The Battle of the Rice Barges: A Naval Battle in a River

During the Philippine campaign, U.S. PT boats engaged Japanese supply barges in the rivers and narrow waterways around Luzon — a battle not fought at sea but in river channels no wider than a city street. The PT boats had to be modified, their deep-draft hulls replaced with shallower ones. The engagements happened so close that PT boat crews sometimes threw grenades at Japanese positions from the decks of their boats. One PT boat commander, Lt. John D. Bulkeley, sank 27 Japanese barges in one month in these inland waters.