1943-08-02
Loss of PT-109
Blackett Strait, between Kolombangara and Arundel
On the night of 1–2 August 1943, fifteen motor torpedo boats went up from Rendova to stop a Tokyo Express run into Vila, on Kolombangara. Only the section leaders had radar. They fired on radar bearings and were ordered home. The rest were left in Blackett Strait, engines held down so aircraft would not see the wake. Around two in the morning, on the survivors' account, the destroyer Amagiri came back down the strait, finished with the landing. Her stem took PT-109 on the starboard side and broke the wooden hull in two. Harold Marney and Andrew Kirksey were killed. The other eleven reached the islands. Before dawn on 8 August, PT-157 took them off. Whether Amagiri's captain aimed the bow is still argued.
A diagram of how this fight went will go here.
