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Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-65



Call sign:
Nan - Baker - Zebra - Zebra

ex-BPT-17
ex-PTC-33

77' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Planned as PTC-33
  • Reclassified PT-65 in June 1941
  • Laid down 16 August 1941 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Reclassified BPT-17
  • Launched 31 October 1941
  • Transfer to Great Britain was canceled and reclassified PT-65 in December 1941
  • Completed 24 January 1942, placed in service with Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FOUR (MTBRon 4) under the command of Lt. Rollin E. Westholm, USN
  • MTBRon 4 was the training squadron, based at the MTB Squadrons Training Center, Melville, R.I. It was the largest squadron, having a peak of 28 boats in service at one time
  • Transferred 15 April 1943 to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FIVE (MTBRon 5) under the command of Comdr. Henry Farrow, USN
  • MTBRon 5 was assigned to Panama Sea Frontier from September 1942 until the spring of 1943, when it was shipped to the Solomons. There its boats were in action at Rendova, Vella Lavella, Treasury,
    Bougainville, Green, and Emirau. After assignment to the Southwest Pacific area at the end of 1944, the squadron was decommissioned and its boats were distributed to replenish other squadrons which had suffered operational losses
  • "Hogan's Goat" was struck from the Naval Register 20 January 1945 because of obsolescence
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 40 t.
  • Length 77'
  • Beam 19' 11"
  • Draft 4' 6"
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 15
  • Armament: One 20mm mount, two twin .50 cal. Browning M2 machine guns in Dewandre turrets, two 21" torpedoes and eight depth charges
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard V12 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-65 189k Japanese submarine I-1 (Japanese SS, 1924) is examined by Army Intelligence personnel as PT-65 stands by, February 11, 1943. The submarine had been sunk in Kamimbo Bay, Guadalcanal, by New Zealand corvettes HMNZS Kiwi [T 102] and HMNZS Moa [T 233] on January 29, 1943, while on a supply mission. Her hulk yielded documents of great intelligence value
    National Archives photo SC 243966 [U.S. Army Signal Corps photo]    		 Mike Green
    PT-65 169k c. March 1943
    Deck plan and side profile
    From "Allied Coastal Forces of World War II: Vol. II" by John Lambert and Al Ross    		 Robert Hurst
    PT-65 66k c. 1944
    Off Emirau Island, Papua, New Guinea    		 PT Boats Public Group
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-65
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