Was PT 73 a real PT boat?
The real PT-73 was a 78-foot Higgins boat assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13, which saw service in the Aleutians and in the Southwest Pacific theater. On 15 January, 1945 it ran aground, and was destroyed to prevent it falling into enemy hands.
Are there any original PT boats left?
A few (one 80' Elco, one 72' Vosper, and three 78' Higgins) were cut up and destroyed between 1998 and 2008, leaving (a known) total of 12 PT boats, and 2 experimental PT boat hulls in various states of repair, surviving today in the U.S.: PT-48. PT-48 is possibly the last surviving 77-foot (23 m) Elco PT boat.
Did a PT boat ever sink a ship?
PT-37 and PT-40 sank destroyer IJN Teruzuki on the night of 11–12 December, barely three months after the Japanese had put her into service. (Thanks to George Avery for his comment bringing this sinking to my attention.) They also damaged at least one cruiser, IJN Abukuma , during the Battle of Surigao Strait (1944).
Where did they get the PT boats for McHale's Navy?
Actual U.S. Navy 80-foot Elco PT boats were used throughout filming, albeit re-marked with false hull numbers in use in late 1941 and early 1942.
What happened to the real PT-73?
It was destroyed on 14 January 1945 to prevent capture by the Japanese. The real PT-73 was a 78 foot Higgins boat commissioned on 12 August 1942. It was long gone by the time McHale's Navy was created. This black and white sitcom ran for four seasons from 1962 to 1966.
Did they use a real PT boat on McHale's Navy?
The boat was used for shots of the PT-73 underway at sea, while a full-scale mock-up was used for studio scenes. The real PT-73 in World War II II was a seventy-eight-foot Higgins PT boat, assigned to the U.S. Navy's MTB Squadron 13, and was placed in service on August 12, 1942.
Can you still buy a PT boat?
Currently, PT, a yacht brand has 6 yachts available for purchase on YachtWorld. This collection encompasses 0 newly built vessels as well as 6 pre-owned yachts, with all listings, handled by yacht brokers, primarily concentrated in United States and Canada.
How many PT boats still exist?
Most have been destroyed, sunk, scrapped, burned, rotted. But 12 are known to have survived with 2 more experimental hull in various states of repair in the US. PT-48, PT-305, PT-309, PT-459, PT-486, PT-615, PT-617, PT-657, PT-658, PT-724, PT-728, PT-766, PT-796 and experimental boat PT-3 and PT-8.
Did the Germans have PT boats?
The German torpedo boats of World War II were armed principally, if not exclusively, with torpedoes and varied widely in size. They were not small schnellboote (known to the Allies as E-boats) but small seagoing vessels, the larger of which were comparable to destroyers.
Is PT-109 movie accurate?
Basically, the facts are correct, but Warner Brothers has tampered with the timeline. When JFK was dispatched to rescue the Marines off the beach, PT-109 had been rammed and sunk, and he was skipper of PT-59.
How many died on PT-109?
John Kennedy's PT boat was cut in two by a Japanese warship. More than 1,000 people were part of the overflow crowd at the PT Boat Museum in Fall River's Battleship Cove to honor the two men who died during the PT-109 incident and all other crewmen of PT boats who didn't survive the war.
What happened to PT-59?
PT-59 is not to be confused with PT-109. It was an 80-foot ship that Kennedy skippered after PT-109 sank. It was sold as surplus after the war and changed hands many times before it was abandoned and sank in the river's north cove.
What was the PT boat nickname?
One such type of boat are the PT boats of WWII. Nicknamed “Devil Boats” by the Japanese, these small torpedo boats helped the U.S. Navy in its war in the Pacific. In 1938, the U.S. Navy realized its need for a mobile attack boat. PT's or Patrol Torpedo Boats were small, fast vessels that could be used for scouting.
What replaced the PT boat?
Their role was replaced in the U.S. Navy by fast attack craft.
What happened to all the PT boats?
At the end of World War II, the expense of returning PT boats to the United States from overseas was considered prohibitive, so most boat were stripped of useful materials and burned.
Are any PT-109 survivors still alive?
Zinser, Motor Machinist's Mate 1/c (MM1) (Belleville, Illinois). Erroneously called "Gerald" in many publications, Zinser remained in the Navy for a career following the end of World War II, eventually retiring as a Chief Petty Officer. The last living survivor of PT-109, he died in Florida in 2001.
What happened to PT 32?
intentionally destroyed PT-32 during the [13 March 1942] rendezvous, in the Sulu Sea off Tagauayan, Philippines to prevent the Japanese from capturing it. With the crew of PT-32 on board, USS Permit was severely overloaded with passengers.
How did the PT-109 crew survive?
Most of the crew were knocked or fell into the water. The one man below decks, engineer Patrick McMahon, miraculously escaped, although he was badly burned by exploding fuel. Fear that PT-109 would go up in flames drove Kennedy to order the men who still remained on the wreck to abandon ship.
