We're looking at the real PT-73 and the other boats from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Thirteen. Far from being merely fictional, PT-73 was a real boat and it's history is a long slog that covers three years, and vastly different theaters and types of action.
In this episode we follow the boat and crew from training in Panama, all the way to the Western-most end of Aleutian island chain in Alaska. There they patrol for Japanese subs and support the Allied invasions of Attu and Kiska islands. One of those is a great success, and one is one of the most farcical friendly fire incidents of the war in the Pacific.

Errata:
Dutch Harbor is on Amaknak Island, not Kodiak. Adak Island is pronounced Eh-dak. No need to flog it any further, that horse is dead already. I'm also aware the bad blood between IJA and IJN goes way back, before the war. I was wondering out loud if that was the first physical manifestation of that animosity, but now I realize it wasn't.

Please note that these small unit actions are not usually very well-documented and even less often filmed. There’s a very limited amount of archive footage out there on PT boats, especially since they operated mostly at night, and especially before the tide of the war turned in America’s favor. This video mostly features Army and Navy footage from the Aleutian island invasions, and there's a final chapter showing how the islands look now vs then.

Chapters:

0:00 Start
5:13 A Star is Born
10:18 Assault on Attu Island
14:20 Operation Cottage
20:41 Then and Now

References:
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/13604...
http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/...
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-inva...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleutia...
https://canadianheroes.org/private-he...

Credit where credit's due:
Adak Image credit: By Paxson Woelber - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

Puget Sound image credit: By Jelson25 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...


#ptboat #pt73 #mchalesnavy