Motor Torpedo Boat PT-34 was a PT-20-class motor torpedo boat commissioned on 12 July 1941.
The commander of PT-34 was Ltjg. Robert B. Kelly, the executive officer of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three, based in the Philippines from late 1941 through April 1942.
On 17 December, SS Corregidor a passenger ship loaded with 1,200 passengers struck a mine off Corregidor and sank with a large loss of life. PT-34, along with squadron mates PT-32 and PT-35 rescued some 280 survivors, who were distributed between Corregidor and French SS Si-Kiang.[1]
On January 22, 1942 PT 34 sank 2 enemy barges[2]
This PT boat evacuated Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, General Richard Marshall (Deputy Chief of Staff, USAFFE), Col. Charles P. Stivers (G-1, USFFEE), Capt. Joseph McMicking (Philippine Army, Asst. G-2, USFFE) from Corregidor to Mindanao on 12 March 1942 as part of the operation to evacuate General Douglas MacArthur to Australia.
On the night of April 8, 1942, off Cebu, the Imperial Japanese cruiser Kuma and the torpedo boat Kiji were attacked by PT-34 in concert with PT-41. Both PT boats reported seeing multiple torpedo hits on the Kuma from their attack, but according to Japanese Navy records examined after the war, the Kuma was hit in the bow by one of the torpedoes fired by PT-34, but it failed to detonate.
PT-34 was sunk near Kauit Island by four Japanese F1M Pete floatplanes from the Sanuki Maru on April 9, 1942,[3] in the aftermath of the Kuma attack. Lt. Kelly survived the sinking, and was later transported out of the Philippines along with three other officers of the squadron. The crew suffered one KIA, one DOW [4]and three WIA of 6 man crew. The executive officer Iliff David Richardson remained in the Philippines with the guerrilla forces with his account of his experiences turned into the book and film American Guerrilla in the Philippines.[5]