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ť Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboard.cgi?cid=101&fct=showf

ť Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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ť Topic: Mr. Joe Frank's Tour - Pacific PT-108
http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?cid=101&fid=102&tid=3378

Here are photos of Mr. Frank's tour in the Pacific. What a change from jackets to wearing almost nothing. I noticed there were no photos of the 108 boat in his collection. Looking at the photos he spent most of his time with boat 142.

PT-142

Wounded Japanese soldiers

Village set on fire as noted in his picture. Note the twin .50's

Half naked crewman in the stern .50. Notice the spray shield has been removed.

Crewman and locals with fruit. Note the identification markings on the Chart House. Also the art work consisting of a clover leaf with wings.

Not great detail but notice the writing under the clover leaf art work

20mm. I've never noticed that wire coming out from under the mount. Anyone know what that might be about?

Work detail at the 37mm

Another shot of the 142. Not sure what's going on with the spray shield on the Chart House. Another PT Boat mystery?

PT's docked

This gentleman looks a lot like Mr. Frank. But I can't be sure

PT's tied up to tender

Notice the mortar on the foredeck. It wasn't until I heard recently that these were used to launch flares so the crews could see their targets.

Nice camo pattern on late model Elco PT

I hope you enjoyed these photos. Thanks again to Mr. Frank, his family, and Denny White for making his story available to us.

Dave

David Waples

Posted By: David Waples | Posted on: Oct 13, 2013 - 10:18am
Total Posts: 1679 | Joined: Jan 2, 2007 - 9:55pm

Great photos! I think these boats were all in RON8 similar to a bunch I posted from LTjg Bill Skade, Skipper of PT143.
The PT142 nickname was "Flying Shamrock" which is what the script reads below the number on the chart room.

The 20mm mount wire is the wire (and pulley) used to assist in compressing the recoil springs and drawing back the bolt for firing. During normal ops the recoil does this for you, but to get the first shot off, the spring must be compressed. This wire and pulley arrangement uses the motion of pulling down the barrel from vertical to horizontal position to also compress the springs. The compression can be done manually, but it takes about 3 guys to do so. Using the wire and pulley is a 1 person operation. All this is found in the 20mm tech manual available on the HNSA website if you want more details.

From the manual:

To Cock

Elevate the gun to the vertical position and lock in place. Attach one end of cocking rope (OE-2029) to the left end of breech block cotter (OE-1316) and train the gun so that the other end of the rope is in line with the cocking rope bracket near the lower end of the mount. Be sure the rope is in the groove in the sheave.

Unlock the gun cradle, grasp the hand grips or shoulder rest and depress the gun until it reaches an almost horizontal position. This action will pull the breech block mass backward and the gun mechanism will be cocked when the breech block pawls can be heard to click over the parallelogram bottom levers. Then ease the recoiling mass forward slowly to the latched position by elevating the gun.

[image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Jerry%20G%20PT658/20mmcable.jpg[/image]

Thanks Jerry

Posted By: Jerry N Gilmartin | Posted on: Oct 13, 2013 - 12:08pm
Total Posts: 26 | Joined: Oct 12, 2013 - 8:28pm

Thanks Jerry. Great call on the wire. I hadn't seen it on the tripod mounts before. Makes sense.
Dave

David Waples

Posted By: David Waples | Posted on: Oct 13, 2013 - 12:42pm
Total Posts: 1679 | Joined: Jan 2, 2007 - 9:55pm

Dave, thanks so much for posting the photos. Are these scanned at least 300 DPI, so I could enlarge them should I do a third book.

Posted By: Frank Andruss | Posted on: Oct 13, 2013 - 2:13pm
Total Posts: 3964 | Joined: Feb 9, 2007 - 11:41am

They're not very high resolution.
Dave

David Waples

Posted By: David Waples | Posted on: Oct 13, 2013 - 2:45pm
Total Posts: 1679 | Joined: Jan 2, 2007 - 9:55pm

Great photos Dave. Man there are so many still unseen photos out there. Thanks for taking the time to post them Dave.

Posted By: Roy Forbes | Posted on: Oct 13, 2013 - 5:46pm
Total Posts: 371 | Joined: Sep 5, 2012 - 4:57pm

thanks dave.great photos/mr frank did well to manage to keep them in such goood conditiomn and you were graacious enough to post them here for us.
earl

earl richmond

Posted By: EARL RICHMOND | Posted on: Oct 14, 2013 - 11:05am
Total Posts: 319 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 1:50pm