IRON MEN WOODEN BOATS: The Epic Story of American PT Boats in World War II

1-200060

As the Japanese advanced in the spring of 1942, US Adm. Ernest King sought to counter enemy naval power with whatever ships he could gather -- including small, inexpensive, and expendable PT boats armed with torpedoes.

The heart of this book consists of naval combat narrative: Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Bougainville, the Mediterranean sea, the English Channel, and the Philippines - historic operations in which the PT boats would win fame, glory, and a place in history.

The author, who served on a PT boat from Rendova in the Solomons to Morotai Island, recreates hair-raising operations on ink-black nights, stalking the vaunted Tokyo Express off Guadalcanal, making high-speed torpedo attacks on massive ships, and exchanging gunfire with heavily armed Japanese motorized supply barges off the New Guinea coast. He uses his experience, official records, essays by Japanese naval officers, and various memoirs of individual officers on both sides to reveal both sides of the struggle.