However, it was in the Pacific that the Higgins and ELCO PT boats made their legacies - particularly in the engagements making up the Solomon and Philippine islands campaigns. PT boats proved successful at containing leftover enemy army elements cut-off from their primary force. Additionally, night attacks proved the PT boat a ferocious adversary to the point that the Japanese considered them torpedo-spewing monsters that could very well threaten even their capital-class vessels. Due to their shallow draughts, PT boats could also engage the shallow draught Japanese barges in large-scale use or support Allied amphibious landings or beach evacuations. PT boats proved excellent in a bevy of other mission types including reconnaissance, surveillance, raiding, harassment, mine-laying, counter-mine operations and laying smoke screens.
Later in the war, the variable nature of PT boat armament standardized firepower to consist of a bow-mounted 20mm Oerlikon cannon with a 40mm Bofors naval gun at the stern. Defense was provided for by up to 5 x 0.50 caliber Browning air-cooled heavy machine guns. Some vessels gave up their torpedo armament in favor of more surface cannons, rocket projectors, deck mortars and the like to become dedicated "gun boats". Amazingly, the firepower of late-war PT boats was comparable to that of the larger and heavier steel-hulled USN destroyers.
Like the ELCO boats, the Higgins boats were exceptionally crafted machines built around a "double-mahogany" planking arrangement hull held in place with glue and canvas as well as rivet and screws. This made for a rather lightweight yet robust watercraft that could field both heavy firepower and maintain excellent speeds in open water. Additionally, the hulls of the American PT boats were designed in such a way as to promote a rather shallow draught, beginning at the bow as a traditional water-cutting "Vee" shape and ending as a flat bottom near the stern. The use of wood along long stretches of hull surface also ensured the vessel type was resilient when taking damage in combat or across rough seas - and also making in-the-field repairs relatively easy.
The greatest threat to Higgins boats - and all other PT boats for that matter - lay in the enemy's skillful use of seaplanes and destroyers. Seaplanes held excellent vantage points and could attack with precision utilizing depth charges and conventional drop bombs with the Higgins boat left to defend itself through its machine gun armament at dangerously close ranges. Destroyers could pursue torpedo boats to an extent and open up with a devastating volley of cannon fire or even engage with torpedoes all their own. In either case, the training of the Higgins boat crew and the capabilities of their PT boats could mean the difference between life and death in a matter of minutes (as recounted in the dire JF Kennedy situation with this PT-109 ELCO boat).
As mentioned, 199 total Higgins 78-foot boats were eventually built and these included designations PT-71 to PT-94, PT-197 to PT-254, PT-265 to PT-313, PT-450 to PT-485, PT-564 and PT-625 to PT-660. PT-564 was strictly an experimental development while PT-657 through PT-660 were all cancelled for the war had ended in September of 1945. 146 were utilized by the United States Navy alone while a total of 46 made their way to the Soviet Union. Seven were handed over to the British Royal Navy.
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