PT boat crewman question

Post by **aferguson** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:20 am

typically, what would PT boat crew wear during combat? Life vests? Helmets? Both? Neither?

Any info appreciated.

Post by **aferguson** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:57 pm

Follow up question. I've seen USN helmets that are painted dark blue-grey and others that are a light grey colour. Any difference in meaning (ie one was for officers and the other for enlisted men) or was it just that they happened to come in those two colours?

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:42 pm

In pics in my books about PT boats, green helmets were worn. No special officer color or markings. With a crew of 10 to 15, everybody knows who the officers are. The more guns, the larger the crew. At the end of WW2 the torpedo tubes were removed and PT's became gunboats, armed with 40mm Borfors, various mortars, 30mm quick firing (canabalized from P-39 Aircobra) besides .50 cal's and any .30cals they could find.. JFK's PT-109 had a "borrowed" 37mm anti tank gun bolted to the foredeck.

Gray Navy helmets were worn on bigger ships.

Crews would wear anything and everything, life vests and helmets were a must, jackets, even pants were optional to individual and the commander's tastes.

TTT

STUKA · Post by **STUKA** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:37 pm

wow - I want 1:18 PT Boat now!!!!!

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:00 pm

I have always loved the gunboats, from our own PT's, and the Brit MTB and MGB's and even the German e-boats.

Just amazing what they stuffed onto those little boats to do harm to "the other guys".

Of course you also have to go into "The Brown Water Navy" of VN. What we developed in small gun boats boats and armored monitors just amazes me.

TTT

Post by **aferguson** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 6:21 am

Thanks triple T. Follow up question: during combat how many crewman woud be on deck? The PT boat i have is lightly armed, with only two sets of twin .50 machine guns. It has the early style torpedo tubes.

So i can see one man at each machine gun station and one man steering the boat.....a total of three on deck. Would there be anyone else and if so where would they be and what would they be doing? With such a flush deck and the boat zipping around and being shot at i wouldn't want to be on deck unless absolutely necessary, for fear of falling overboard if no other reason.

Were the torpedos fired electrically from the bridge? Did a crewman have to man the torpedo tubes to make adjustments, take the front end cap off etc?

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:08 pm

G'day Aferguson

I would kind of think that you'd have at least three crew members on the bridge, the Helmsman, XO and the Captain.

Just my thoughts

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:28 pm

Ok I have a stupid question: did PT boats have heads in them?

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:02 pm

From what I have seen and read, torpedos were fired manually from the tube. A man would be on each side firing a torpedo and moving to the rear torpedo if four torpedos were carried. In the early boats with only the twin .50's, one man on each gun. Captain and XO on the bridge.

As additional 20mm and 30mm's were added, two men per gun and with the mortars or 40mm's three or four per gun. As gunboats, those boats got crowded. Fighting Japanese barges, anybody not maning the engines would be on deck shooting anything they had, tommy guns, shotguns, carbines or rifles.

An added note, the torpedo tubes were removed after some time and the torpedos were started and rolled off their mount. It doesn't sound like it would work better, but it did.

TTT