All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S01E05.Torpedo.Boats.At.War.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[missile roars]

Narrator: For centuries,
an extraordinary war has raged

Across the world's oceans,
above and below the waves.

Man: You could kill hundreds
of people with one broadside.

These were extremely powerful
war machines.

Narrator: Shipbuilders designed
bigger and faster vessels

To outwit and crush
their opponents.

Man: That nation that has the
most powerful battleship fleet

Can destroy the enemy's
battleship fleet

And therefore control the seas,

And if you control the seas,
you control the world.

Narrator: They carried
terrifying weapons.

Man: This was gonna be
the first time

That somebody had fired
a torpedo in anger

Since world war ii.

They needed to get it right.

Narrator: But ships
have also liberated

And rescued thousands.

Man: You could think
of gerda iii

As basically a lifeboat for
persons hunted by the nazis.

Narrator:
And inspired men and women

To acts of incredible bravery.

Man: I will take you there now,
to your cannons,

To your death,
we will sink before surrender.

Narrator: These vessels
and their crews

Have shaped world history.

Man: As the commanding officer
of a missile-carrying submarine,

I was directly responsible

For helping to prevent
world war iii.

[missile roars]

Narrator: This time...

How a single weapon ignited
a revolution on the seas.

Man: The torpedo attack,
a successful attack,

That could turn a battle
in minutes.

Narrator:
This terrifying technology

Introduced the fastest
combat ships ever seen.

Man: If these things
can engage their target,

They can be murderously
destructive.

Narrator: The new form of combat
made new heroes.

Man: They thought, wow...
[whistles]

You guys are really something!

Narrator: And helped create
an american icon.

♪

[explosion]

♪

June 10, 1918.

It's the last few months
of the first world war.

The austro-hungarian battleship
szent istvan is in trouble

Off what's now croatia's
dalmatian coast.

Its sister ship alongside
is powerless to help

And can only capture
the remarkable scene on camera.

As the szent istvan
lists heavily to starboard,

Many of the thousand-strong crew
abandon ship.

Others turn the heavy guns
to port

In a vain attempt
to balance the vessel.

But the szent istvan is doomed.

♪

The mighty dreadnought capsizes
and then sinks,

With the loss of 89 lives.

Of all the many naval losses
of the first world war,

This was the only battleship
sinking to be caught on film.

But the reason for the loss
is just as remarkable.

The szent istvan was taken down

By the terrifying new
naval weapon of the era...

The torpedo.

A tiny italian boat had slipped

Between the escort ships
of the austro-hungarian navy

And approached the battleship.

It fired just two torpedoes,
before quickly escaping.

The torpedo
and the torpedo boat--

A double act that proved deadly
across two world wars.

[engine roaring]

♪

Surprisingly, the origins
of this new combat ship

Can be found
on the genteel banks

Of the river thames.

140 years ago, this spot in
the london suburb of chiswick

Was home to the flourishing
shipyard business

Of john thornycroft.

He'd been building vessels
since the age of 19

And specialized
in fast and elegant steamships--

Pleasure craft
for well-to-do londoners.

James wisdom:
When thornycroft was making

His pleasure launches,

These were things
for sort of six or eight people

To travel up the river, so it
was the enjoyment of speed.

Narrator: But news
of thornycroft's skills

Spread overseas.

In 1873, the norwegian navy
tasked him

With turning
his sleek pleasure craft

Into something very different.

Wisdom: At the front of it
there was a 30-foot pole

With an explosive canister
on the front,

And the intention was
to ram into a major ship

And blow it up
at the water line.

Narrator: The earliest torpedoes
were little more than explosives

Mounted on the ends
of long poles.

In 1864, such a device
had sunk a union warship

In the american civil war.

But soon after,
victorian inventors

Began developing
a far more sophisticated weapon.

Nick hewitt:
For decades, actually,

People have had this idea

That wouldn't it be great
and wouldn't it be useful

If you could make a weapon
travel unseen, underwater,

Over a long distance.

Um, fired from
a relatively small

And simple delivery system.