What happened to all the PT boats after ww2?
Even after the tide turned in the Pacific theater, PT boats were run hard and getting spares remained difficult. At the end of the war, with little need for all of them the determination was made that they were beyond economical repair. Those irreparable boats were destroyed as the best method of demilitarizing them.
Were PT boats used in Vietnam?
All Patrol Torpedo boats were taken out of service immediately after WWII and either scrapped or sold (minus armament), A variety of light patrol and river craft were used in the Vietnam war including the well-known PBR (Patrol Boat River) pictured below, but no PT Boats.
Did PT boats have a galley?
Galley. -Here is where the "cook" heats up the cans. A PT galley is much more than that. It can and has turned out American, Italian, French, Chinese, and even Japanese cuisine.
Did John Wayne own a PT boat?
John Wayne actually did pilot one of the boats in some filming, which lead him to purchase a PT BOAT for his own personnel use. He liked the boats.
How fast was a WWII PT boat?
According to W.L.White's 1942 book “They Were Expendable,” the three Packard engines could drive a PT boat almost as fast as a car on the highway, which was then about 45 MPH. From other sources, I would say more like 35–40 knots, which is close.
Were PT boats gas or diesel?
The Elco boats were the largest in size of the three types of PT boats built for U.S. use during World War II. Wooden-hulled, 80 feet long with a 20-foot, 8-inch beam, the Elco PT boats had three 12-cylinder Packard gasoline engines generating a total of 4,500 horsepower for a designed speed of 41 knots.
Has PT-109 been found?
The wreckage of PT-109 was located in May 2002, when a National Geographic Society expedition, headed by Ballard, found a torpedo tube amongst wreckage that matched the description, and location, of Kennedy's vessel in the Solomon Islands.
Were PT boats used in Europe?
Built in New Orleans by Higgins Industries, the patrol-torpedo (PT) boat PT-305 was a critical asset for the US Navy during World War II, serving in European waters from 1944 to the end ofthe war.
Were there PT boats in Europe?
By the last patrol on the night of April 28, 1945, American PT boats had been fighting in the coastal waters of North Africa, Italy, and France for two years. During that period, they fired 354 torpedoes, claiming 38 vessels totaling 23,700 tons sunk.
How big were PT boats in WWII?
In the later years of the war the U.S. Navy standardized the design and construction of the PT boat. Two basic and distinctly different types of PT Boats were built for combat with the predominant PT, the 80-foot long "Elco" boat, and the slightly smaller 78-foot long "Higgins” boat.
What color was PT-109?
There was variety to the colors; PT-109 originally shipped out to the South Pacific on pre-war gray (I have photos here) but was later repainted in a tropical green that I believe was a mixture of zinc chromate and black paint.
How effective were PT boats?
PT boats were able to challenge much larger capital ships, defend merchant shipping, attack convoys, perform scouting and reconnaissance missions, and infiltrate or exfiltrate small units and key leaders from enemy-controlled areas - all in the effort to contest sea control.
Why did PT-109 sink?
The destroyer, later identified as the Amagiri, struck PT 109 just forward of the forward starboard torpedo tube, ripping away the starboard aft side of the boat. The impact tossed Kennedy around the cockpit. Most of the crew were knocked into the water.
Who was XO on PT-109?
Ensign Leonard Jay Thom was the Executive Officer aboard the Motor Torpedo Boat USS PT-109. In Blackett Strait, south of Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands, the starless, moonless night of August 1-2, 1943, was profoundly dark, inky blackness.
What destroyer sank PT-109?
In the early hours on August 2, 1943, PT-109 was patrolling Blackett Strait, on the southern side of Kolombangara Island, when her starboard side was rammed, cut, and severely disabled by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
Was JFK on the PT-109?
Kennedy, commander of the PT-109, led his crew members to a nearby set of islands. JFK swam miles in enemy waters to try to find help. Days later, he encountered two native coastwatchers who carried a message to the Allies.
Was PT-109 made of wood?
PT-109 was a plywood boat measuring 80 feel in length and had a maximum beam [width] of 20 feet. Her maximum draft was six feet and she was powered by three 12-cylinder Packard engines, each of which developed 1,350 horse power. She could carry as many as four 21-inch torpedoes and originally mounted four .
Did PT boats sink any Japanese ships?
PT-59 (more on her later) is credited with sinking Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) submarine I-3 on December 9, 1942 near Guadalcanal. PT-37 and PT-40 sank destroyer IJN Teruzuki on the night of 11–12 December, barely three months after the Japanese had put her into service.
Where is JFK's boat now?
The boat which is on permanent display at Shangri-La Resort got the name Restofus as an acknowledgement to the “rest of us” in the expanding family, and was added to the family fleet in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts by JFK.
Were PT boats lost in ww2?
Losses. According to the book "At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy," 99 of the 531 PT boats that served during World War II were lost to various causes.
