PT BOATS FOUGHT A PITCHED BATTLE WITH TANAKA’S . . . (2, January 1943)

 PT Boats fought a pitched battle with Tanaka’s Tokyo express on the night of December 11, and again on the night of January 2.  We have the word of Captain Yasumi Toyama, Tanaka’s Chief of Staff, that enemy destroyer men evinced no special fondness for their nightly sortie down The Slot.  “We are more a freighter convoy than a fighting squadron these days,” Toyama recorded.  “The damn Yankees have dubbed us the Tokyo Express.  We transport cargo to that cursed island . . . What a stupid thing!  . . . Our decks are stacked high with supplies and our ammunition supply must be cut in half.  Our cargo is loaded in drums which are roped together.  We approach the island, throw them overboard and run away.  The idea is that the strings of barrels will float until our troops on the island can tow them ashore.  It is a strenuous and unsatisfying routine.”

    But the Japanese destroyers fought well, even with deckloads of cargo, and January 2 is a fine case in point.  It was a donnybrook, with ten destroyers taking on eighteen PT’s off Cape Esperance.  One of the motor torpedo boat skippers was Lieutenant (jg) John Clagett, who brings us PT warfare at its grimmest.

Clagett, John Henry

From: The United States Navy in World War II
Compiled and edited by: S. E. Smith