Narrator:
Italian giovanni luppis

Developed a basic design.

But when he was introduced

To english engineer
robert whitehead in 1864,

The torpedo as we know it
became a reality.

Hewitt: Luppis has invented

The world's first
self-propelled torpedo,

Which is an explosive charge
that can move underwater.

But his design is, is really
pretty much theoretical,

It's not a very practical
application.

Whitehead is an engineer,

And he takes this technology,
and he makes it practical.

He develops
an actual working weapon.

Narrator: All torpedoes consist
of three main components.

A warhead containing
an explosive charge...

A propulsion system,

Which in early torpedoes
was steam or compressed air...

And finally, devices
to keep the weapon stable

And going
in the right direction.

Even though the torpedo's
designer was british,

The royal navy was slow
to see its potential.

But plenty of other nations
didn't hold back.

They were anxious to get
their hands on a weapon

That was simply called
a white head.

Hewitt: It allows a smaller navy

From perhaps a smaller,
poorer country

To punch above its weight.

Because you can basically take

This several hundred pounds'
worth of weapon,

Put it on a small craft
that maybe cost a few thousand,

And if you get everything right,
you can destroy a battleship

That's cost hundreds of
thousands or millions of pounds.

Narrator: In 1875,
the royal navy

Did eventually contact
john thornycroft

At his chiswick boatyard.

Like the norwegians, they wanted
a small, fast, new vessel--

One that could launch the new
self-propelled torpedoes.

That vessel--
the hms lightning--

Became the first
true torpedo boat.

♪

Wisdom:
Thornycroft sold his boats

To pretty well all the navies
of europe.

And there were no restrictions
in those days.

So all the major navies bought
thornycroft's torpedo boats,

And they all needed them.

Hewitt: And these boats
start to be built

In greater and greater numbers.

At first they have a,
really a fleet of experiments,

Every single one is different
to the one that went before it.

Wisdom: So what thornycroft
was doing was testing,

Testing all the time.

The last boats
they were building here

Could go to 30 knots,
which is absolutely astonishing.

The newest modern parallel
is formula one cars.

Narrator: By the start
of the first world war,

The increase in torpedo boats
was so great

That navies were adapting
to the new threat.

Hewitt: The only real sure
defense against the torpedo

In the first world war

Is to sink the thing
that's firing it,

To sink the delivery system.

Narrator: But that wasn't easy.

Hms caroline is a light cruiser.

Launched in 1914,

She was well-armed
with torpedoes of her own.

One of her roles was to target
enemy torpedo boats.

Hewitt: Caroline would have to
turn broadside onto her target.

Torpedo tubes would then
be swung outboard,

And then they would be fired
on the orders actually

Of the, of the officer
on the spot

Who's in command
of that torpedo mount.

Narrator:
But cruisers like caroline

Were simply too large and slow

To keep pace
with smaller torpedo boats.

So the british--under
the expertise of thornycroft--

Invented a whole new class
of vessel.

The torpedo boat destroyer.

Wisdom:
It could carry torpedoes,

Also carry heavy guns.

It could travel at a speed

Faster than the existing
torpedo boats.

It carried a complement
of 40 men and officers.

These were substantial craft,
and they worked.

And the irony of course is

That thornycroft now had
a fantastic business.

They were building
torpedo boats,

And they were building
torpedo boat destroyers.

Narrator: Over the years,
this new class of warship

Became known simply
as a destroyer

And became a key part of navies
all around the globe.

The workers at thornycroft's

Couldn't have imagined
their revolutionary vessel

Would have such a future.

Hewitt: The purpose
of the destroyer

Remains pretty much unchanged

From the early
torpedo boat destroyers

Of the first world war,

Through to the years
after the second world war.

But they get bigger and faster
and better equipped

And better armed and
more capable at doing their job.

They can deliver
torpedo attacks,

They can fend off attacks
by enemy torpedo-carrying craft.

They can search for
and sink submarines.

They can provide defense
against aircraft.

They are formidable.

Narrator: But destroyers
weren't the only ships evolving.

