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PT-59 on a Mission to Rescue Trapped Marines

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PT-59 on a Mission to Rescue Trapped Marines ©310 Pulishing LLC/AMERICA IN WWII All rights reserved • www.AmericaInWWII.com Find us on JFK’s Other PT Boat Rescue T H E J O H N F . K E N N E D Y P R E S I D E N T I A L L I B R A R Y & M U S E U M After recovering from his extreme efforts to save the crew of his smashed PT-109 , John F. Kennedy captained PT-59 on a mission to rescue trapped marines. by Joseph Hinds OHN F. K ENNEDY WAS WOBBLY ON HIS FEET . He tired a war-ravaged history of its own. The 59 had sunk her first ship easily and got terrible headaches. He often got seasick, a on April 9, 1942, while still in American waters off Narragansett Jmore than inconvenient affliction for a navy lieutenant. His Bay, Rhode Island. An accidental discharge sent a torpedo loaded back, a chronic source of pain so bad that he’d been turned down with depth charges shooting through the water at 40 miles per for duty in the army, hurt worse than ever. The August 1943 hour, barely missing a pier on Prudence Island. Three miles later wreck of his motor torpedo boat PT-109 in the Solomon Islands it struck the cargo ship USS Capella (AK-13) , at anchor off and his efforts working and swimming for hours to rescue his Jamestown, Conanicut Island. The explosion sent cargo and a S crew had strained his frail health to the limit. But after that ordeal, military floatplane stored on the deck into the sea. By sheer luck, E V I H which earned him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, he rested there were no deaths and only eight minor injuries. C R A L briefly—and kept mum about his health. The last thing he want - A N O I ed was to be sent home. The 59 before Kennedy T A N Kennedy’s efforts worked, and in October 1943 he received a AFTER THE MISHAP PT-59 was sent to Central and South America : E T I S new assignment as skipper of PT-59 , a 77-foot Electric Launch and then to the Pacific. On the night of December 7, 1942, the 59 O P P O Company (Elco) gunboat. His new patrol torpedo boat came with and three other patrol boats attacked an Imperial Japanese Navy Opposite: A PT boat bristling with weapons cuts through South Pacific waters in the Solomons. The light wooden boats packed a punch out of proportion to their size. Above: Two PT boats defined John F. Kennedy’s brief but action-packed war career. He is seen recuperating after the PT-109 incident that made him famous. Soon he would skipper another PT boat—and get a fresh opportunity for heroism. FEBRUARY 2011 AMER ICA IN WWII 53 PT-59 to the Rescue Choiseul, Solomon Islands Choiseul, Santa Isabel, New Georgia, and finally Guadalcanal. Night of November 1–2, 1943 South During the course of the war, the Japanese and Americans each Pacific lost 30 large ships under this water, which acquired the nickname 6°30' S Iron Bottom Sound. 156°30' E Ocean Bougainville Cape N THE JAPANESE CONVOY that PT-59 and her companion boats Strait Alexander 0 4 8 attacked, the ships were loaded with hundreds of infantry - miles men on their open decks and food and ammunition stores West Marine detachment I Cape aboard two landing craft beneath. The PT boats, from the Allied base at Vella Lavella Island, near west bank of Warrior R.; struck the Japanese off Cape Esperance and Savo Island, approach - Choiseul one craft is stuck on coral Bay 100 yards offshore es to Tassafaronga Point on the northwest edge of Guadalcanal. Japanese forces fire C The PTs loosed 12 torpedoes and moved in for a strafing run of on landing craft H Nukiki O heavy machine-gun and 20mm cannon fire. The 59 advanced to PT-59 (commanded I M by John F. Kennedy) within 100 yards of the Oyashio and raked the ship’s superstruc - o S t rescues marines from o P Moli E r T Major Warner T. ture and gun mounts, killing the soldiers on deck. The PTs left the both landing craft - Is. T 5 Bigger’s marine U o 9 r a detachment embattled Japanese ships scarred and full of holes that crews had p nd L e d PT o -2 Voza to patch. For the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the men of the 3 S 6 Marine 2nd Area of q Zinoa u Parachute Battalion PTs had cause to celebrate: they had forced