US Navy PT boats

[Daltron]

These little guys are the bane of any ships existence.

 

 

Imagine you in the biggest, baddest armor suit and you're out there taking out EVERYONE and you're like 'BOOM HEADSHOT BOOM HEADSHOT I CAN DANCE ALL DAY'.

 

And then, you feel a tickling down by your privates. You brush it off as nothing. And then they explode. Crying tears of hurt, squealing out 'the sound of ultimate suffering' while being unable to breathe from the mecha-rack, you wonder what went wrong.

 

That's because a mosquito just crept between your armor and landed on your testicles and planted a small thermonuclear device in them 'Armageddon' style.

 

Welcome to the life of a PT boat. These guys are designed to be fast, agile, and dangerous, and even if one hit can kill them they're always in sufficient quantities to cause at least a severe annoyance to anyone, just like mosquitoes.

 

The concept of these was tossed around in the mid thirties by the US Navy. Something like ten (because screw you, I'm too lazy to count right now) were built and tested by the Navy. They were all between 70 and 80 feet long, armed with torpedoes and a couple machine guns.

 

 

Several companies made these, including Elco, Vospers, Higgins (same company that made the Higgins LCVP) and others. Possibly the most famous is the Elco version. It was the biggest type and most produced type ever made, and the design was such that repairs could be made very quickly and easily in the field (i.e. Tulagi shipyard).

 

They usually weighed about 50-60 tons and carried three officers and 14 crew depending on armament (i.e. bofors, .50, .30 cal, depth charges). They were constructed with wood, brass screws, magic, duct tape, elmers glue, and a whole lot of love. This made them REALLY light. Like, in the boat world, this was awesomely light. In fact, they were repeatedly known to survive catastrophic, 'that Star Destroyer blowing up in the background while Admiral Ackbar says 'Concentrate your firepower on the super-stardestroyer', holy balls damage. Like, when JFK's pt got run over by the Amagiri, the bow section stayed afloat for about twelve hours after the kill.

 

These ships would have done great in the Pacific in the early years if it wasn't for the BULLCRAP FREAKING TORPEDOES the US Navy employed. Seriously, sometimes you'd hit a cod and it'd explode and others you'd hit it with a Yamato class and it wouldn't explode.

 

 

Alright, this next paragraph is going to be a tangent explaining why the US torpedoes didn't work, if you don't care, go to the next paragraph. Basically, the Mark 8 torpedo was designed in WWI, and at the time the design was amazing. However, in 30 years the design was made obsolete. It had a weak charge and could 'run hot', where the engine would run in the tube but fail to launch until it exploded from heat and sent shrapnel across the deck. Also, the gyroscope was wanky, and the copious amounts of grease used in the tube usually caught fire, so when the PT boats launched night attacks (as was their contingency) their position would be given away immediately. Sometimes, even, a sub would fire a torpedo and the torp would boomerang back around and hit the sub! This claimed a couple subs. These problems would have been rectified had the Navy Admiralty not been stupid about testing. They didn't want to test the torpedoes, either due to cost or just the fact that they thought 'well, they're good enough', I can't remember which. So yeah, lots of people died (and didn't die) because of these crappy torpedoes.

 

Anyway, These ships did exceptionally well after new torpedoes were introduced in 1943. Heck, even in the Battle of the Surigao Strait, Yamashiro's sinking is credited to a PT! Or a destroyer. I forget which. Either way, the torpedo worked, which is a blessing in itself compared to the old ones.

 

These ships, as mentioned, were incredibly weak and light. Any hit by anything bigger than a 25 mm gun usually resulted in a gasoline explosion that was pretty much and MLG pro insta-kill on the entire crew. Aircraft were the bane of these guys existence, even friendlies, who would mistake the PTs for enemy (as they did with submarines sometimes).

 

They were used to disrupt convoys, break up the Tokyo Express, provide light AA cover over harbors, kill capital ships, and all sorts of other various multi-flavored tasks.

 

 

 

Losses from Wikipedia:

 

Accident, friendly fire, sea conditions – 32

Destroyed by own crew to prevent capture – 27

Rammed, by the enemy – 8

Kamikaze – 2

Naval mines – 9

Enemy Coastal artillery – 6

Strafing by Aircraft – 8

Enemy Naval Gunfire – 7

 

Thirteen survive today.