So, too, were torpedo boats.

[gunfire]

In the late 1800s,

The invention of
the self-propelled torpedo

Caused a revolution
in ship design.

Navies needed new vessels
to fire them...

And new vessels
to defend against them.

At the start
of the first world war,

Germany ordered 48 new
ocean-going torpedo boats.

These, they believed,
could sink an enemy fleet.

The royal navy was armed
with torpedo boat destroyers,

But still feared
the german threat.

Hewitt:
Admiral sir john jellicoe,

Who's in charge of
the royal navy's grand fleet,

Even before the war breaks out,
he is on the record as saying,

"if I see the enemy about
to launch a torpedo attack,

Even if I see the enemy fleet
turn away from me,

I will assume that they're
planning a torpedo attack

And I will turn away from them."

Because a torpedo attack,
a successful attack,

By swarms of torpedo boats,

That could turn a battle
in minutes

If any of those torpedoes
strike home.

[explosion]

Narrator: Jellicoe's fears
came true on may 31, 1916.

The german and british fleets
clashed in the north sea

Off the coast of denmark--
the battle of jutland.

Hewitt: There is one particular
moment where the torpedo

Has a dramatic effect
on the course of the battle.

With the german fleet
in trouble,

Outnumbered and trying
to get home,

Admiral scheer sends
his torpedo boats forward.

At least 60-odd torpedo boats
all come at the british.

Admiral jellicoe,
he turns his fleet

Away from the german
torpedo boats,

Which launch off
their torpedoes,

And I think only one
hits its target.

But the key point is,

Scheer is able to get
his fleet away

Into the mist and the darkness

And ultimately gets
his fleet home.

And this provokes decades
of argument,

Um, within the royal navy

About whether jellicoe was right
to make this decision.

Narrator: During the years
between the wars,

Torpedo boats became
even more terrifying.

Steam-driven turbine engines
were replaced

With more powerful
gasoline engines.

Once again, it was the germans
who led the way.

A quiet boatyard
in cornwall, England,

Is an unlikely place
to find a nazi killing machine.

S-130 is a german
motor torpedo boat from 1943,

Better known as an s-boat.

Having fallen into british hands
at the end of the war,

She's currently undergoing
a full restoration.

♪

Since the first world war,

The size and power
of the german navy

Had been strictly controlled
by international regulations.

So the germans
went back to basics,

Building small
and simple vessels

That concealed
their true nature.

Harry bennett:
It's a wooden motor launch,

At least that's
the way it appears

In terms of international law--

But it's a wooden motor launch
that packs an enormous punch

With a torpedo that can sink
a battleship.

Narrator: "s-boat" is short
for "schnellboot."

Literally, "fast boat."

They were built to get close
to enemy targets,

Fire their torpedoes,
and make a quick getaway.

Bennett: This boat is almost
designed like a knife.

It's there to cut
through the water.

What's striking about this
is you've got technology here

In terms of a wooden boat that
the vikings would recognize.

The combination of very
old-fashioned wooden technology

Together with the latest
in terms of german engineering.

But in the midst of it you've
got this internal skeleton

Made out of aluminium,
which will reinforce the wood,

And at the heart of it

You've got these big three
marine diesels,

Mercedes-benz diesels--

Each one is the size
of a small compact family car--

Which will power this thing
through the water

At 44 to 45 knots.

Narrator: Despite weighing
100 tons fully loaded,

The s-boats were faster than any
of the allies' torpedo boats.

Bennett: And here's
one of the propellers,

A beautiful piece of work.

Three of these driving
through the water,

Each one very,
very finely tuned.

So those engines are driving
these three propellers,

Each one a beautiful
work of art,

And that's what's pushing
this thing through the water,

Literally at a rate of knots.

This is like the german
equivalent of the spitfire

In terms of the war at sea.

Narrator: The restoration
of the s-boat has revealed

The centuries-old craftsmanship
of the german shipbuilders.

Bennett:
Look at each one of these.

It's beautifully cut.

Narrator: But it's also revealed
the wartime pressures

The shipyards were under.

