Author: C.J. Skamarakas
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0811772098
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259
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Book Description
PT boats loom large in the popular imagination of World War II. In March 1942, a PT boat evacuated Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his family, and top staff from the Philippines, which inspired the war movie They Were Expendable, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. John F. Kennedy became a war hero while commanding PT-109, which collided with a Japanese destroyer and was sunk in August 1943. But the story of PT boats has never been told in the depth and detail that their exemplary service deserves. Naval historian C. J. Skamarakas uses one Pacific PT boat squadron to tell the story of PT boats in action in World War II. Eighty feet long, PT boats were designed to launch torpedoes against enemy ships five and ten times their own size. But defects in the torpedoes and the boats’ speed and maneuverability ultimately shifted the boats’ mission to patrolling and breaking up Japanese shipping and reinforcements. In the waters of the Southwest Pacific as part of MacArthur’s offensives in New Guinea and the Philippines, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 25 completed these missions and also executed other operations for which they weren’t specifically trained, including inserting commandos behind enemy lines, air-sea rescue, raids on enemy positions, reconnaissance of potential sites for amphibious landings, coordination of air strikes in support of ground forces, meetings with guerrilla leaders, recovery of prisoners of war, diversionary activities, and psychological operations. Today we would call many of their missions “special ops.” The Japanese called PT boats “mosquitoes” and “devil boats.” The Devil Boats recounts the unique contributions of one motor torpedo boat squadron and through it tells the story of PT boats in the Pacific War. With drama and excitement, as well as careful attention to detail, the book fills a void in the history of the U.S. Navy in World War II.
Author: Timeless Media Group
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780741110831
Category : Torpedo-boats
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
The herioc stories of the PT boats and the attempt to restore PT 658.
Author: William B. Breuer
Publisher: Presidio Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270
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Book Description
The PT boat was a class of motor torpedo boats used by the United States during the Second World War. Armed with a 40mm antiaircraft gun, two 20mm antiaircraft guns and four torpedo tubes, their agility and speed consistently bested even the most outlandish expectations. Against Japan, they figure prominently in some of the best-known feats of heroism of the entire war. In Devil Boats, the reader is right on board, buffeted by the spray of the crashing Pacific minutes after the Pearl Harbor disaster as a PT boat brings down the first enemy plane. And there again as PT boats, their engines muffled, steal along on an unforgiving ocean to sink a warship, blow up a supply barge, carry a sabotage team past enemy lines, or effect another extraordinary rescue of a downed Allied pilot. In instance upon instance, the PT boats and their crews performed deeds demanding incredible courage and skill, pitting their plywood craft against the force of the angry sea, or the might of ships hundreds of times their own size. Among their legendary exploits - General MacArthur being spirited off besieged Corregidor; Philippine president Quezon's "kidnapping" to Australia; and the unforgettable heroism of a wounded John F. Kennedy and his fearless PT-109.
Author: David Stuart Leslie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
Author: William Breuer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Torpedo-boats
Languages : en
Pages : 229
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Book Description
Author: Michael Aye
Publisher: Boson Books
ISBN: 9781685530259
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The war in Europe is still going on. Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor. Suddenly it's World War II. General Douglas MacArthur, surrounded by the Japanese, is saved from the jaws of death by Lieutenant Bulkley and his small group of PT boats. These small, heavily gunned wooden boats are sent to do battle with the might of the Japanese forces. This Mosquito Fleet was so successful that the Japanese dubbed them "Devil Boats." Young Matt Blue and his hometown friend, Sidney Hinson, are suddenly waging war against the overwhelming odds of Japan's might in the South Pacific, in these wooden Devil Boats.
Author: Donald R Treichler
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 354
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Book Description
In late 1941 war raged in Europe while Japan and the United States engaged in tense negotiations over whether there would be war or peace in the Pacific. Recently reporting to Motor Torpedo Squadron 3 in the Philippines, little did LTjg Cliff Lane US Navy realize that this handful of wooden PT Boats soon would become orphans of war. Captivated by vivacious navy nurse Ashley Harper, their budding romance was soon challenged by the winds of war. When the Japanese struck, the small fleet was forced to move south leaving only a half dozen Devil Boats to face the might of the Imperial Japanese Navy .
Author: Karen Kersting
Publisher: Pel
ISBN: 9781455624867
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 64
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Book Description
In 1940s New Orleans, young Jack helps with paper and scrap metal drives while learning about the torpedo boats his father helps build, and when he is an adult, helps to restore one. Text is interspersed with facts about the boats and World War II.
Author: William Hope Hodgson
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN: 8027247039
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 137
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Book Description
This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. The ship "Glen Carrig" gets lost at sea when it strikes "a hidden rock" and several survivors escape the wreck in two lifeboats. But that is when their agony actually begins, as they become exposed to the Sargasso Sea, also known as "cemetery of the oceans".
Author: Giuseppe Bufalari
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780394922898
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
From the day that they buy their own boat, a coral diver and his son sense it is cursed by the devil.
