I’m on the road this week and don’t have time to do a proper Warship Wednesday but I would be remiss if I missed the 80th anniversary of the loss of an Elco-built 80-foot motor torpedo boat, lost when she was split in two by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri (LCDR Kohei Hanami)— whose name means “mists in the heavens”– in the predawn darkness of 2 August 1943 east of Gizo Island in the Blackett Strait, on the southern side of Kolombangara Island.
The loss of PT-109, 2 Aug 1943, to the Japanese destroyer Amagiri, as portrayed by Gerard Richardson, courtesy of the JFK Library
The skipper of the lost PT boat was one Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USNR, later president
USS PT-109, 1943. Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USNR, (standing, far right with the survival knife) with other crewmen onboard USS PT-109 at a South Pacific Naval Base, 1943 U.S. Information Agency Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Accession #: 306-ST-649-9
PT-109 was lost. Two sailors, TM2 Andrew Kirksey, and MoMM2 Harold Marney, were never seen and presumed killed in the collision with Amagiri. The Japanese tin can was later sunk by a mine in the Makassar Strait in April 1944.
Meanwhile, the young Kennedy, after an epic survival story that involved natives, coconuts, and coastwatchers, along with the rest of his crew, were all eventually rescued and returned to service.