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Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-363



Call sign:
Nan - Tare - Charlie - Queen

Destroyed 25 November 1944
80' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 30 November 1942 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Launched 5 May 1943
  • Completed 5 June 1943, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron EIGHTEEN (MTBRon 18) under the command of Lt. Comdr. Henry M. S. Swift, USNR
  • MTBRon 18, assigned to the Southwest Pacific, had action at Dreger Harbor, Aitape, Hollandia, Wakde, and Mios Woendi, in New Guinea; at Manus in the Admiralties; and at Morotai in the Halmaheras.
    It also based for a time at Kana Kopa, New Guinea, and in San Pedro Bay in the Philippines, but had no action from these bases. The squadron then was reassigned to Southwest Pacific and was augmented by PT's 362 - 367, 80-foot boats fabricated by Elco and assembled at the Harbor Boat Building Co., Terminal Island, Calif. When completed these boats were identical with the 80-foot
    Elco model
  • "Ace's Avenger". ex-"Tojo's Hot Foot" was destroyed by Japanese shore batteries 25 November 1944 in Kaoe Bay, Cape Gorango, Halmahera Island, Netherlands East Indies.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 80'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5'
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 40mm mount, four 21" Torpedoes and two twin .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Three 1,500shp Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines, three shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PT-363 32k Hyperwar, U.S. Navy in WWII
    PT-130 219k 25 December 1943
    Drawing showing PT-363s position
    Photo from PT Boats in World War II..., The Mosquito Fleet by Bern Keating (See Rescue at Wasile Bay below)    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 15 January 2020
    Boat Captain
    01ENS Frederick C. Feeser, USNRJanuary 1944
    02LT Laurence Burton Green, USN/USNR - USNA Class of 1942
    Awarded the Silver Star (1943), Navy and Marine Corps Medal (1947) and two Distinguished Flying Crosses (1953)    		March 1944
    03LTJG Hershel Fayne Boyd, USNR - Awarded the Navy Cross (1944)September 1944
    04LT Frank Kendall Mitchell, USNRSeptember 1944
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    There is no DANFS history available for PT-363
    RESCUE IN WASILE BAY

    The landings of the Morotai Task Force were supported not only by land-based planes from Cape Sansapor but by Navy planes from six escort carriers.

    Carrier-borne fighters made an early morning sweep over Halmahera on September 16, and one of them was shot down by antiaircraft fire over Wasile Bay, 60 miles south of Morotai. The pilot, Ens. Harold A. Thompson, USNR, of Fighter Squadron 26 was wounded, but parachuted into the water several hundred yards from the shore. Soon a Catalina rescue plane arrived on the scene and dropped a rubber raft to Thompson. Thompson drifted shorewards until his raft fetched up against the side of a small unmanned cargo ship 200 yards from the enemy-occupied beach. He tied the raft to the ship's anchor chain to keep from drifting ashore.

    As long as their fuel held out, his squadron mates circled the area, strafing Japanese gun positions and keeping Thompson in sight. When the squadron's fuel ran low, planes from other units arrived on the scene to continue harassing the Japanese. About noon a Navy Catalina tried to land to rescue him, but was driven off by heavy antiaircraft fire.

    In the meantime Thompson's plight was reported to Oyster Bay. Early in the afternoon Lt. Arthur Murray Preston, USNR, commander of Squadron 33, got underway for Wasile Bay in PT-489 (Lt. Wilfred Benjamin Tatro, Jr., USNR) accompanied by PT-363 (Lt. (jg.) Hershel Fayne Boyd, USNR). Every officer and man aboard the two PT's had volunteered for the dangerous daylight mission.

    Arriving at the 4-mile-wide entrance to the bay ahead of their air cover, the boats started to run in close to the western side to avoid minefields and shore batteries to the east. When the PT's were still 4 miles from the narrows, a heavy gun opened fire from the western shore. Preston turned eastward, leading his boats at high speed across a suspected minefield to try the other side. Not one, but three heavy guns opened fire from the eastern shore. The boats were forced to retire. They had hardly pulled out of range of the guns before fighter planes arrived to cover them. They turned and started in again.

    It took the PT's 20 minutes to pass through the straits and enter Wasile Bay. The planes strafed both sides of the entrance but the big guns kept blazing away from both sides, dropping their shells much closer to the PT's than they had on the first approach. Once inside the bay, which is nowhere more than 7 miles across, the boats were brought under heavy fire by many guns from both the northern and southern coasts. A fighter plane laid smoke along the shore and guided the PT's to Thompson's raft. Shore batteries, planes, and PT's were all firing furiously as PT-489 came close aboard the cargo ship. Lt. Donald F. Seaman, USNR, the Task Group Intelligence Officer, and Charles D. Day, MoMM1c, USNR, dived overboard from the 489, swam to the raft and towed it back to the 489. During the 5 minutes that the PT's had to lie to while Thompson was being brought aboard, the boats raked the beach with their 40mm. guns, starting several fires. As a parting gesture they gunned up the cargo ship and left it ablaze.

    Getting out of the bay was worse than getting in. The fighter planes were running low on fuel and had to streak back to their carriers. Now the shore batteries were free to fire in full volume. For 20 minutes the PT's zigzagged at high speed across the minefield, big shells dropping within 10 yards of them. At last they were out of range. They had been under almost constant shellfire in broad daylight for
    2½ hours.

    There were no casualties on either PT. The boat's themselves were unharmed save for superficial damage from shell fragments. Rear Adm. C. A. F. Sprague, commander of the carrier task force, said in a letter to Commander Bowling, "The consummation of this rescue in the face of the tremendous odds is characteristic of the highest traditions of our Navy. The PT Squadron may well be proud of this act which is considered one of the most daring and skillfully executed rescues of the war."

    For this action, Lieutenant Preston was awarded the Medal of Honor. Tatro, Boyd, Seaman, and Day were awarded the Navy Cross.

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