Bennett: You begin to see
the problems that they're having

Where you find
different size screws

Because they've run out
of the right size screw

For the particular job,

So they go to the screw
which is the next size up.

It tells you something
about the german war economy--

It says, "hey, we're running
short of materials here,

We're not getting the stuff
that we really want."

Narrator: So how successful

Were these sleek, sophisticated
killing machines?

One key german tactic was
to disrupt british supply lines.

Atlantic convoys could be
picked off by submarines.

But the convoys that hugged
the shallow waters

Of the british coastline

Were harder to attack.

Bennett:
Those convoys are carrying

Typically things like the coal,

Which is essential to keep
the lights burning in london.

You stop the coastal convoys;

You bring the british
war economy to its knees.

Narrator:
When France fell in 1940,

The s-boat became
the perfect boat for the job.

Operating from
french channel ports,

They could create havoc all
along the nearby english coast.

Bennett: That's where
these things are so deadly,

Because they can come
from their lairs at night,

They can sit there, they can
wait for the coastal convoys.

Narrator: The s-boats had
a tactic known as stichansatz--

Or random approach.

They would head towards
an enemy convoy in a line.

Ten miles off,
they would split into pairs,

Spaced two miles apart.

Then they would simply wait

For the convoy to sail past.

For more than two years,

The german s-boat
held the upper hand

In the english channel,

Picking off convoys
almost at will.

Bennett: To give you an idea
of the potency of the s-boats,

Late 1942,
off the eddystone light,

Which isn't actually far
from where we are today,

German s-boats sink, during
the course of a few minutes,

Three merchant ships,

An armed trawler, which is there
for their defense.

Over 30 seamen lose their lives.

If these things can engage
their target,

The coastal convoys, they can be
murderously destructive.

That's where
the torpedo tube would sit,

One each side of the boat,
and immediately behind it

A little way further
down the deck,

That's where
the reloads would sit.

So in other words, you could
fire off one torpedo,

Then you could
bring up the reload,

Ease it into the tube,
you'd be ready to go again.

Those torpedoes would still sink
any ship today,

Those cannon inflict damage
even on a ship today,

So this thing, even though
it's 70 years old,

Still has got a lot
of formidable potency about it.

Even though we see it here
in kind of a restoration state,

This thing oozes power,
oozes authority.

♪

Narrator: By mid 1943,
the germans were preparing

For what they believed
was inevitable--

An allied invasion of europe.

The s-boat would now prove
its adaptability.

The terror
of the british coastline

Would become
first line of defense

For the french coast.

Bennett: As the war has begun
to tip in the balance,

These things then become perhaps
your primary means

To delay or to stop
the allied invasion.

They want these things
to intercept the allies

And hopefully to do
sufficient damage

To give the german army
a chance at the waterfront.

Narrator: In April 1944,

The german s-boats did inflict
a blow to allied invasion plans.

Craig symonds: For a long time
it was kept secret

Because the fear was, boy, this
will not be good for morale.

Narrator: After 40 years,

It took one man's tenacity
to uncover the truth.

Dean small:
And I never forget once

A veteran saying to my dad,
ken small, I owe you everything.

And my dad said,
"no, I owe you everything."

Narrator: The beautiful
southwest coast of England

Is an unlikely area of conflict.

But four years
into the second world war,

The people of slapton were moved
from their homes

So that military exercises
could take place.

The truth of what happened
during those exercises

Remained a mystery for 40 years.

In the 1970s, ken small
was running a local guesthouse.

In his spare time,
he would go beachcombing.

He often found coins
and jewelry.

But at slapton, his finds
were more sinister.

Small:
He had this huge container,

Where he would literally put

Hundreds almost,
of pieces of shrapnel,

And they would just go
into the bucket,

Along with bullet heads,
bullet cases, et cetera.

But every now and then,

He might find an I.D. Bracelet
with a name on it.

And the names sometimes,
you know,

Were typically american.

When you find bullet cases,
bullet heads,

It's not so personal.

