Elco PTs in Action: The Story of the U.S. Navy's Motor Torpedo Boats

This book was originally published by the Elco Boat Company during WW2 and was produced to highlight the important contribution Elco was making to the building of the US Navy's nimble and hard-hitting PT Boat fleet.The value of the PT boat was recognised early by the US Navy and at the outbreak of WW2, PT boats were already in service with the US Navy. A number of companies produced PT boats for the navy, Huckins, Higgins and Elco; each boat was of differing dimensions, design and specifications. After the boats arrived 'in theatre', their crews often set about adding to these boats as well.The PT boats were to continue to make a name for the type as the war progressed, early notable achievements included the evacuation of General Douglas MacArthur from the Phillipines and various actions during the Solomon's Campaign. It was here that future US President John Kennedy was to become famous as the skipper of the PT-109. The PT boat was used in various roles during the war in all theatres, including the Aleutians.This book is sort of a 'sales brochure' on the Elco boat, although it covers quite well the overall story of the PT boat in general from its design inception and development to the training of crews and the construction of boats. Also featured are the early boats that were derived from pre-War pleasure boats, the book contains some photographs of these pre-war designs. The book showcases the Elco design and looks at its construction, development and deployments as well as armaments and capabilities.I liked this book as it is a good reference work for the Elco type boat and will assist the researcher in following the development of the Elco design as well as providing a historical reference to the boats. The book also looks at weapon development for the boats, training of the crews and the conditions under which PT crews were expected to live and operate. As these boats were largely constructed of wood, it is also worthy to mention the courage of the men who crewed them. The boats were well armed and could be deployed on almost any role, from rescue of downed aircrew to liaison with the coast watchers, men who lived on the islands under the noses of the Japanese and reported on movements of troops and ships. Finally the PT boat was mainly used in an attacking role, many boats could be used or single boats. Their speed and agility were their main defences against aircraft and smaller enemy ships.The work of the PT boats has been portrayed in the movies 'PT-109' and 'They Were Expendable', and also in a humourous way in the 1960's SitCom 'McHale's Navy', which later produced a couple of movies.In summary a well written and laid out book that covers the development of the Elco PT boat design, the book will make a good addition to the reference library of students and researchers of PT Boats and also model kit builders who will find the many photos of use in determining where various items of weaponary and equipment was stowed on these boats. The book was originally printed during WW2 and later reprints of it have had additional information added to the work, of which is included in this edition. It is however, only an introductionary type publication and does not contained a great deal of in-depth information that is covered in other works on PT Boats, e.g. scale drawings, coloured plates and so forth. Well done, Elco Boat Company!

In 1945 the company that produced PT boats for the USN, ELCO put together a booklet for advertising and general information questions from the public on that product. The Electric Boat Company ( thus ELCO) distributed this booklet to its workforce people to see what a great job their efforts had done. The booklet was created before wars end, as no comments are included as to the event nor the fate of the then surplus fleets of "Mosquito Boats" (burned on a beach in the Philippines in 1946 after stripping them clean). It's mostly a series of one and two page articles so much like the contemporary magazine ads for war production subjects. This all makes up into a fifty page booklet . Very interesting, and well worth obtaining if the history of the Navy, PTs, and WWII are your thing. The only complaint you might share with me is that the reproduction is all black and white, whilst the original did contain color illustrations. And the pages are very obviously reproduced as though from a copy machine, slightly smaller than the full size page.

Elco built the majority of the PT Boats in WW2. The book traces the history and evolution of the Elco PT boats culminating in the 80 foot long PT boat with a lot of varied armaments carried. The mystique surrounding the PT boats began with Lt. Bulkeley during the early 1942 battles in the Phillipines and the climb up the Solomon Islands battles, the New Guinea battles and the 39 boats involved in the battles for Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Well illustrated, the book is a joy to pick up and leaf through. The writing is bare-bones, but well done. It is a welcome addition to my library.

It's a compendium of WW2-era articles, so it suffers from the lack of details we now know about the PT force. Still, it is pretty good.

If you enjoy a love for WW II PT Boats, this reprint of a wartime publication is truly terrific and an excellent read...highly recommended to theenthusiast. This booklet must be a part of any PT Boat library plus its very enlightening list of decorated PT personnel on the back cover.

Good source of background information on the Elco PTs. Unfortunately the print is so small you may need a magnifying glass to read.

OK if you like war stories. Not much on the boats themselves.

Great book very descriptive of the mission they performed and of the little mosquito boats. I would recommend this to anyone interested in WWII

Poor quality print and pictures in this Amazon publication, rather over priced for weak cobbled together booklet.

Interessante manuale per gli appassionati. Da non perdere! È la ristampa di un manuale originale dell'epoca... Ricco di notizie e con un notevole contributo iconografico