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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-243



Call sign:
Nan - Dog - How - Peter
78' Higgins Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 12 October 1942 by Higgins Industries, New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 22 November 1942
  • Completed 14 May 1943, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron NINTEEN (MTBRon 19) under the command of Lt. Comdr. Russell H. Smith, USN
  • MTBRon 19, assigned to South Pacific, had action at Vella Lavella, Treasury, and Green. The squadron was decommissioned 15 May 1944 and its boats were distributed to replenish other squadrons which had suffered
    operational losses
  • Transferred 19 April 1944 to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TWENTY THREE (MTBRon 23) under the command of Lt. Comdr. Ronald K. Irving, USN
  • MTBRon 23, assigned to the South Pacific, had action at Bougainville and Green. Transferred to the Southwest Pacific in December 1944, the squadron had action at Palawan, in the Philippines. It also based for a time at Mios
    Woendi, New Guinea, and at Mindoro, P.I., but had no action from these bases
  • "Tonde Leyo", ex-"Ramblin' Reck", ex-"Pistol Packin' Mama" was placed out of service 26 November 1945, stripped and destroyed at Samar, Philippines
  • Struck from the Naval Register 28 November 1945.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 78'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5' 3"
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, two 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-243 85k . .
    PT-243 264k 28 January 1944
    Rendova, Solomon Islands
    PT-243 and unidentified 80' Elco in dry dock    		 Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    PT-243 215k Close up of PT-243 from above photo
    PT-243 332k 28 January 1944, Rendova, Solomon Islands
    PT-243 on right with unidentified 80' Elco in dry dock
    PT-243 366k
    PT-243 88k PT-243 and other MTBRon 23 boats alongside tender
    PT-243 115k Romblon Island, Philippines
    PT-243 68k Lou Rosso on the radio inside charthouse
    PT-243 82k c. 1945
    Philippines    		 .
    PT-243 & 244 118k c. 1945
    Palawan, Philippines
    Inboard of PT-244    		 Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-243
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