When you find rings,
tunic buttons, belt buckles,

I.D. Bracelets,
things like that, then it...

Then it becomes more real.

Narrator: Ken suspected that the
training exercises of the 1940s

Had gone terribly wrong.

But little did he realize
he was uncovering

One of the greatest secrets
of the second world war.

It was an allied disaster
at the hands of german s-boats.

Ken talked about his beach finds
to local fisherman tony steer.

He too had discovered something
he couldn't account for.

Small: Tony explained that
there was this object at sea,

In an area of the seabed
where there wasn't any rocks.

And my dad just said,
well, surely, you know,

Aren't you curious, don't you
want to know what it is?

Eventually, my dad persuaded him
to put on some diving equipment,

'cause tony was a diver,
and he dived down to look,

And that's when he came up
and said to my dad,

"you're not gonna believe this,
it's a sherman tank."

Narrator: In 1974, ken paid
the u.S. Government $50

For the rights to the tank.

Ten years later, with the press
and public watching,

The tank was raised from
the seabed and brought ashore.

As news of ken's
extraordinary discovery

Spread across the world,

Those involved in the mysterious
military exercises

Felt able to speak out
for the first time.

Small: The key turning point
was the tank.

Once it came up,

That's when many of
the veterans thought,

Well, hey, this is out now,
maybe I should speak of it.

Narrator:
After 40 years of secrecy,

It was revealed that the tank
had been involved

In a massive nine-day rehearsal
for the d-day landings,

Known as exercise tiger.

It involved over
30,000 american troops.

Slapton sands was chosen
because it resembled

The beach at normandy
the americans named utah beach.

Symonds: They filled up
the transports at portsmouth,

Sent 'em out to sea,

And the order was to go
far enough out into the channel

So that it would duplicate

The time it would take
to cross the channel,

So that as you are coming in,
just before dawn,

It will feel just like
a landing in normandy;

We want to make this
as realistic as possible.

Narrator: But exercise tiger
was about to become

More realistic
than anyone imagined.

German intelligence
had picked up

A series of radio signals
in the area.

Bennett:
You don't have to break codes

To realize the kind of noise
that a convoy makes at sea

As signals are being exchanged
with land stations,

So you might not know
what's actually being said,

You might not know
what's actually at sea,

But you know something's at sea

Because signals
are being exchanged.

The german radio service
intercepts those signals

And basically says to the 5th
and 9th s-boat flotillas

In cherbourg,
"there's something out there.

Go and find out what it is."

Narrator: In the early hours
of April 28th,

German s-boats arrived
off the coast of devon.

Among them,
the formidable s-130.

What the s-boats found
was an inviting target.

Eight tank landing ships

Were heading in a line
towards the beach,

Escorted by the royal navy.

The s-boats swiftly adopted

The stichansatz
random approach tactic

And moved in
for a torpedo attack.

For thousands
of american troops,

The d-day rehearsal
was about to become very real.

Bennett: And when german
torpedoes from the s-boats

Begin to hit
those tank landing ships,

It sets on fire some of the fuel

In the petrol tanks
of the vehicles

Which are there
on the vehicle decks,

And it's carnage.

[explosion]

Actor as steve sadlon:
Our signalman was on the stern

With the rest of them.

And he said to me "I'm not gonna
jump into that cold water."

And pointing to the fire
and explosions behind us,

I said, "well, make your choice:

You're either gonna
burn to death on the ship

Or you'll freeze to death
in the sea."

That was the last I saw of him.

Bennett:
Some soldiers and sailors die

In the initial explosion.

Some drown trapped in the hull.

Some are burned to death,

Some are killed
as they go over the side.

Sadlon:
We got past the burning water,

The dead, and the people
yelling for help, and...

We floated by this officer
who told me to save my breath,

Stop screaming for help
like the rest of them,

Because nobody
was gonna help us.

Bennett: What those men
went through that night

Was unimaginable hell.

Narrator: Finally, coming
under heavy fire themselves,

The s-boats turned and headed
back across the channel.

