Talk:Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three

Destroyers

User Graphic3211 has been objecting to the mention of the destroyers "Peary or Pillsbury" contending they had left the area on 26 December 1941. The reference, written by Captain Robert J. Bulkley (not Bulkeley), Jr. USNR (Retired), Jr. USNR (Retired) and published by the Naval History Division is found on page 6 under the heading "4. THE FLEET WITHDRAWS" and clearly covers actions based out of Sisiman Bay on the the Bataan Peninsula after the withdrawal from Cavite and before those destroyers withdrew. The section opens with actions out of Sisiman Bay and closes with descriptions of the state after the fleet withdraws. The exact text is with my emphasis:

The first few weeks at Sisiman Bay were discouraging. The squadron took over a small fishing dock and a few native nipa huts ashore. Each morning John Bulkeley visited headquarters to receive orders for the night's operations. The boats made routine, nonproductive patrols of the Bataan coast north of Manila Bay, and along the Batangas Peninsula to the south, as far as Verde Island. Doctrine demanded that PT's patrol in two- or three-boat sections, so that if one boat should find itself in trouble, there would be another at hand to give assistance. But because there were so few boats, so few spares, so little gasoline, prudence had to make concessions. Seldom could more than one PT be spared for a patrol. Often one PT was accompanied by a YP, a small patrol vessel, either the Maryanne, the Perry, or the Fisheries II, or, until they departed from the area, one of two four-stack destroyers, the Pillsbury and the Peary. As the Japanese closed their net, nerves became tense and there were false reports of sightings along the Bataan coast. Many fruitless PT searches resulted.

The cited reference is quite clear. Palmeira (talk) 16:02, 15 September 2015 (UTC)