Customer Reviews

At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy

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This book is a thorough history of American PT boat operations in World War Two. It covers all battle actions of the boats and what they accomplished in all theaters that the boats operated in -- the South Pacific, the Aleutians, and in Europe and the Mediterranean, an area of the PT boat war that, for some reaon, has had much less coverage than what these boats did in the Pacific. It also details the origins and developements of the boats, and the vastly complicated logistical problems covering huge distances that often bedeviled the boats and their crews. The book features many photographs of the boats and their crews and how they lived, as well as a complete list of every man killed or wounded on a PT boat during the war, as well as the numerous medals awarded to pt boat crews. It is a great record of these versatile boats and their courageous sailors.

Yet, it is a dry history. There is little or nothing about the men that sailed these boats into harm's way. Where did they come from? Why did they choose the dangers of a PT boat? What led them to go up against destroyers in plywood/mahongeny boats? A little bit of that and it would have been a fantastic account of the pt boats. Still, for anyone that loves naval history this is an incredible book.

Virtually a comprehensive work of all significant actions involving PT's. Does not describe the boat configurations at all though. This would have been a good supplement. Overall very interesting.

I bought this for my Dad who was on PT-224. This book is awesome as it mentions PT boats and squadrons by specific number. I even matched up stories my Dad would tell us with excerpts in the book!

My father was a PT sailor during World War II in the Solomon Islands, then stateside for the last 2 years of the war. He gave me this book when it first published in the 1960's. It is the cornerstone of my library of PT boat books.

It is not the easiest book to read, but it is simply loaded with information about all PT's during the war. This book and PT 105 will give you an excellent overview of both history, and what it was like to be there.

I got this for my husband. He said that it is hard to find a book on PT boats that is any good but he thinks this book is great.

The definitive history of PT boats in World War II, reprinted in paperback by the Navy.

As the son of a WWII veteran who served on PT boats in the Mediterranean, I am learning the history of the service, and this is the earliest of several excellent books which describe the history and times of the PTs.