But with over 700 servicemen
left dead or dying,

The utah beach rehearsal proved
far more costly to the americans

Than the real
utah beach invasion

Some five and a half
weeks later.

Fortunately for the allies,

The germans never realized
the significance

Of the exercise
they'd stumbled upon.

D-day remained a secret,

And the survivors
of the s-boat torpedo attack

Were ordered to keep
the disaster to themselves.

Symonds: For a long time
it was kept secret

Because the fear was, boy,
this will not be good for morale

For the invading troops

Or for political support
from back home.

Narrator: An official secret
turned into a 40-year silence,

Until ken small's sherman tank
became a memorial

To those who lost their lives
at slapton sands.

Small: Pretty well
everyone involved,

Especially the families now,
they're forever saying to me,

Dean, we owe your dad
a debt of gratitude and...

And I never forget once
a veteran saying to my dad,

"ken small,
I owe you everything."

And my dad said,
"no, I owe you everything."

Narrator:
German s-boats were feared--

And with good reason.

But they weren't
entirely unmatched.

At the outbreak
of the second world war,

The german navy had
15 motor torpedo boats.

Although the royal navy had over
a dozen in the mediterranean,

Only three were in home waters.

One of them was
motor torpedo boat 102.

♪

Mtb 102 was the brainchild

Of the vospers shipbuilding
company.

Her sleek design and firepower
were unmatched.

And the royal navy's mtb fleet
expanded swiftly from 3 to 60.

Richard basey:
This was the first small boat

To carry two 21-inch torpedoes--

Previously they'd been
18-inch torpedoes.

They were fired
on the small craft

By an explosive charge,

Like a big gun, in effect.

They just fell out of the,
the end of the barrel

And flopped in the water
and off they went.

Inside them they had
a little diesel engine

And they ran at somewhere
around 40 knots,

And they had a range
of about 5,000 yards.

Narrator: But it wasn't just
the weapons system

That made this vessel unique.

The designer, peter du cane,

Was an aircraft pilot
as well as a shipbuilder.

By streamlining the boat's hull
like a plane's fuselage,

He increased its speed
by 10 knots.

Armed with torpedoes
and depth charges,

The motor torpedo boat fleet

Was designed to attack warships
and submarines.

But their true identity
was kept under wraps.

As far as the germans
were concerned,

They were simply cmbs--
coastal motor boats.

Of all the mtbs, 102 is
undoubtedly the most celebrated.

It served throughout the war

And has the unique claim
of being the smallest vessel

Ever to serve
as a royal navy flagship.

In spring 1940,

The mass evacuation of troops
from dunkirk

Was being overseen
from the destroyer hms keith.

But on June 1st, the keith
was bombed by the luftwaffe

And had to be abandoned.

Basey: Admiral wake-walker,
who was on board keith

And in command at sea,

Then transferred his staff
to the nearest naval vessel,

Which happened to be mtb 102.

Narrator: A flagship needs
an admiral's flag.

The torpedo boat didn't
have one, so they improvised.

Basey: The crew actually made
an admiral's flag

From an admiralty issue
dishcloth,

Which is an off-white
square dishcloth

With a red line woven
through the middle of it.

They then painted in
the other half of the red cross,

Which is, then gives you
the flag of admiralty,

And two balls on it to show

There was a rear admiral
on board.

And so for the last three days
of the dunkirk evacuation,

102 is tearing
in and out of dunkirk harbor

With an admiralty dishcloth
at the masthead.

♪

Narrator: Four years later,

102 escorted winston churchill
and general eisenhower

On an inspection tour
of the ships assembled for d-day

Off the english coast.

This celebrated
british motor torpedo boat

Is now the last
still operational.

Basey: She is an absolutely
fantastic vessel.

It's just amazing
that one small ship

Could have done so much
in its lifetime.

It's absolutely incredible.

I still personally
can't come to terms

With what this boat
has been through in its history.

Narrator: Mtb 102 deserves
its legendary reputation.

But it's not the most famous
torpedo boat.

That accolade goes
to another vessel.

