The Second World War saw the United States expand on their Patrol Torpedo boats in the
Pacific Theatre.
Reason for this was, in part, thanks to the brave rescue of General Douglas MacArthur
and his family by captain John Bulkeley using one of the nimble vessels.
There was another great man serving in the Pacific theatre.
Unfortunately, his ship was sunk by a Japanese Warship and for several days it seemed very
likely he and his crew would not survive their shipwreck.
If they had not survived this ordeal, the United States would not have had one of their
most iconic presidents ever: his name was John F. Kennedy, and he served on one of those
Patrol Torpedo Boats.
-intro-
Patrol Torpedoes
Torpedoes had been in use for a while before the Second, and even the First World War.
During the Russo-Turkish War of the 1870s, it is said Stepan Makarov, who would become
an Admiral of the Russian fleet, was one of the pioneers in using torpedoes.
(I have created two videos about the Russo-Japanese war if that is something you’d like to know
more about, our Makarov certainly features in it).
Now, by the 1930s the United State had developed its own Patrol Torpedo boats or PT for short.
These US PTs could carry 34 to 38 tons in weight, were powered by three-shaft petrol
engines and their maximum speed was 40 knots (which is around 46 miles per hour of 74 kilometres
per hour).
The boats were equipped with four 18 or 21-inch torpedo tubes, and one 40 or 2 20mm guns.
Between 12 and 17 men could sail on the boats.
During the second world war, these boats would prove very effective and agile.
They would operate in the Mediterranean Sea, the English Channel, and the Pacific Theatre
of war.
And the Pacific theatre would be the first place where the PT boats managed to really
take the spotlight.
Under the command of Lieutenant-Commander John Bulkeley, in January 1942, the PT-34
nosed into Subic Bay on the west of the Philippines.
It was about a month after the Japanese had invaded the Philippines.
Bulkeley slowly sailed into the Bay during midnight, completely shrouded in the dark,
when he noticed a Japanese transport.
With a single torpedo, at half kilometres distance, he fired at it.
It was a direct hit, and the Japanese ship sank within minutes.
Thing is, Bulkeley hadn’t launched just one, but two torpedoes.
One of them was stuck halfway out of the tube with its engine roaring: the PT-34 was in
trouble.
Due to its position, the now rapidly heating up torpedo wasn’t submerged with water to
cool it off anymore.
This torpedo, which was on a so-called hot run, disintegrates within seconds… with
all nasty consequences tied to it.
Acting in both panic and in the dark, Chief Torpedoman Martino managed to close the compressed
airline.
The PT-34 had averted a crisis and slowly sailed out of Subic Bay, as the torpedo tumbled
into the sea.
It was just one of the many examples of risks tied to these boats.
During the initial stages of the war in the Pacific Theatre Japan enjoyed a steamroll
campaign.
They swept through the Pacific and the only fleet the US had in the area were PT boats…
They operated from improvised bases with equipment that could not be replaced: it wasn’t looking
too good.
In March 1942, once again under the command of Bulkeley, the PT boats put the spotlight
on their actions again.
Bulkeley rescued General Douglas MacArthur, who was ordered to leave the Philippines.
From the Bataan peninsula, he carried him and his family through nearly 1000 kilometres
of enemy waters to safety.
It was this rescue that now kickstarted the development of PT boats.
MacArthur had been so impressed with the nimble boats, able to stalk enemy warships and getaway
in a flexible manner, maneuvering between the scattered island territories, that he
wanted to expand the PT boat programma.
Bulkeley and his colleagues were to return home to the US in order to instruct and educate
the next generation of PT-boat crews.
Next Stage of the War
No time was wasted and by the end of 1942, the PT-boat force in the Pacific was expanding
rapidly.
They were based on the island of Tulagi.
For now, their priority was attempting to block the Japanese to reinforce their troops
on nearby Guadalcanal.
The PTs were ideal for this: they pestered the heavily guarded Japanese convoys known
as the ‘Tokyo Express’.
Now every soldier in the Pacific Theatre endured rough conditions.
The crew of PT-boats had it no different.
Their bases were improvised and primitive.
The refuelling of PTs was gruelling: it had to be done by hand and chamois leather was
used to remove water.
To hide the boats from the Japanese during the day, they were hid under mangrove trees
(no other than the flying tigers hid their planes in Burma, might I add.
They have a story worth telling as well, head over to that video after this one if you want
to know more about those American pilots in China).
Due to hiding the boats under these trees they became infested with rodents.
Even more uncomfortable was that these locations often doubled as sleeping places for the men.
Their tasks were mundane most of the time, no other than any other soldier.
They didn’t see action every day, and their general way of killing time was by waiting
and transferring men and equipment between the big US warships that now arrived in the
theatre.
But when they did see action, they were a small force to be reckoned with for sure.
When the battle of the Bismarck Sea broke out in 1943, the PT boats based in New Guinea
sank large Japanese transport ships carrying troops.
Thousands of Japanese soldiers were lost as a result.
