Скачать или смотреть PT Boats' Secret Weapon: The Aircraft Cannon That Destroyed 800 Japanese Ships

The Night They Mounted a Bomber's Gun on a Plywood Boat | The Henderson Field Modification
November 1942, Solomon Islands. American PT boats were losing the war—their torpedoes ran uselessly beneath shallow Japanese barges that reinforced Guadalcanal every night. Then one lieutenant looked at the wreckage scattered around Henderson Field and asked a question that would change naval warfare: "What about those 37mm cannons on the crashed Airacobras?"
This is the incredible true story of how desperate sailors salvaged aircraft weapons from a jungle graveyard, welded them onto plywood boats using improvised mounts, and turned the tide of the Pacific campaign. No authorization. No engineering approval. Just combat necessity and American ingenuity.
What You'll Discover:

How PT boats went from 0.3 kills per patrol to 1.8—a 600% increase
The engineering challenge of mounting a 275-pound aircraft cannon on a flexing plywood hull
Why Japanese barges were immune to American torpedoes
The 18-month journey from field modification to factory standard
How 800+ Japanese vessels were destroyed by a weapon that "wasn't supposed to work"

This wasn't a Pentagon innovation. This was sailors and mechanics solving problems in real-time, under fire, with whatever they could find. From wrecked P-39 Airacobras to jury-rigged steel mounts, this modification spread across the Pacific faster than official approval could follow.

Topics in video

The Problem: Unstoppable Japanese Barges
The Aircraft Graveyard at Henderson Field
Salvaging the M4 Cannon
Engineering the Impossible Mount
First Blood: November 6th Combat Test
-Rapid Spread Across the Fleet
Bureau of Ordnance Catches Up
Legacy: 800 Vessels Destroyed
Featured Historical Figures:
Lt. Edward DaSilva | Aviation Mechanic Raymond Kowalski | Chief Walter Briggs | Gunner Frank Kowalski


Sources: National Archives combat reports, Bureau of Ordnance records, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 war diaries, post-war Japanese naval interviews




#WWIIHistory #PTBoats #NavalWarfare #PacificWar #Guadalcanal #MilitaryHistory #Engineering #Innovation #SolomonIslands #Henderson Field #TrueStory












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