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PT Boats of WWII
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PT Boats - General
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[StartQuote] Hi Frank, I have been doing a lot of thinking about this one and I have two suggestions for building a model of the Higgins PT Boat in action. One is (Steve's Dad) Hal Nugent's Boat PT210 "Little Poison" and the action on 17June1944 where they had a run in with a German F Lighter in the fog. Pretty incredible stuff, plus I bet Steve has a few photos you could use to copy the way it looked at the time. Another suggestion would be PT224 during the invasion of Mindoro on 16Dec1944. It was with PT297 and was jumped by 3 Val Dive Bomber Kamikazes and was missed by 20 feet of the port bow by the first, 20 feet off the port quarter by the second and 35 feet astern by the third. They said if they had run out of bullets, they could have thrown potatoes at them the enemy planes were so close. The PT230 had a very similar experience. It was at this same action one day later that the PT300 was lost to another Kamikaze and Commander Alvin Colvin was killed, along with 8 other crewmen. RON16 and RON13 were the only US Navy Presence for 3 long days defending the beach against seemingly endless waves of Japanese Kamikazes. There also was a PT Boat action against a Japanese surface force (cruisers & destroyers) that took place in our favor. Here is a quick summary of PT210 Nugent's after action report. 17th June ’44: Invasion of Elba – Ron 15 Boats PTs 201 (Dean), 211, 217, 203, 204, 207, 213, 215, 202, 208, 214, 216 (Steinson), 209 and 210 assigned various missions which were all carried out successfully. The most extraordinary experience was the PTs 210 (Nugent) and 209’s (Kuhn). They were to land six Commandos on Southern Coast of Elba, which was accomplished. They next went to their patrol area with mission to protect landing force convoy. Radar picked up E Boat which buggered off, then a second target, which was thought to be a part of the Allied invasion fleet. The 210 challenged the second target with signal light – received correct reply. Thinking target was a lost Allied LCI went alongside and inquired name or number of ship – reply was a broadside of 88s and 20s. This blast carried megaphone out of CO Hal Nugent's hand, and gunfire broke his binoculars in half and knocked them off his chest. Succeeding bullets jammed the wheel, knocked out engine controls, and hit the engine ignition emergency cut out switch wiring which killed all 3 engines and set the boat "Dead in the Water" drifting in the middle of a firefight. The C.O. was a bit upset by the F Lighter’s reply, but not wounded, and ordered, “Commence fire! At this time PT210 delivered a full broadside to the F Lighter. This broadside disabled the F Lighter and killed everyone aboard. The 210 then drifted clear of the enemy convoy and was able to get lost in the smoke and fog. The PT209 then suddenly jumped in and fired at the remaining enemy ships long enough to further confuse and distract the enemy from the plight of the drifting PT210. Finally able to start its engines, the PT210 ducked into its own smoke to effect repairs, which enabled it to complete its mission. The 209 was hit twice; one of which hit the 40MM loader and resulted in our third KIA enlisted man. [EndQuote]
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