The Tokyo Express was the Allied nickname for the nightly Japanese naval reinforcement and supply runs to Guadalcanal and other contested islands. What is less well known is the role that small PT boats played in disrupting these runs, conducting attacks that were far more successful than popular history suggests.
PT boats were 80-foot vessels with three Packard 4M-2500 engines generating 4,500 horsepower, capable of 41 knots. They carried four 21-inch torpedoes, a 37mm anti-tank gun, two .50 caliber machine guns, a 20mm cannon, and depth charges. The crews were small — about 17 men. They were fast, expendable, and aggressive.
The most famous PT boat engagement in the Solomons was not the incident involving a young Lieutenant John F. Kennedy's PT-109, but the Battle of the Blackett Strait on March 2, 1943. Three PT boats (PT-59, PT-37, and PT-26) attacked a fleet of three Japanese destroyers that were running supplies to Vila. The PT-26 fired torpedoes that hit and sank the destroyer Murasame. PT-37 added another hit that sank Minegumo. Two destroyers were destroyed by small boats in a single engagement.
PT boats operated in the Solomons, the Philippines, and the China coast. They sank 1,047 Japanese vessels and damaged 1,810 more during the war. They operated at night, often without air cover, and were vulnerable to larger Japanese ships with heavier guns. The PT boatmen were some of the youngest and most reckless in the U.S. Navy.
The PT boat campaign against the Tokyo Express was one of the most cost-effective uses of small-boat naval warfare in history. The investment in each PT boat ($150,000) was a fraction of the cost of the destroyers they sank ($15-30 million each). The psychological effect on the Japanese was considerable: after several months of PT boat attacks, Japanese destroyer crews began refusing to sail in the Solomons after dark.