Patrol Torpedo Boat PT-109 COBI 4825 - World War II

Higher resolution images can be found in the Files and Links section.

You know that:

• The ship was first launched on June 20, 1942 ?
• The hull was built of 2.5 cm thick mahogany wood, which, although light and suitable for ships with the required high speed, was unsuitable for protection in combat operations ?
• The ship had massive exhaust silencers that directed the exhaust fumes below the water surface to make the voyage as quiet as possible and to be able to hear the noise of enemy vessels when idling ?
• The PT-109 was equipped with unreliable Mark 8 torpedoes which failed to detonate 90% of the time at the push of a button as intended and so there were several occasions when the torpedo exploded while still in the ejection chamber and metal shrapnel showered the crew ?
• To safely launch the torpedo, one of the crew had to hit the torpedo's firing pin with a hammer to get the propulsion motor to turn and the torpedo to leave the dump ?
• A dangerous situation also occurred during the voyage of Lieutenant J. F. Kennedy (future President of the USA), in bad weather the torpedo got stuck in the ejector and half of the missile stuck out, but fortunately Ensign L. Thom managed to deactivate the torpedo at the last moment ?
• The U.S. Army initially turned J. F. Kennedy down because of chronic back pain, but eventually his influential father convinced his old friend A. Kirk to declare Kennedy fit for duty ?
• On August 2, 1943, on a dark night near Kolombangara Island, a collision occurred when the enemy Japanese battleship Amagiri ran at a 20-degree angle into a PT-109 patrol boat with idling engines ?
• The crew had only 10 seconds to increase engine speed and take evasive action, but all the crew could do was fire the forward gun briefly ?
• On impact, the boat was split in two by a deafening explosion of fuel ?
• The whole scene was watched by another American ship, PT-169, which fired two torpedoes at Amagiri, but both failed ?
• The front hulk of PT-109 was still afloat ?
• The future president rescued some of the burned crew members by pulling them onto the floating wreck ?
• Surviving crew members swam to a nearby island without fresh water to avoid passing Japanese torpedo boats ?
• On the night of August 2, the Kennydy swam upstream into Ferguson Strait, hoping to be spotted by an American patrol search boat ?
• Eventually the crew had to swim to Olasana Island, 3.7 miles away, where Kennedy dragged his burned friend McMahon behind his life jacket?
• On the island they discovered ripe coconuts, which saved the crew from dying of thirst ?
• Rescue came two days later when J.F. Kennedy and George Ross swam to Naru Island where they found a small boat with 50 gallons of fresh water and biscuits left behind by the retreating Japanese ?
• In 1963, a feature film based on the actual events was made, simply titled PT 109 ?

Technical parameters:

• dimensions length 24 m, width 6.3 m, draught 1.07 m
• displacement 57 t
• propulsion unit 3x Packard W-14 M2500 12-cylinder petrol engine with a total power of 4 500 hp 
• maximum speed 76 km/h
• sailing time 12 hours (6 hours at maximum speed)
• crew 12-14 persons
• armament 4x Mark 8 torpedo + 1x 20 mm anti-aircraft gun + 2x twin 12.7 mm Browning machine guns and a 37 mm front gun

Below you'll find assembly instructions that give an idea of the difficulty (kids usually have no problem:-), or in case the original instructions included in each package get lost. It will also help if you are in doubt about what all the pack contains. This service is brought to you exclusively by COBISHOP.CZ