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NavSource Online:
Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive

PT-170



Call sign:
Nan - Yoke - Item - Queen

80' Elco Motor Torpedo Boat:

  • Laid down 26 September 1942 by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, NJ
  • Launched 14 December 1942
  • Completed 28 December 1942, placed in service and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TEN (MTBRon 10) under the command of Lt. Comdr. Thomas G. Warfield
  • MTBRon 10, assigned to the South Pacific, had action at Rendova, Vella Lavella, Treasury, Bougainville, and Green. Transferred to the Southwest Pacific in April 1944, the squadron had action at Saidor
    New Guinea; Morotai, in the Halmaheras; and at Balikpapan, Borneo. The squadron also based for a time at Mios Woendi, Dutch New Guinea, and at Samar, P.I., but had no action from these bases
  • The "Zebra" was placed out of service, stripped and destroyed by U.S. Forces 11 November 1945 at Samar, Philippines.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 56 t.
  • Length 80'
  • Beam 20' 8"
  • Draft 5'
  • Speed 41 kts.
  • Complement 17
  • Armament: One 80mm mortar, one 37mm mount, one 20mm 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-170 194k Painted in the experimental zebra stripe camouflage scheme tried out on 80-ft Elco PT Boats in the Pacific and Mediterranean. This was intended to make it difficult for enemy gunners to determine speed and course of the boat
    U.S. Navy photo from "The War of The Gun Boats" by Bryan Cooper at WWII PT Boats Museum and Archives, Germantown, Tennessee
    Robert Hurst
    PT-170 241k Adaptor pattern applied to PT-170. The light blue-grey replaces the white in the third panel from the stern and second panel from the bow
    Photo courtesy Elco from "Allied Coastal Forces of World War II: Vol. 2" by John Lambert and Al Ross
    PT-170 110k 11 November 1945
    Samar, Philippines
    Jerry Gilmartin, MMC(SW), USN, Ret.

    Boat Captain
    01LT E. L. Harrison, USNJuly 1945
    Courtesy Joe Radigan

    There is no DANFS history available for PT-170
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back to the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Index Back to the Motor Torpedo Boat (PT) Photo Index

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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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