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 Author  Topic: PT-59 Configuration
Dick

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Dick   Send Email To Dick Posted on: Mar 12, 2011 - 3:46pm
For sometime now I've been trying to resolve PT-59 armament configuration, and just by chance I found my self on a webpage from the NARA JFK Library some time back. As I viewed the page I noticed they had a small image of PT 59, but more importantly this image was much clearer then any of printed versions of this typical shot which could be found in several books. I contact the library by email and about five or six weeks later I got a reply, after several more emails back and forth about the photo(s) of PT 59, I finally had a copy of the image. The photo clearly shows the four gun position on the 59. We could always see the first three single 50 calibre machine guns per side (from the aft to forward), but the image quality near the front of the cabin in the previous images were always very dark and little could be seen. This new image finally gave clues what was there. In the front position are dual 50's in (as Al Ross describes to me, I didn't see it a first) a MK-17 mount and instead of being single guns, were actually duals.

I had always assumed there was a gun position but could never resolve the issue, until now. Below is the photo and also a isometric line drawing I had first drawn in 1998, modified in 2007, and now modified again with the twin 50's.

Dick . . .



a7a7a289ed05e5d5ba6f47492a08e6f4.jpg



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CJ Willis

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of CJ Willis  Posted on: Mar 12, 2011 - 6:01pm
Dick: I am glad to look at a good picture of the 59 gun boat. We berthed next to them in the mongrove bushes at Lambu Cove at Vella La Vella in November and part of December 1943. They left and the 60 boat moved in next to us sometime in early December. I just remember both gunsboats bristling with guns all over them.

C. J. Willis

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TGConnelly

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 6:24am
Dick,

As I was made to understand, as a PTGB, the 59 (or, PTGB-1) had three single .50s along her decks (however, the 60 and 61 had three twin mounts) plus the two twin .50s which were located at frame 22 on the hull. These two twin mounts were supposedly a carry-over from her PT configuration.

Interestingly, if one reads the small section on these boats in Dr. Friedman's SMALL COMBATANTS book, there is a line in there stating that these boats retained their 20-mm guns, but in none of the photos I've seen of any of the 77 footers, or even of the Higgins PTGBs, I never saw a 20-mm gun.

That's my two cents, take it as you will.

Garth


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29navy

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of 29navy  Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 8:08am
Of course, with my crusty old eyes, I could be mistaken, but if you look at the forward twin-.50 mounted on the deck, it doesn't appear that there is much, if any, armor plate in front of the gun mount as compared to the single .50s as shown in your drawing.

The plate on the singles covers up much of the side of the .50, while you can see the entire side of the twin-.50s. Of course , it could be the angle, too. But the one square piece that may be the armor (if that is what it is), looks like it stops at the barrels or just slightly above. Not like the higher rise of the singles.

Of course, this is just my interpretation.

Charlie

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Dick

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Dick   Send Email To Dick Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 9:38am
Here is a closer look at the forward machine gun position.

jqnI5.jpg


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TGConnelly

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 9:44am
I COULD be wrong; but I THINK what you think is a ready service locker is actually the right side of the shield for the twin 50s plus MAYBE the shelf for its box ammunition ...

Garth


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  Gary Paulsen

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Gary Paulsen   Send Email To Gary Paulsen Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 10:01am
Dick,
Could that be a mortar mounted along the rail by what you identify as the ready box?
Gary


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29navy

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of 29navy  Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 10:13am
I would say what you have marked as the shield is the shield. The ready box appears to be the ready box. I orginally thought it might be part of the shield, but it was too far away and the gun was not at the right angle to be such.

Charlie

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TGConnelly

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 10:36am
Yes ... But, Charlie, what is marked as the RSL appears to block a part of the gun.

Could what we are seeing be generated by the angle of the camera?

I'm just asking ... I'm not saying I'm right, I'm not saying he's wrong or that you're wrong ... I'm just asking a legitimate question.

No, Gary, that is not a mortar.

Garth


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alross2

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of alross2   Send Email To alross2 Posted on: Mar 13, 2011 - 11:25am
Quote:
As I was made to understand, as a PTGB, the 59 (or, PTGB-1) had three single .50s along her decks (however, the 60 and 61 had three twin mounts) plus the two twin .50s which were located at frame 22 on the hull.



From what source did this information come? THE PTGB designator is not one I have seen in official correspondence and I've not seen any photos of 60 or 61 clearly showing twin fifties in all positions.

Al Ross


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