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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

HM MGB-180
ex-PT-216



Call sign:
Nan - Charlie - Nan - Tare


PT-216 served the Navies of the United States, Great Britain and Turkey

78' Higgins Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 2 September 1942 by Higgins Industries, New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 30 December 1942
  • Completed 26 February 1943, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron SIXTEEN under the command of Lt. Comdr. Russell H. Smith, USN
  • Transferred 13 March 1943 to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FIFTEEN (MTBRon 15) under the command of CDR 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
  • On 21 October 1943, PT-212, PT-206 and PT-216 torpedoed and sank the German auxiliary minelayer Juminda (742 GRT, former Italian Elbano Gasperi) 2 miles west of San Stefano, Monte
    Argentario, Italy
  • The "Shangri La" was transferred to Great Britain 17 October 1944 and reclassified HM MGB-180
  • Transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in March 1947, sold to Turkey and named Bora (HB-8)
  • Fate unknown.

    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, one 37mm mount 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-216
    PT-216 32k 2 February 1944
    Shown taking Lieutenant General Mark Clark to the advance command post at the Anzio Beachhead
    U.S. Army photograph SC 212640 now in the collections of the National Archives from National Museum of the U.S. Navy    		 Joe Radigan
    PT-214 134k PT-216 (Shangri La) moored outboard of the PT-214 (Zombie) 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
    Bora (HB 8)
    PT-216 88k Captain Iskender Sidar, TUN, Ret.
    Boat Captain
    01LTJG Cecil C. Sanders, USNR - Awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and the Navy Commendation RibbonJune 1943
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-216
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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