Tony badger:
Pt 109's cut in half,

The wreckage is on fire,

They're sitting targets
for japanese aircraft.

Narrator:
The story of this one boat

Was enough to forge the career
of a 20th century icon.

On January 20, 1961,

A motor torpedo boat
became an unlikely star

At one of the world's
great spectacles--

The inauguration
of a u.S. President.

John f. Kennedy had just become

The most powerful man
on the planet.

But 18 years earlier, he'd made
his name in the pacific,

As a patrol torpedo boat
skipper.

Pt boats--as they were known--

Were popular
with the american public.

Man: But I'd like you to meet

The real sweetheart
of the navy, 1944 model.

Woman: You mean me?

Man: No, not you, red.
I mean her.

Louis scorzieloo:
And I got to tell you,

A lot people thought that was

A very glamorous thing to be in,
was the pt boats,

Especially sailors
that were on big ships.

They thought, wow, this is...
[whistles]

You guys are really something!

Narrator:
For a young jack kennedy,

His pt boat exploits
made him a war hero

And made the boats
legendary as well.

They were light, they were fast,
and they packed a lethal punch.

♪

In the pacific, pt boats proved
to be small and deadly.

The japanese called them
mosquitoes.

Donald shannon:
Out of 434 pt boats

In the pacific theater,

They sank 1,200 vessels

And 47 aircraft.

Early on they would carry four
torpedoes and torpedo tubes.

The torpedoes had a warhead

With a 600-pound
explosive charge in there--

Capable of sinking large ships.

Narrator: Pt boats
were loaded with weapons.

They had twin
.50-caliber machine guns

Originally designed
to be used in aircraft.

Shannon: They had
a very high rate of fire

And they were very effective.

On a pt boat, everything
was kept simple.

This gun turret was all
manually operated.

The gunner would push
his back against this

And use his feet actually
to rotate this gun

On roller bearings.

Because it was
such a small vessel

And everyone on the crew
had to cross train,

Know a little bit
about each other's jobs

In case someone was wounded
or injured in battle,

And sometimes they had
to trade off.

Scorzieloo:
I was the radar operator,

And I also manned
the 20-millimeter gun.

My job was standby as a cook,
too, when our cook got sick.

Narrator: The pt boat crews
were fearless.

When under attack
from japanese destroyers,

They used a tactic that was
ingenious but nearly suicidal.

Shannon: They would pull
right alongside the destroyer

Where the guns
couldn't depress enough

To shoot at the torpedo boat

And fire back
at the searchlights,

Cause confusion,
and then they could retreat.

[gunfire]

Narrator: But for all
their impressive firepower

And charisma,

Pt boats had
a number of weaknesses.

Their torpedoes sometimes
failed to leave the tube.

Shannon: With no resistance
or cooling from the sea water,

The turbines in the torpedo
would overheat and blow apart.

Narrator: Even if the torpedoes
did fire properly,

The explosive charge could
give away the boat's position.

Shannon: It could give off
a flash of light,

Which would give
their location off at night.

Also the grease in the tube

Could ignite and burn
for even five seconds

Was a huge signal
for the enemy ship

To home on the pt boat.

Narrator: Life on a pt boat

Was unlike any other
in the u.S. Navy.

Crews developed ways to cope
with the danger they faced.

Scorzieloo: Well, you used
to play a game with cards.

You'd deal the cards out,
turn them over,

Whoever got the lowest card
was gonna get killed that night.

That's how we played it.

Put it this way, I would have
preferred to be where I was

Than on a carrier
where you had 2,500 men,

And the only guy you knew
was the guy you slept next to.

We were a very close group,
very, very real,

Lot of fun with each other.

You know, we really took
good care of each other.

Narrator:
The novelty of the pt boats

Appealed to a young
john f. Kennedy.

At the age of 26, he was in
the pacific commanding pt 109.

It was part of a torpedo boat
squadron based on rendova--

One of the solomon islands.

By early 1943,

The americans were pushing
the japanese out of the region.

The pt's job was to prevent
japanese destroyers

From supplying their remaining
troops on the solomons.

