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ť Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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ť Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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ť Topic: Imperial Japanese Navy Report on American MTB's
http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?cid=101&fid=102&tid=824

Hi all,

I found this while doing one of my periodic web searches. It is an English translation of a captured report by the Imperial Japanese Navy about American PT's--actions, countermeasures, and general comments. It's all too brief--only thirty-some pages--but it's interesting to read some of the comments included in it. The time period chosen is from December 1941 to September 1943. All I can say is if some high-ranking officers in our own Navy were dismissive of the whole PT boat concept, the Japanese were somewhat impressed by the impact of the boats--especially after Guadalcanal (probably because the Japanese themselves were very "torpedo-minded").

The document is divided into several sections:

Chapter I: Introductory Remarks
Chapter II: Methods of Using PT Boats in Local Actions
Chapter III: Methods of Combatting PT Boats
Chapter IV: Extracts from Opinions of Various Branches on
Enemy PT Boats

There are also three appendices dealing with Japanese PT's stationed in the Marshalls, opinions on battle lessons from Japanese PT boat division commanders (?) in New Guinea, and opinions of barge commanders on combatting US PT boats.

For reasons of bandwith, the site contributor has divided the document into three separate PDF files for viewing with Adobe Reader. Still, the files are pretty large, so those of you with slow dial-up connections (like me) may want to hit up one of your broadband buddies if you want to download or print these out. Just bribe 'im with his favorite brew...

All the best,
Gene K.

Posted By: comcardiv1 | Posted on: Jun 6, 2008 - 2:17pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

And I suppose it would help if I gave the link...

[url]http://propnturret.com/tully/viewtopic.php?t=163[/url]

Posted By: comcardiv1 | Posted on: Jun 6, 2008 - 2:21pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Very cool...thanks for sharing!

Grandson of James J Stanton
RON 15 PT 209 and RON 23 PT 243
Check out: www.pistolpackinmama.net

Posted By: newsnerd99 | Posted on: Jun 6, 2008 - 2:39pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Fascinating, Gene, Thanks for posting this.

I love these quotes from the report...

"Often tremendous difficulties were put in the way of an operation by the efforts of PT boats."

and...

"Judging from battle lessons, the value of PT boats in local night actions is very great."

Ahhhh-soooo! Seems like the Devil Boats and Green Dragons that "roared, flapped their wings, and fired torpedoes in all directions" really did have the respect of the Imperial Japanese Navy!

Posted By: Drew Cook | Posted on: Jun 6, 2008 - 6:16pm
Total Posts: 1306 | Joined: Oct 19, 2006 - 10:44am

It's also a nice piece of evidence to show any neysayers out there who say PT's are over-hyped.

Grandson of James J Stanton
RON 15 PT 209 and RON 23 PT 243
Check out: www.pistolpackinmama.net

Posted By: newsnerd99 | Posted on: Jun 6, 2008 - 8:43pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Hey Gene, thanks for the link to these fascinating translated documents regarding Japanese perceptions of US PT Boats. I find it interesting to note the page where it shows the distribution of this document. It was apparently widely read by many Japanese officials - who obviously would have easily adopted the fear expressed in the writer's opinion of how PT Boats really were Green Dragons.

Cheers Gene, appreciate your sharing this.

Randy Finfrock

Posted By: Randy Finfrock | Posted on: Jun 6, 2008 - 10:01pm
Total Posts: 97 | Joined: Nov 27, 2006 - 6:21pm

Awesome, thanks for posting this document. It will be a comfort to those on this board that fought with the boats to know just how much discomfort and fear they caused the Japanese. To those who always thought the boats were over-rated, take a peek at these papers.........

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Jun 7, 2008 - 12:56am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am