PT Boats, the Devil Boats

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As American and Australian troops battled it out with the Japanese for control of the northern New Guinea coast, the PT's were right alongside with them, going out on nightly patrols in an effort to snuff out the barge traffic that kept the Japanese Army fed, clothed, and armed. PT boats were a variety of torpedo-armed fast attack craft used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. "PT" is the US hull classification symbol for "Patrol Torpedo". The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". The Japanese called them "devil boats". Picture © Gene Kirkland via : pt-king.gdinc.com