.
42:33Without ceremony, one by one, the PT boats were set ablaze.
42:37You just kind of piled them up like kindling wood and burned them.
42:42You did all you could to protect that boat for the time that you were on it, and then to just see it burn, you know, like there was nothing, you know.
42:49That's kind of hard.
42:53Maybe you could compare it to a wonderful automobile that you had, and you saw the thing crushed to pieces or something, you know.
43:01A sadness, maybe.
43:02Obviously, 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.
43:11A hundred and twenty-one boats were destroyed in this vast funeral pyre at Samar Island.
43:17It was an ungracious end for a boat that had done such an amazing job.
43:21From 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.
43:35I've been on many ships, and I think probably my greatest love affair was the PT boats. You still think, I guess, of your first love, maybe.
43:47There was no other comparison, actually, as far as boats are concerned, because there is only one attack boat, and that was the PT boat.
43:57I think they were very successful, and as far as I was concerned, played a most important part in World War II.
44:04It 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.
44:22A hundred and twenty-one boats will never be forgotten.
Recommended
42:09
|
Up next
1:36:54
1:01:34
45:12