Customer Reviews

Long Were the Nights: The Saga of PT Squadron "X" in the Solomons

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My main reason for buying this book was because my father was in the PT Squadron that Mr. Cave wrote about - his name is listed in the back of the book. He was a Radioman chief and his name is in the book several times. He is 92 years old and can tell me the differences between fiction and truth in the book. It is so wonderful that he still has all his faculties and can remember these things about his exciting and dangerous career on PT boats during WWII. It is nice that someone wrote about how dangerous it was to serve on these small boats and what a contribution they were to the war effort.

My grandfather was a member of Squadron X (Gavin J Hamilton, chief radioman). This is a personal account told by three members of the squadron -- two captains and the executive commander -- and it is the most compelling tale I've ever read on the subject. What 80 men managed to do with 8 plywood boats is almost impossible to believe. Patrol torpedo boats were only 70 feet long, armed with two fifty-caliber machine guns, a 20mm machine gun and four torpedoes, and powered by three Packard airplane engines. Almost nightly, they went up against Japanese destroyers, cruisers and transport ships. For months, they helped protect the Marines entrenched at Guadalcanal and racked up an amazing number of kills, helping to turn the tide and defeat the Japanese in the Solomons. The "mosquito boats" were never glamorized by the Navy, but they should have been. Their contribution to the war is awe-inspiring.

A very detailed account of the U.S. Navy's PT boats of World War 2, providing a concise look at action in the South Pacific. Service on one of these motor torpedo boats was filled with danger as the sailors took on the Imperial Japanese Navy in some of the major sea battles during the early part of the war. The account also helped to document some of the stories that I had heard earlier from my uncle, Elvie O'Daniel Jr., who served aboard one of these PT boats and was mentioned in the book. He was called "Danny" by his crewmates and he was a torpedo man. Recommended reading for any one interested in naval warfare during WW2.