US Coast Guard 83-Foot Patrol Cutters in World War II Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

The title is briefly covers the design and development of the type followed by a thorough list of what happened to each of the boats by hull number. The rear of the book indicates that builder's drawings are included which is true, but they are not provided on fold-out pages that might be large enough for a scratch-builder or design enthusiast to study. A detailed discussion of the armament fitted to many of these boats is included as well as radar equipment.

If you took at photos taken off the coast of Normandy's beaches during D-Day, you'll not only see the landing craft heading for shore, you'll also see these Coast Guard 83-footers escorting the landing craft to their beaches. The author provides some interesting photos and stories of daring rescues of crews from stricken LCTs and becoming improvised tug boats to get landing craft that lost their engines to shore to offload their needed manpower and cargo. The title is well-illustrated with period black and white photos of these boats in action.

If you're a historian or modeler of smaller craft, this title will provide you with a good look at this much-overlooked workhorse from World War 2.

My sincere thanks to T. Garth Connelly for this review sample!