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History Channel (U.S.) is airing a PT Boat episode now (7 a.m. PST)!


John Kettler

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Destraex,

Just finished watching it. Outstanding! While it does focus on the PT boat, it also devotes considerable attention to the underlying technology developments for both the boats and their armament, covers the sinking of the Szent Istvan, has fabulous interviews, numerous animations of various PT boat configurations and mods, E-boats, even F-Lighters, with footage I'd never seen before of them and British MTBs/MGBs, plus the most info I'd ever seen on the Japanese gun barges. Fair discussion of training (including MoH winner Bulkley talking to the trainees) and overview of use in Pacific and Med. Some glitches, to include armament configurations shown and not discussed (M6 37mm antitank gun on PT bow), not mentioned at all (rocket mods), some misID, such as 37mm cannon salvaged from wrecked P-39 Airacobra's being called a machine gun and almost no discussion of the revolutionary radar's arrival on the scene. Very good discussion of vulnerability issues and impact of continuous ops on equipment functionality, to include segment on loss of PT-109 and subsequent rescue. First rate discussion of limitations imposed by torpedo tubes and advantage obtained by switching to rack launch instead. Color footage showing flamethrower demise of Pacific Fleet PTs on Samar at war's end really choked me up.

Find a way to see this program!

Regards,

John Kettler

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Destraex,

The show is about the U.S. PT boats, with context provided by the other items I mentioned. I'd say that the Pacific gets a bit more than half, followed by a big chunk for the Med and some discussion of Slapton Sands and D-Day, but no discussion of the Baltic. Believe there were no U.S. vessels operating there.

Regards,

John Kettler

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Destraex,

We used to have a novel at the house describing a British commander's efforts to deal with a wily, deadly E-boat opponent, but I couldn't find it. I did find something else, though, and it's much better!

http://www.rnps.lowestoft.org.uk/rnpsbooks.htm

From the other side, we have the story of S-130, the last of her kind, together with a tactical discussion.

http://www.bmpt.org.uk/boats/S130/index3.htm

Fairmile-D 1/20th scale; detailed design vid

Fairmile-D wartime footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1AV1WZbbT0

Rescued Fairmile-D, guaranteed to make you both rejoice and weep!

MTB-102, more warlike but sans even dummy guns

MGB-81, fully restored and operational!

Brief bio of "Hitch," the first man to sink an E-Boat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6YKm7vlZWw&feature=related

Something fun, but the info references a book called Motor Gunboat 658. Based on the description, it sounds like something you'll want to track down

Regards,

John Kettler

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I can certainly vouch for Motor Gunboat 658. I found it in a Barnes and Noble in Des Moines and was quite pleased. It deals with a Farmile D Gunboat variant that the author commanded (for a time) in the Med and Adriatic and had some terrific combat tales.

Thanks for the other links John, I'll check them out.

Joe

p.s. The game is now available for Pre Order ... it may not yet be exactly what I was looking for but I've waited too long for this not to check it out personally.

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Joe Shaw,

You're welcome! I was rather surprised at how little MTB/MGB footage there is on YouTube. Am guessing it's a combination of smallish footage to begin with and little interest. Would think, though, there'd at least be old newsreels and training films to draw from.

As for the game, it'll be some time before I have a suitable rig (how I miss the days when Mac and PC came out together on the same CD!), so I'm doing what I can to help improve the finished product. Shall be most interested in your take on the game when the demo becomes available.

Regards,

John Kettler

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