What ship hit PT-109?
In the midst of battle, Japan's Amaqiri hit PT-109, leaving 11 crewmen floundering in the Pacific. After five hours of clinging to debris from the decimated PT boat, the crew made it to a coral island. Kennedy decided to swim out to sea again, hoping to flag down a passing American boat. None came.
Can you buy a PT boat?
Specialized yacht brokers, dealers, and brokerages on YachtWorld have a diverse selection of PT models for sale, with listings spanning from 1979 year models to 1986.
Was PT 73 a real PT boat?
The real PT-73 was a 78-foot Higgins boat assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13, which saw service in the Aleutians and in the Southwest Pacific theater. On 15 January, 1945 it ran aground, and was destroyed to prevent it falling into enemy hands.
Were PT boats made of wood?
One of the most notable types of wooden crafts was the PT or Motor Torpedo Boat. This small, fast craft would race at the enemy to launch torpedoes before making a hasty retreat. The complex curves of the boat's hull would have been very difficult to manufacture from steel.
Did the Germans have PT boats?
The German torpedo boats of World War II were armed principally, if not exclusively, with torpedoes and varied widely in size. They were not small schnellboote (known to the Allies as E-boats) but small seagoing vessels, the larger of which were comparable to destroyers.
Are there modern PT boats?
Fast attack craft today
Boats similar to torpedo boats are still in use, but are armed with long-range anti-ship missiles that can be used at ranges between 30 and 70 km. This reduces the need for high-speed chases and gives them much more room to operate in while approaching their targets.
Where is PT-305 located?
The most recent addition to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans is the PT-305, a patrol-torpedo boat that served the US Navy in European waters from 1944 to the end of the war. Climb aboard living history for a deck tour or a ride on Lake Pontchartrain.
Could a PT boat sink a battleship?
No capital ship was sunk in WW2 by a motor torpedo boat/PT boat but one Dreadnought Battleship was sunk by an Italian motor torpedo boat in WW1. SMS Svent Istavan of the Austro Hungarian Navy a Dreadnought of 21000 tons was torpedoed and sunk by the 30 ton torpedo boat MAS-15 the sinking was filmed.
Did a PT boat ever sink a submarine?
It arrived at its home base of Tulagi and served successfully, sinking a Japanese submarine by torpedo. In the fall of 1943, PT-59 was converted into a gunboat under the direction of its new commander, Lieutenant (and future U.S. President) John F.
Why did the Navy burn the PT boats?
The U.S. Navy ended up destroying most of its PT boats because the light wood from which they were made could not be stored for future use as could the steel used in decommissioned warships. Before being scrapped the PT boats were first stripped of their valuable armament.
How many PT boats still exist?
Today, just four combat-veteran PT boats still exist in the United States; of those, only PT-305 is fully restored and operational, complete with original-model engines. An operational PT-305 promises to become one of The National WWII Museum's most exciting artifacts and teaching tools.
How many crew members died on PT-109?
John Kennedy's PT boat was cut in two by a Japanese warship. More than 1,000 people were part of the overflow crowd at the PT Boat Museum in Fall River's Battleship Cove to honor the two men who died during the PT-109 incident and all other crewmen of PT boats who didn't survive the war.
Are any PT-109 survivors still alive?
Zinser, Motor Machinist's Mate 1/c (MM1) (Belleville, Illinois). Erroneously called "Gerald" in many publications, Zinser remained in the Navy for a career following the end of World War II, eventually retiring as a Chief Petty Officer. The last living survivor of PT-109, he died in Florida in 2001.
What happened to the real PT 73?
It was destroyed on 14 January 1945 to prevent capture by the Japanese. The real PT-73 was a 78 foot Higgins boat commissioned on 12 August 1942. It was long gone by the time McHale's Navy was created. This black and white sitcom ran for four seasons from 1962 to 1966.
Where is PT 59?
PT-59, which changed ownership several times after its service in World War II, sank 45 years ago in Manhattan's North Cove, an urban wetland off the Harlem River, where New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority is currently building a seawall, according to abc7ny.com.
Where is JFK buried?
President Kennedy's Grave in Arlington National Cemetery.
What happened to PT 32?
intentionally destroyed PT-32 during the [13 March 1942] rendezvous, in the Sulu Sea off Tagauayan, Philippines to prevent the Japanese from capturing it. With the crew of PT-32 on board, USS Permit was severely overloaded with passengers.
Did any U-boats survived the entire war?
Of the 373 German U-boats that had been built, 179 were operational or nearly operational at the end of the war. 178 were lost by enemy action. 512 officers and 4894 enlisted men were killed. Of the surviving German submarines, 14 U-boats were scuttled and 122 surrendered.
What is the most famous PT boat?
What happened to all the PT boats after ww2?
Did they use PT boats in Vietnam?
How fast could a PT boat go?
How many PT boats still exist?
What type of boat is the pt73?