Many of these soldiers weren’t given time to drown: it was the PT boats’ task to sail
towards the sinking ship and mow down any surviving soldier that swam in the water.
Such was the reality of this brutal war.
Lt. John F. Kennedy
The same month as the battle of the Bismarck Sea, a Lieutenant took up his post in the
South Pacific.
He would replace the commander of the PT-109.
His name was John F. Kennedy, and he certainly experienced some action during the war.
By August 1943 the Japanese were in retreat in the Pacific: the Allies now tried to gain
the upper hand and set out new objectives: the islands of Bougainville and New Georgia.
Kennedy’s PT-109 was tasked with preventing Japanese convoys from reaching the islands
and they set out on their mission, waiting for the Japanese convoy.
They happened to miss this convoy as it sailed towards the islands.
The PT-109 was caught by a Japanese warship’s searchlight and had to quickly sail away and
evade further detection to prevent being sunk.
Later that same night, in the dark, the PT boat was idling in the water, waiting for
the Japanese to sail back from the islands.
As it sat there, out of nowhere it was rammed by the destroyer Amagiri - the PT was torn
in 2 pieces with a fuel tank exploding.
As panic arose on the boat Kennedy ordered his crew to abandon ship.
The next couple of hours the crew would be floating in the water of the Pacific, hoping
to avoid Japanese detection.
The next morning, at the dawn of day, the survivors of the incident clung onto part
of what once was the boat’s hull.
Of the 13 men, two had been lost and a third, Patrick McMahon, was gravely injured.
They were floating close to the island to the degree that they could see the Japanese
on the island: they were in a dangerous position and quickly needed to getaway.
Kennedy and his crew paddled for 5 hours, hidden behind a plank that was once part of
their PT. Kennedy swam breaststroke, pulling McMahon behind him by clenching his teeth
on a strap tied to McMahon’s life vest.
It was an agonizing journey, but they made it.
. 5km away they finally reached the beach of an island.
Now that they were in temporary safety, Kennedy swam out into the strait with a lit lantern,
hoping a passing PT boat would recognize them.
The attempt nearly cost him his life as he was almost swept away: they needed to reach
a larger island in the hopes that the Allied fleet would pass by.
Once again, Kennedy towed McMahon as the crew swam breaststroke to another island.
Once this island was reached, they realized fresh coconuts grew on it, but there was no
fresh water.
Kennedy now together with shipmate George Ross swam to Nauru island, 1 hour away, in
search of supplies.
A windstorm nearly put an end to that: they were almost blown away again.
Once they reached the Nauru island they found food supplies left by the Japanese, but more
importantly: they found a fifty-pound gallon of clean water.
At least they had that going for them, but the situation seemed rather hopeless, and
the crew was running out of options what they could do to be rescued by Allied ships before
they were detected by Japanese reconnaissance planes or ships.
As the crew continued foraging for food and water on the island, Kennedy encountered two
Solomon Islanders in a canoe that happened to pass by.
These men were Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa, and they initially thought the Americans were
Japanese and quickly paddled away.
On their retreat, they encountered the rest of the stranded crew.
These natives worked as Coastwatchers and could be a way out of this situation for the
crew.
Kennedy took a coconut and engraved a message on it for them to carry back to their Coastwatch
commander.
It read “NAURU ISL…
COMMANDER…
NATIVE KNOWS POST’IT….
HE CAN PILOT….
11 ALIVE…
NEED SMALL BOAT…
KENNEDY”.
Now, what Kennedy didn’t know was that the morning after the PT-109 was rammed by the
Japanese warship, an Australian coastwatcher, Lieutenant A.R. Evans spotted their capsized
hull.
He had a secret outpost on a volcanic outcrop: Evans manned the outpost in order to gather
intelligence on the Japanese.
It was hidden behind enemy lines, and being a coastwatcher thus was not without risk:
these men were in enemy territory, often hidden, attempting to gather information on the Japanese
and reporting on them via radio.
It was Evan’s sighting and dispatch that finally led to the rescue of Kennedy and his
crew.
On August 7, 5 days after the crash, several natives in a war canoe arrived to take Kennedy
back to Evans.
The crew was rescued after some extremely tense days…
And… well the rest really is history, isn’t it?
John F. Kennedy became not just a war hero, he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy
and Marine Corps Medal, but in 1961 he became President of the United States.
Kennedy even invited Kumana and Gasa to his presidential inauguration, though politics
prevented them from coming.
Coastwatcher Evans however, did attend, and a mock-up of the PT-109 graced it as well.
The famous coconut, inscribed with his message, was placed on the desk in the Oval Office
where it would be until Kennedy sadly was assassinated in 1963.
And that is one of the lesser-known stories about the great life JFK lived.
It certainly says a lot about his character as a man.
Thank you for watching this video.
I would also like to thank all my Patrons for their generous support.
If you enjoy House of History and want to support my work consider checking me on Patreon.
For just 1$ a month you will gain access to the exclusive Patreon series.
If there is a person or event from the Second World War you would like to know more about,
let me know your thoughts in a comment.
Don’t forget to subscribe.
See you next time!