Know Your PT Boat

Fortunately, I grew up before the weak silliness of McHale’s Navy and could damage the romance of WW II’s hooligan Navy as portrayed in the movies like, We Were Expendable and PT 109. When my time came, I served in the Destroyer Navy which held itself to be something of the hooligan Navy of its time. This also means I had my shared of USN training from some fairly casual , even silly films (Blondes Prefer Gentlemen was a notorious example) and the formal doctrine in BUSHIPS Manuals. As a result, I find myself confused about the purpose of Know You PT Boat.It seems to be intended to be a cross between a survey type introduction and a quick resource study guide. Frequently it reads like a list of lessons learned. What are the mistakes PT boat crews have made and what to do to avoid them. In 48 pages topics from how to fire specific weapons, to warnings about the use of the galley gear are covered. Clearly too many topics to be covered in detail.All of the jargon and illustrations are WW II era. Male oriented and decidedly not PC. All illustrations that include Japanese people are caricature, cartoonish stereotypes. Then again many of the sailors, officers and insects and some of the equipment are drawn in cartoonish stereotypes.The audience for this book is fairly small and pretty much know who they are. It is a nice completer book if your interest is all things PT Boats, WW II or navy. If you are part of a group doing period boat construction or restoration, it will not due as a designers or operators manual, but it may have some interest. If this sounds like you, Know Your PT Boat is a quick read and an insight of what the “look outs” were for operating and fighting these boats.

On the one hand this training guide was interesting because it gives insight into the training of the boat crews; it’s worth the price of admission on that point alone. But if you’re looking for more technical details on the day to day operation of PTs (as I was) you’ll be left wanting. Given that this is a reproduction of an actual WWII-era training document I can’t fault the publisher for the perceived shortcomings (in fact, I’m grateful that they have made this available at all). I recommend this book, but advise you to judge by the cover in this case.

This is a nice "window in time" look at what our sailors studied in WWII. It is a good quality reprint. It actually doesn't contain a lot of technical information but does provide a kind of 'quick look' into PT Boat life.

would never guess this was an official publication. Not very informative though as you need to have a PT boat to figure out what they're talking about.

For anyone with an interest in PT boats this is a must have for your library. It is informative and a historical document that gives the reader an understanding about what life and training was like in this part of the Navy.