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WW II PATROL CRAFT (PCs)

WW II PATROL GUNBOAT MOTOR (PGMs)

WW II PATROL CRAFT ESCORT(PCEs)

WW II PATROL CRAFT SWEEPER (PCSs)

WW II SUBCHASER (SCs)

CYCLONE CLASS PATROL COASTALS
(PCs and WPCs)

 

INFORMATION ON WWII PCs

PC Info.

173-FOOT STEEL-HULL PATROL CRAFT
(PC, 461 - CLASS)

Length 173 feet, 8 inches
Beam 23 feet
Displacement 284 Tons
Engines Two 2,000 (bhp) Diesel
Speed 21 knots
Endurance 3,000 nautical miles @ 12 knots
Complement 5 Officers, 60 Enlisted
Armament: Main Battery 3-inch/ 50 Dual Purpose
Secondary 3-inch/50. Later, single Bofors 40mm.
Three single 20mm
Depth Charges 2 or 4 K-guns
Mousetrap Racks 16 forward firing rockets

WORLD WAR II PATROL CRAFT PROGRAM

Ordered Cancelled Delivered
421 60 361

Cost each - $1,600,000

 

LEND-LEASE PROGRAM (45)

Greece 1
Uruguay 1
Netherlands 1
Brazil 8
Norway 1
France 33

 

US NAVY CONVERSIONS (60)

Patrol Gunboat, Motor (PGM) 24
Patrol Control Craft (PCC) 36

 

PC's CONVERTED TO PCC's

Thirty-five PCs were converted to Patrol Craft - Control (PCC) for use in amphibious landing operations.

Extra personnel accommodations and communications equipment were added, the weight compensated for by removal of depth charges.

Four twin-mount, 20mm guns replaced the single 20s. In addition, the PCCs were fitted with SU radar replacing the earlier SF or SL radar. The ship hull numbers were not changed. On some, large PCC lettering was painted on the bow.

 


 

PC WORLD WAR II SERVICE

The 173-foot PC was designed primarily for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), convoy escort duty and coastal patrol, thus releasing the fleet Destroyers for trans-Atlantic convoy duty.

PCs were highly effective in protecting convoys along the Atlantic seaboard, in the Caribbean and South Atlantic during the critical 1942-1943 "Battle of the Atlantic" years, filling the gap until the Destroyer Escort (DE) could be built and deployed. Though only a few German U-Boats were actually sunk by PCs, their presence, and the threat of depth charge attacks, was a deterrent to the U-Boat commanders. With the threat of submarine attacks on the wane, the PCs took on more hazardous duties, serving in virtually every combat theater around the world.

The PC proved exceptionally adapt as Patrol Control Craft (PCC), controlling and guiding waves of landing craft in every European amphibious landing from Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, to Operation Overlord, the combined Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

In the Pacific, the PCCs were assigned to the Seventh Fleet, "MacArthur's Navy," participating in all island-hopping amphibious landings through Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

During the October 1944 Leyte, central Philippines, landing operations, PCs 623 and 1119, along with five LCI(R)s, distinguished themselves when they rescued approximately 1,200 survivors of USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73), USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE 413), USS Hoel (DD 533) and USS Johnston (DD 557) sunk by Japanese naval forces during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Operation Olympic, the invasion of the Japanese home island of Kyushu, was the next big invasion planned for execution in March, 1946. The PCCs had received their beach control assignments and were preparing for the invasion when the war ended in August, 1945.

As testimony to their vital role as control ships, the Japanese had assigned entire squadrons of suicide boats to destroy, or disrupt, the PCCs during future landing operations.


PC WAR RECORD

VICTORIES

PC 458 Damaged German U-Boat U-153, Gulf of Panama 07-13-42
PC 566 Sank German U-Boat, Gulf of Mexico 07-30-42
PC 477 Sank Japanese Midget Sub, Guadacanal 12-08-42
PC 565 Sank German U-Boat U-521, off Delaware USA 06-02-43
PC 487 Sank Japanese Submarine I-24, Kiska Aleutions 06-10-43
PC 624 Sank German U-Boat U-375, Sicily 07-30-43
PC 545 Sank Italian Torpedo Boat, Anzio Italy 02-18-44
PC 627 Sank Italian Torpedo Boat, Anzio Italy 02-22-44
PC 1135 Sank Japanese Submarine I-35, Central Pacific 03-24-44
PC 619 Sank German U-Boat U-986, English Channel 04-17-44
PC 558 & 626 Sank Two German Midget Subs, Anzio Italy 05-09-44
PC 627 Sank Italian MAS Mosquito Boat, Anzio Italy 05-14-44
PC 1129 Sank Two Japanese Sucide Boats, Philippines 01-31-45
PC 1123 Sank Two Japanese Sucide Boats, Philippines 05-05-45

PCs LOST OR DAMAGED

PC 496 Torpedoed & Sunk By Italian Sub. Tunisa, Africa 06-04-43
PC 487 Damaged By Ramming A Jap Sub I-24, Aleutians 06-10-43
PC 621 Damaged In Collision With LST, Sicily 07-10-43
PC 562 Damaged By Mine, Sicily 07-18-43
PC 627 Damaged In Bombing Raid, Palermo 05-09-44
PC 546 Damaged In Bombing Raid, Sicily 08-11-43
PC 1128 Damaged By Collision In Typhoon, New Caledonia 01-44
PC 556 Damaged In Bombing Raid, Naples 05-09-44
PC 558 Torpedoed, Mediterranean 05-09-44
PC 624 Damaged By Grounding During Storm, Palermo Mid-1944
PC 1261* Sunk By German Shore Battery, Normandy 06-06-44
PC 1217 Damaged During A Hurricane, Off Florida 09-13-44
PC 1124 Damaged In Bombing Raid, Leyte 11-24-44
PC 1129 Sunk By Jap Suicide Boat, Philippines 01-31-45
PC 1119 Damaged By Jap Coastal Defence Guns, Luzon, 02-16-45
PC 887 Damaged During Collision, Iwo Jima 02-23-45
PC 578 Damaged During Collision, Iwo Jima 02-24-45
PC 564 Damaged By German E-Boats, France 03-09-45
PC 1133 Damaged By Grounding, Philippines 03-26-45
PC 1603 Damaged By 2 Kamikazes, Okinawa 05-26-45
PC 1599 Damaged By Grounding, Okinawa 06-01-45
PC 582 Damaged by Grounding, Philippines 07-12-45
PC 1238 Damaged by Grounding, Okinawa 09-08-45
PC 1239 Damaged by Grounding, Okinawa 09-08-45
PC 584 Sunk During Typhoon Louise, Okinawa 10-09-45
PC 590 Grounded & Broken-up During Typhoon Louise, Okinawa 10-09-45
PC 1126 Damaged During Typhoon Louise, Okinawa 10-09-45
PC 814 Destroyed During Typhoon Louise, Okinawa 10-09-45
PC 1142 Damaged During Typhoon Louise, Okinawa 10-09-45
PC 815 Damaged In Collision With USS Laffey, San Diego 11-45

* First Navy ship sunk on D-Day, 58 minutes before H-Hour

For a history of WWII PCs and their crews try PC Patrol Craft of World War Two.

 


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