Admiral Tanaka to a Is. Detail d (Krulak) lands r o Oct. 28, 1943 abandon his mission and run back to Bougainville. Nukiki n C 1 Sasa H 9 On December 9, PT-59 and the other boats set out to hunt for O Point Voza I S 7°0' S Japanese barges in the shallows of nearby islands. They were ready E S U O L to start their barge-busting activities when something huge was Motor L Torpedo O D spotted in the night moving at a sedate two miles per hour. It turned VAGHENA R Squadron19 E M A I-3 (Togami) M out to be the 2,000-ton blockade-running submarine . Lambu V ELLA O L I L AVELLA Lambu N New Georgia N Cove E The I-3 was stuffed with desperately needed infantry, ammunition, C I Sound A KOLOMBANGARA R and food. In Kamimbo Bay at Cape Esperance, the 59 sent two tor - S T L ( ) O THE SLOT G A R I-3 EW pedoes into the sub’s midsection. The sank in a few minutes. The N N A G EORGIA P D H crew managed to recover one Japanese officer from the wreck. Y S / D A RENDOVA V Two nights later, on the 11th, an opportunity arose for PT-59 ’s I 0 20 40 VANGUNU D D squadron to strike again at Tanaka’s Tokyo Express. American miles E I S dive-bombers had attacked 10 Japanese ships, and four PTs left convoy of eight destroyers under the command of Admiral Raizo Tulagi and took up positions off the beach of Tassafaronga and Tanaka that were taking desperately needed supplies to belea - Cape Esperance to join in. PT-48 was the first to attack, and the guered Japanese troops on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. other three followed, firing four torpedoes each. The 59 was cred - Such convoys, collectively dubbed the Tokyo Express, had to pass ited with one of two hits. Again, Tanaka ordered all his ships to through what Americans called the Slot, which runs from the retreat and return to their base. The PTs were tearing the Japanese southern tip of the big island of Bougainville, past the islands strategic timetables to shreds. Below: Kennedy’s new command was PT-59 . He stepped aboard just after the vessel was converted into a gunboat with serious firepower, new armor, and up-to-date radar. The downside: terrible fuel efficiency due to increased weight. P A I N T I N G B Y J O S E P H H I N D S C O U R T E S Y O F I R O N 2 A R T 54 AMER ICA IN WWII FEBRUARY 2011 JFK’s Other PT Boat Rescue by Joseph Hinds S D N I H H P E S O J F O Y S E T R U O C The crew of PT-59 mugs for a photo. The boat and her crew had seen plenty of combat by the time Kennedy took command. Joining in attacks on Japanese troop and supply ships traveling in the so-called Slot (the waterway that moved through New Georgia Sound in the Solomon Islands), the 59 had helped disrupt the steady stream of enemy shipping traffic known as the Tokyo Express. Kennedy Takes Command Corps operation begun on the 22nd and designed to interfere with THIS WAS THE HISTORY KENNEDY STEPPED INTO when he took the a large-scale shift of Japanese forces. helm of PT-59 . He came aboard in October 1943, just after the Expecting major US incursions in the Northern Solomon 59 had been converted from a torpedo boat to a gunboat. She Islands, the Japanese were rushing huge numbers of men from the had received a new radar unit and topside armor plating. The Central Solomons north to Bougainville and other islands. Part of torpedo tubes came off, and the decks were strengthened to Blissful involved a diversionary raid to Choiseul, a large island accommodate the weight of two Bofors 40mm cannon. Next that formed an eastern barrier to the Slot and bridged the waters came two twin-barrel .50-caliber machine guns on each side of between the New Georgia Group and Bougainville. Choiseul was the cockpit in the boat’s front and two single-barrel .50-cal a key component in this Japanese troop movement. There was a machine guns, one amidships and one to the rear. After the con - barge relay station on Choiseul Bay 75 miles from Lambu Lambu, version, PT-59 had enough firepower to do real damage. She and a seaplane base nearby. could now overpower any Japanese barge. The downside was the Two Royal Australian Navy coast watchers and several enormous weight imposed by the additional weapons and islanders kept a constant eye on Japanese movements at Choiseul.
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