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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive
Courtesy of Tommy Trampp

HM MGB-181
ex-PT-201



Call sign:
Nan - Charlie - Able - Jig


PT-201 served the Navies of the United States, Great Britain and Yugoslavia

78' Higgins Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 30 June 1942 by Higgins Industries, New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 3 October 1942
  • Completed 20 January 1943, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FIFTEEN (MTBRon 15) under the command of Comdr. Stanley M. Barnes, USN
  • MTBRon 15 was the first PT squadron sent to the Mediterranean Theater, where it operated as a unit of the British Coastal Forces. It had action throughout the western Mediterranean, basing at Bizerte
    and Bone, Africa; Palermo, Sicily; Salerno, Capri, and Leghorn, Italy; Maddalena, Sardinia; Bastia and Calvi, Corsica, and St. Tropez, France
  • Damaged by friendly fire from minesweeper Sway (AM 120) - with Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, Commanding General, Fifth Army, on board 28 January 1944 off Anzio, Italy
  • The "Ace of Spades", ex-"Ace", ex-"Deuce 0 Ace" was transferred to Great Britain 17 October 1944 and named HM MGB-181
  • Transferred by the British to Yugoslavia in August 1945 and renamed MT-1
  • Scrapped in 1966.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 78'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5' 3"
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, four 21" torpedoes, two twin .50 cal. machine guns and one 20mm mount
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-201 160k Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    PT-201 112k c. 1944
    PT-201 moored between two unidentified boats with PT-312 moored out board at the PT Boat Base at Bastia, Corsica in the Mediterranean
    Photo from Life Magazine Archives - Carl Mydans Photographer, Shared by Peter DeForest    		 Mike Green
    PT-201 217k c. 1944
    PT-201 (with her ‘Ace of Spades’ insignia), with PT-204 moored outboard at the PT Boat Base at Bastia, Corsica in the Mediterranean
    Photo from Life Magazine Archives - Carl Mydans Photographer, Shared by Peter DeForest
    Boat Captain
    01LTJG George E. Patterson, Jr., USNR - Awarded the Navy Commendation Ribbon1943
    Courtesy Joe Radigan and Wolfgang Hechler
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-201
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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