Roy Gerald King papers

Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three was a United States Navy squadron based at Cavite, Philippines, from September 1941 to mid-April 1942. It was commanded by Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley and comprised of six motor torpedo boats: PT-31, PT-32, PT-33, PT-34, PT-35, and PT-41 as the squadron flagship. The other six boats of the squadron remained at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and were there when war broke out, eventually being shipped to the Solomon’s.  After the Japanese aerial bombing of Cavite Navy Yard on December 10^th, 1941, the squadron moved from Cavite to Sisiman Bay on the Bataan Peninsula where the squadron assisted in the defense of Bataan and Corregidor during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.  PT-31 and PT-33 were sunk during the battle. On March 11, 1942, the remaining boats of the squadron transported General Douglas MacArthur and several high-ranking officers from Corregidor to Mindanao, an act which earned every member of the squadron the Silver Star. PT-32 was abandoned during this mission, reducing the squadron to three boats: PT-41, PT-34, and PT-35.  These three boats were based at Mindanao until mid-April 1942, where two of them (PT-41 and PT-34) attacked the Japanese cruiser Kuma, scoring at least one hit. This was to be the squadron's last action: PT-34 was destroyed by Japanese aircraft, PT-35 had to be scuttled to avoid capture, and PT-41 was commandeered by the U.S. Army to defend Lake Lanao. She was scuttled as well, three days after transfer on April 15, 1942.

USS Alchiba, a 14,125 ton cargo ship, was built at Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1938-40 as the civilian freighter Mormacdove. She was acquired by the Navy in June 1941 and soon placed in commission. During the rest of the year, she operated in the western and north Atlantic, reaching as far east as Iceland. In early 1942, Alchiba went to the Pacific to take cargo to the Society Islands, then returned to the U.S. east coast by way of Chile and the Panama Canal. She was back in the Pacific in mid-June and arrived in New Zealand the next month to become part of the Amphibious Force. In early August she took part in the invasion of Guadalcanal and continued to provide logistics support for the [url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/events/wwii-pac/guadlcnl/guadlcnl.htm]Guadalcanal campaign[/url] during the next four months.

On 28 November 1942, while anchored off Guadalcanal's Lunga Point, Alchiba was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-16, setting fire to her forward holds. She was run aground to prevent sinking, and the blazes were extinguished after five days of hard work. However, on 7 December the ship was again torpedoed, probably by a Japanese midget submarine, opening up her after hull and starting more fires. Again, Alchiba's crew controlled the flooding and flames. Her wounds were patched up sufficiently for her to return to the United States for permanent repairs, which lasted until August 1943. Meanwhile, in February 1943, she had been reclassified as an attack cargo ship, with the new hull number AKA-6.

During the rest of 1943 and into March 1944, Alchiba performed logistics duties in the South Pacific, also taking part in the invasion of Bougainville in November 1943. Following an overhaul in mid-1944, the ship was plagued by recurrent engine troubles, was in and out of shipyards for the next year, and completed only one voyage to the south Pacific during this time. In July and August 1945, Alchiba crossed the ocean to deliver cargo to bases in the central and western Pacific. She stayed in the former combat zone until late October and then returned to the U.S., reaching the east coast by way of the Panama Canal in mid-December. USS Alchiba was decommissioned in January 1946. Transferred to the Maritime Commission in July of that year, she was sold to commercial interests in 1948.