The airfield being built on Guadalcanal was spotted by Australian Coast Watchers. Without these guys, you dumb Seppo’s would have lost many more Marines. Our Coast Watchers were all over the Solomons and PNG.
In the early part of 1962 or three I was in the US Navy on board a destroyer escort in one day we were in Cam Ranh Bay and then I saw six World War II type torpedo boats going across the bed of the formation really beautiful to see him running❤
So did I get this right? There were 3 PT boats including 109. The 109 disappears, and the other 2 boats do nothing, don't report it missing, nothing? Nobody checks for survivors at all, until JFK shows up someplace and says Here we are>
As I understand it, MacArthur's obsession with returning to P.I. extended the war by as much as a year. His ego got in the way of an efficient island hopping campaign as envisioned by Nimitz. There wouldn't've been a return if MacArthur wasn't a personal friend of FDR. A really outstanding documentary on the PT Navy. As mentioned elsewhere, it's too bad that the real History Channel, along with the A&E network, went kerflooey with the reality craze. I've got all of the Horatio Hornblower movies produced by A&E. What a shame they never finished it.
John Paul Jones is a horrible example for the Navy. He was insubordinate, insolent, rude and obnoxious. But he wanted to stick a thumb in the English eye and accomplished it pretty good.
This is a rather remarkable documentary. Thank you so, so much for sharing it. 2:04 really gives the _Акула_ a sense of scale. Jesus, this thing was a monster.
My dad was the skipper of a PT in the Mediterranean. He saw the Savannah get hit by a radar-controlled bomb and his crew later fought German flak convoys in the Ligurian Sea.
JFK and PT109 still hold the record for being the only PTBoat to be rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the entire Pacific campaign of World War 2.
I know men was here on the Philippines,, one person there 2 time.I love to watch movies like this. John E. May and my dad was here to and my step-dad was too. 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖
Three of the best to come out of the war -- Rolls Royce Merlins manufactured under license in the US by Packard. These were the same engines that powered the P-51.
@@thewaywardwind548That is incorrect. Packard built Merlins were never used in PT Boats. They instead used the much larger V12 4M-2500 1500 horsepower water cooled Packard Marine Engine. The Displacement (size) tells you the real story. Merlin has 1650 cubic in displacement, while Marine PT Boat engine had 2500 cubic inch displacement. That is quite the size difference! Besides the Merlins were too valuable to waste inside of a boat. They have amazing power to weight ratio which was not important on a boat. I work on PT658 and know these engines very well.
@@thewaywardwind548 Damn another ignorant parrot opens his mouth and shows how F'n stupid he is !!!! Packard had the M2500 delivered to the navy in 1938, Packard made the first Merlin in Aug 1941, production 1942. IF you had of done any research you would not have talked like an idiot,see the You Tube video PACKARDS PT Boat engine, it explains it, basic engines was used in the Mid 30's for the Harmsworth trophy races
Wrong! MacArthur was the best general of the war and because stupid Truman didn't listen to him about nuking the Red Chinese, we now have to deal with them and Russia both.
We had a PT Boat on Kwajalein in the 60's. It was a fast and able boat for ocean side and often used for fishing. Smaller boats from ski to cabin stayed in the lagoon.
