Author: Frank D. Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Torpedo-boats
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Author: Frank D. Johnson
Publisher: Blandford
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
An account of the development of American motor-torpedo boats and their important role in naval operations during World War II.

Author: Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780962088
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK. Motor torpedo boat development began in the early 1900s, and the vessels first saw service during World War I. However, it was not until the late 1930s that the US Navy commenced the development of the Patrol Torpedo or PT boat. The PT boat was designed for attacking larger warships with torpedoes using its 'stealth' ability, high-speed and small size to launch and survive these attacks – although they were employed in a wide variety of other missions, including rescuing General MacArthur and his entourage from the Philippines. This book examines the design and development of these unique craft, very few of which survive today, and goes on to examine their role and combat deployment in World War II.

Author: Hans Frank
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1783830298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
A detailed narrative of S-boat, or schnellboot, actions during World War II in all the theatres where they were deployed. The author, describes, with the help of a multitude of maps and photographs, all the incidents that these 45-knot fast attack craft were involved in. The German motor torpedo boat (German: S-boot, English: E-boat) was a controversial subject in the pre-war period of German naval rearmament. As late as 1938, the Fleet Commander recommended that S-boot building be terminated on the grounds that the craft was merely a 'weapon of opportunity' without a defined role. This outlook changed dramatically after the first wartime successes. Soon the S-boot was required on all fronts, and the area of operations. In this volume the operational deployment of the S-Boot in these theatres is given comprehensive treatment for the first time, and not purely from the isolated viewpoint of S-Boot warfare, but as an integral part of the overall military objectives of the time. This study of the effectiveness of the S-Boot, its successes and failures, is based on war diary entries and previously unseen original sources. It is a first-class account of this German naval arm in which survived to be the last class of German surface warship still carrying the offensive to the enemy.

Author: Robert J. Bulkley
Publisher: Historical Studies
ISBN: 1622800044
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 683

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Book Description
Small though they were, PT boats played a key role in World War II, carrying out an astonishing variety of missions where fast, versatile, and strongly armed vessels were needed. Called "weapons of opportunity," they met the enemy at closer quarters and with greater frequency than any other type of surface craft. Among the most famous PT commanders was John F. Kennedy, whose courageous actions in the Pacific are now well known to the American public. The author of the book, another distinguished PT boat commander in the Pacific, compiled this history of PT-boat operations in World War II for the U.S. Navy shortly after V-J Day, when memories were fresh and records easily assessable. Bulkley provides a wealth of facts about these motor torpedo boats, whose vast range of operation covered two oceans as well as the Mediterranean and the English Channel. Although their primary mission was to attack surface ships and craft close to shore, they were also used effectively to lay mines and smoke screens, to rescue downed aviators, and to carry out intelligence and raider operations. The author gives special attention to the crews, paying well-deserved tribute to their heroism, skill, and sacrifice that helped to win the war.

Author: Norman Polmar
Publisher: Motorbooks International
ISBN: 9780760304990
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
A study of the development, construction and use, by the United States Navy, of patrol boats as attack vessels and torpedo launchers. It charts their military career from the Second World War, through the Vietnam War up to and including the boats' retirement due to advances in missile technology.

Author: Robert J. Bulkley
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612511821
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
Small though they were, PT boats played a key role in World War II, carrying out an astonishing variety of missions where fast, versatile, and strongly armed vessels were needed. Called "weapons of opportunity," they met the enemy at closer quarters and with greater frequency than any other type of surface craft. Among the most famous PT commanders was John F. Kennedy, whose courageous actions in the Pacific are now well known to the American public. The author of the book, another distinguished PT boat commander in the Pacific, compiled this history of PT-boat operations in World War II for the U.S. Navy shortly after V-J Day, when memories were fresh and records easily assessable. The book was first made available to the public in 1962 after Kennedy's inauguration as president of the United States interest in PTs was at a peak. Bulkley provides a wealth of facts about these motor torpedo boats, whose vast range of operation covered two oceans as well as the Mediterranean and the English Channel. Although their primary mission was to attack surface ships and craft close to shore, they were also used effectively to lay mines and smoke screens, to rescue downed aviators, and to carry out intelligence and raider operations. The author gives special attention to the crews, paying well-deserved tribute to their heroism, skill, and sacrifice that helped to win the war.

Author: John J. Domagalski
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612004091
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
The author of Into the Dark Water “balances scholarly research with accessible storytelling” to tell the heroic WWII account of Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 (Midwest Book Review). During the opening days of World War II in the Pacific, a small group of American sailors in the Philippines were propelled into the forefront of the fighting against the navy and air power of Imperial Japan. They were manned with six small, wooden PT-boats and led by a courageous, larger-than-life character in Lt. John D. Bulkeley. As America’s defense of the Philippines crumbled under the weight of a massive Japanese assault, the courageous activities of Bulkeley’s Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 made headlines across the United States—often as the only good news coming from the bleak Pacific front. The unit achieved everlasting fame by evacuating Gen. Douglas MacArthur from the front. Then, the squadron continued to fight on until all six of its torpedo boats were lost under fire. The fate of the doomed American defenders was sealed when the Japanese won the battle for the islands in the spring of 1942. The exploits of the unit were immortalized in the blockbuster 1945 movie They Were Expendable, starring John Wayne and Robert Montgomery, but since then, the saga of Bulkeley and his men has slipped into history. Under a Blood Red Sun revives the story of the Philippine PT-boats through the intertwined accounts of Bulkeley and his subordinate officers and men. It is a story of the courage and sacrifice of men thousands of miles from their homeland, representing American gallantry and fighting prowess, giving the Japanese a taste of what was to come their way.

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: Robert P. Gelzheiser
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476633894
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
“Nicely illustrated with black-and-white historical photos…extraordinary…impressively informative…. Expertly organized and presented…recommended”—Midwest Book Review During the Pacific War between the United States and Imperial Japanese navies, the author's father, Francis Gelzheiser, deployed with Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 16A, from New Orleans to Panama to Seattle and to Attu Island in the Aleutians. After their return voyage, the PT boats journeyed to New Guinea, then battled Japanese kamikazes for the Philippine Island of Mindoro. Like many World War II veterans, Gelzheiser only shared his recollections of combat later in life. The author chronicles his father's experience, details the roles PT boats played in the war and examines why, despite America's overwhelming wartime manufacturing capacity, the Japanese believed they could still win the war.