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Topic: American PT Boats in WW II Volume II |
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victorkchun
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Posted on: Feb 27, 2010 - 4:12pm
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Hi Nathaniel,
Your recent picture of the damaged PT 154 is priceless, just the kind of
unique pictures I need. Can you write a caption about this action? I tried
to print the deck plan of PT 154 but I cut off the stern due to my small
screen. Can you shrink the drawing a little?
Thanks a lot Nat. You have been a great help.
Victor
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victorkchun
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Posted on: Feb 27, 2010 - 4:20pm
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Hi Mark,
My email is victorkchun@aol.com. I sure like to see PT 32 in
Philipines. It is very rare indeed. Please include a caption with it.
Thank you.
Victor
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victorkchun
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Posted on: Feb 27, 2010 - 4:24pm
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Hi David,
I have about six months to get everything ready for the publisher.
Victor
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David Waples
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Feb 27, 2010 - 4:45pm
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Hi Victor,
I should have my 109 model completed before too long. I hope to have the 105 boat completed as well but can't guarantee it will be done. Would love to contribute to your book with my models if they're worthy.
Dave
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Nathaniel Smith
MASTER
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 Posted on: Feb 27, 2010 - 6:37pm
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Victor,
There is an incredible story here involving amazing heroics, medals, and of course several Purple Hearts. Pat Rogers (who often blogs here) was on board that night it should be his story to tell ... if he wishes I will gladly share what I now know but Pat was there and as he told me, he remembers that night as if it were yesterday. I have the deck logs of both PT-154 and PT-155. It was written up in At Close Quarters along with a few glaring errors ... but this is what makes historical research fun.
Pat is the source of these photographs even though his friend, Bill Nicholson, deserves the photo credit.
The deck plan with my red arrows is here:
http://www.valinet.com/~natsmith/PT/location2.png
This is the deck plan without my red marks:
http://www.valinet.com/~natsmith/PT/PT-154 top down deck only.png
A smaller version of the deck plan is on photbucket:
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Nathaniel%20Smith/location2.png
This is another photograph in the series. My father was at the helm and my guess is the pattern of shrapnel holes in the plywood is matched by shrapnel wounds in his body. I believe Joe McLaughlin died so my father could live as he was standing between my dad and the torpedo. I wouldn't be writing you if Lt.(jg) McLaughlin moved one step away.
Nat
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victorkchun
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Posted on: Feb 28, 2010 - 11:51am
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Hi Nathaniel,
I printed the deck plan OK. Thanks! I am happy to have either you or
Pat write the story. Where was he standing on the boat and how do I
get in touch with him? Email?
Victor
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victorkchun
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Posted on: Feb 28, 2010 - 11:51am
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Hi Nathaniel,
I printed the deck plan OK. Thanks! I am happy to have either you or
Pat write the story. Where was he standing on the boat and how do I
get in touch with him? Email?
Victor
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djwhite |
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Posted on: Feb 28, 2010 - 2:07pm
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Being fairly new to this forum please forgive any ignorance on my part.
At the time of the shell hit, had the torpedo already been fired and the hit was to the deck or was the damage caused by the explosion against the torpedo casing. If the torpedo was still onboard when struck, was it jettisoned or blown off?
Did torpedoes ever get set off by enemy fire?
The more I learn about these PT's the more I am amazed by the men who risked all on them!
Denny
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victorkchun
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Posted on: Feb 28, 2010 - 2:29pm
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Nathaniel,
After looking carefully at your second picture showing the sharpnel riddled plywood partition, I checked one of Dick Washchek"s drawings
that shows this partition which supposed to be armor plated originally. I
understand they were removed for varous reasons. It could save
Lt. McLaughlin"s life. Alas, life is such a fickel thing.
Victor
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Nathaniel Smith
MASTER
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Posted on: Feb 28, 2010 - 5:38pm
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Denny,
As far as I know the three inch shell hit the after part of the torpedo not the warhead part. The shell exploded causing the shrapnel damage as seen in the photographs. That shrapnel kill three sailors and wounded two or three others. (Three crew members received Purple Hearts but I am not sure if they all are related to 13-14 November 1943.)
I think the boat wandered into the reflection of the just-passed full moon which made it visible to the Japanese shore battery operators. They fired three shots in a bracket. The first went too far and splashed off the starboard bow. My father assumed the splash was a bomb from an airplane (there was a Japanese seaplane base a few miles away) so he laid to. This is the procedure for night time bombing as the wake of a speeding boat would light up with blue-green phosphorescence. This would make it easy to spot if the "airplane" made a second pass. PT-155 pushed full-throttles and got out of harms way. My father has had to live with the decision he made that night.
I have always wondered why the shore battery only fired three shots in a bracket. They had a boat dead in the water for a while and they could have fired several more rounds. My conclusion is that the boat drifted out of the silver reflection of the moonlight and became invisible again to the shore battery. The full moon was on 12 November and the attack was on 13-14 November. The attack was shortly after midnight so the just past full moon would have been very high in the sky.
I am wondering if the torpedo actually helped and it prevented the three inch shell from penetrating down to the fuel tanks and exploding at that level. I did not see signs of a fire in the photographs. The boat made it back to base under its own power and it continued later on to Tulagi where it was restored and returned to active duty.
Nat
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