 

 

I see you over there. Now, I know who you are, Akitsuki, see, I call ya 'I-can-Sook-i'.  I've seen your handiwork all the time, so you can call in your fleet and your aircraft and everything, it don't make me no difference. Now, I tell you what. I like ya, and I want ya. Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way, the choice is yours.

[ramp4ge]

The Elco 103-class 80' was the best looking.

[brian333]

Higgens Boats were known for their stability at speed. Just over 300 Elco Boats were built and just under 200 Higgens Boats were built, and as a testimony to their toughness, over half the surviving hulls are Higgens Boats, with an occasional Vosper hull thrown in there. The only 100% authentic, fully restored and operational PT Boat is a Higgens Boat in Oregon, though the D-Day Museum in New Orleans, built on the old Higgens Boat Factory site, is currently restoring another one.

[Fireball_Forword]

ya these lil'babys would be awesome to have.

[Wunderwaffen1945]

Badass

[Snakehead1234]

<p>These won't be ingame ninja they are too small

[BrushWolf]

Snakehead1234, on 03 March 2013 - 03:15 PM, said:

<p>These won't be ingame ninja they are too small

I think the smallest ships we will see will be DE/Corvette class.Something big enough to carry a couple of 3" guns along with some millimeter class, MGs, 20 and 40 mm cannon.

[Shevla13]

it's been officially said that there are no PT boats in game, around the same time they said no subs, I do believe-

 

I do, however, absolutely love the PT-boat. I lot of inspiration was derived from the catastrophic damage the German's fast attack torpedo boats wreacked in WWI- any Capital ship without DD escort was just begging to be sunk. This was really one of the first purposes of the DD- To keep these buggers off the capital ships. Here's a website talking about that~

 

Anywho-  I love pt- boats. :) Ya'll ought to go read the book "They Were Expendable" It's an original narrative about some of our PT men at the outbreak of the war, stationed out at Bataan. :3

[brian333]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038160/

[ravenwolf68]

Shevla13, on 03 March 2013 - 09:35 PM, said:

it's been officially said that there are no PT boats in game, around the same time they said no subs, I do believe-

I do, however, absolutely love the PT-boat. I lot of inspiration was derived from the catastrophic damage the German's fast attack torpedo boats wreacked in WWI- any Capital ship without DD escort was just begging to be sunk. This was really one of the first purposes of the DD- To keep these buggers off the capital ships. Here's a website talking about that~

Anywho-  I love pt- boats. :) Ya'll ought to go read the book "They Were Expendable" It's an original narrative about some of our PT men at the outbreak of the war, stationed out at Bataan. :3

Can y'all image what the game would be like if MTBs, E-Boats, and PT boats were included in the game,  :Smile_izmena:  Cause just reading about the fights that happened in the Med and the Channel in the old Bantam world at wars series were engrossing.  :Smile_glasses:

[EliteSoldier245]

ravenwolf68, on 05 March 2013 - 07:45 AM, said:

Can y'all image what the game would be like if MTBs, E-Boats, and PT boats were included in the game,  :Smile_izmena:  Cause just reading about the fights that happened in the Med and the Channel in the old Bantam world at wars series were engrossing.  :Smile_glasses:

There would be mini-nuclear weapons strapped to kamikaze PT boats  :Smile_hiding:

[Super_Dreadnought]

ravenwolf68, on 05 March 2013 - 07:45 AM, said:

Can y'all image what the game would be like if MTBs, E-Boats, and PT boats were included in the game,  

A game with a lot of dead cannon fodder MTBs, E-boats, and PT boats.

[Daltron]

Deadnought, on 10 March 2013 - 11:36 PM, said:

A game with a lot of dead cannon fodder MTBs, E-boats, and PT boats.

They'd have to have at least 50 slots for each team with half to 3/4 being PTs.

[ScrewySqrl]

later research has shown that of the 39 PT boats involved in Suriago Strait, not one scored a hit.

[NGTM_1R]

ScrewySqrl, on 11 March 2013 - 05:31 PM, said:

later research has shown that of the 39 PT boats involved in Suriago Strait, not one scored a hit.

One got a hit, on Abukuma. But they couldn't really get close enough to score if spotted.

[BrushWolf]

ScrewySqrl, on 11 March 2013 - 05:31 PM, said:

later research has shown that of the 39 PT boats involved in Suriago Strait, not one scored a hit.

The were staying far enough out so they wouldn't get smacked by the Japanese force. While they scored no hits they accomplished a more important mission, they kept the battle line informed of the Japanese course and speed. The DD lines the Japanese later passed did cause tremendous damage.