Editing PT boat (section)

===Early use===
[[File:USS Hornet with PT-28 and PT-29.jpg|thumb|[[USS Hornet (CV-8)|USS ''Hornet'']] with ''PT-28'' and ''PT-29'']]

Originally conceived as anti-ship weapons, PT boats were publicly credited with sinking several Japanese warships during the period between December 1941 and the fall of the Philippines in May 1942<ref name="Robert J. Bulkley 1962">Bulkley, 1962</ref>{{page needed |date=January 2025}}—even though the Navy knew the claims were all false. The exaggerated claims by Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley, commanding officer of [[Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three]] (MTBRON&nbsp;3), about the effectiveness of the PTs in combat against larger craft allowed him to recruit top talent, raise war bonds, and caused overconfidence among squadron commanders who continued to pit PTs against larger craft. The reality was his claims that PTs had sunk a Japanese cruiser, a troopship, and a plane tender in the Philippines were untrue.<ref>False claims in Fleming, Thomas, "War of Revenge", Spring 2011, ''MHQ, The Quarterly Journal of Military History'', p. 17.</ref><ref>Bulkeley was involved in {{harv|Doyle|2015|pp= 25–31}}</ref>

Compounding the difficulty with the early torpedoes, PT boat crews attacking at night may have sometimes failed to note a possible torpedo failure. Although the American [[Mark 8 torpedo]] did have problems with porpoising and circular runs, it could and did have success against common classes of targets.<ref name="Robert J. Bulkley 1962" />{{page needed|date=January 2025}} The Mark 3 and Mark 4 exploders were not subject to the same problems as the [[Mark 6 exploder]]s on U.S. submarines' [[Mark 14 torpedo]]es. Difficulties remained in spite of Bulkeley's claim that introduction of the [[Mark 13 torpedo]] to PT boats in mid-1943 all but eliminated the early problems that PT boats had with their obsolete Mark 8s.<ref name="Robert J. Bulkley 1962" />{{page needed|date=January 2025}} In the [[Patrol torpedo boat PT-109#Failure of the PTs' torpedoes in action|August 1943 engagement]] in which [[Patrol torpedo boat PT-109|''PT-109'']] was lost, fifteen boats shipping 60 torpedoes fired over half with no hits on an enemy vessel.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}