Jfk was anxious
to prove himself

And distance himself
from his father, joseph kennedy,

The former u.S. Ambassador
to london.

Badger: Kennedy wanted to serve
in world war ii

Because his father
had a reputation

As a defeatist
and as an appeaser,

And kennedy wanted to prove
that he could live that down.

In his words, he didn't want
to wear coward's tweeds.

Narrator: Kennedy's moment came
at the end of July 1943,

When intelligence
informed his base

That a group
of japanese destroyers

Was approaching
the solomon islands.

15 pts were sent out
in one of the largest operations

Of the solomon islands campaign.

Badger: They find the destroyers

Rather earlier
than they expected

Because they were at least
an hour ahead of schedule,

Um, and at that point
all hell broke loose.

Narrator: The american boats
fire torpedoes at the japanese--

But they all miss.

On board pt 109,
kennedy and his lookout

Spot a destroyer coming at them.

It's aiming to split
their boat in two.

Shannon: He tried to turn
to a 30-degree angle

To launch a torpedo attack,

But before he had time
to even maneuver fully,

The destroyer was
right on top of them

And cut into the boat, went
right along downside the boat.

Marney, who was
in the gun turret,

Was killed on impact,

And the destroyer went
right down the side of the boat,

Midship, hit the fuel tank
and ignited the fuel,

And you can imagine the impact
of a destroyer over 2,000 tons

Hitting an 80-foot wooden boat.

[birds squawking]

Badger: Pt 109's cut in half,
the wreckage is on fire,

The men are scattered around

In this aviation-fueled
sea around them.

They're sitting targets
for japanese aircraft,

And so they have to
find some way

Of getting onto this wreckage,

And that wreckage will only last
a certain time

Before it goes under.

And the one thing, of course,
they are expecting

Is that there will be
a search for them

By the remaining pt boats,
and there never is.

And it's one of the things
kennedy was, in retrospect,

Extremely bitter about.

As late as 1960 he met someone
from one of the other boats

In a lift
at the democratic convention,

And when the man
introduced himself,

All kennedy could say to him
was "where were you?"

Narrator: No search party
was sent for the crew of pt 109.

They were all believed
to be dead.

In fact, for nine hours,

The 11 survivors clung
to what was left of the hull.

With no sign of a rescue,

They decided to swim
toward a distant island.

Kennedy grabbed the strap

Of an injured crew member's
lifejacket,

Clenched it in his teeth,

And for four hours
pulled the man

Through shark-infested waters
to safety.

For the next few days, the crew
swam from island to island,

Looking for coconuts
and drinking water.

When they found
a native islander,

Kennedy carved a message
on a coconut

For him to take
to the allied forces:

Seven days after being
shipwrecked,

They were finally rescued
by a pt boat.

Kennedy returned home a hero.

He won the navy
and marine corps medal

And the purple heart.

Badger: He was lucky
in the sense

That the pt 157
that came to rescue them

Had two embedded
war correspondents there,

And so they reported the story,

And once it got through
the naval censors,

It became headline news.

Narrator: Pt 109 has become part
of the jfk mythology.

It freed him
from his father's shadow

And set him on a path
to the white house.

A decision was made to
incorporate a surviving pt boat

For his inauguration
in January 1961.

Pt 109 was cheered
on the streets of washington.

Badger: Kennedy's service
on the pt 109

Is what enables him to have
a political career,

In appealing to the greatest
generation in america--

The people who served
in world war ii--

And they become a crucial part
of post-war politics,

And kennedy has this in
with them

Because of this genuine record
of heroism.

Narrator: The coconut carved
8,000 miles away

In the solomon islands

Had been returned to kennedy.

He placed it on his desk
in the oval office.

The second world war
was undoubtedly the high point

For the torpedo boat--

They were fast, feared...
And even glamorous.

But from 1945,
that daredevil age,

Acted out in small
wooden combat ships,

Drew to a close.

Torpedoes would be joined
by missile technology.

Weapons and their warships

Would now enter
the nuclear age.