WWII torpedo boat redux
How about this great assemblage of nine Italian torpedo boats passing the Ponte Girevole in Taranto between the Mar Grande and Mar Piccolo in the spring of 1960?
Leading the parade is the 130-ton, 114-foot Motor Gunboat 485, with other units of the Comando delle motosiluranti (Motor Torpedo Boat Command) following close behind.
If 485 looks immediately like a German WWII E-boat/S-boot, while her consorts look like a mix of Italian and American MTB and PT boats from the same era, you are correct on all accounts.
The former S38-class German Schnellboot S67, 485 was built at Lürssen in 1942 and served with 1st Schnellbootflottille (1. SFltl) in the North Sea. Captured by the British in 1945 and sold as the merchant ship Torüs, she was then purchased and put into service in 1953 with the post-war Italian Navy as MV 621, MS 485, and finally MC 485, before being decommissioned in 1966.
Via the 1960 edition of Jane’s:
She is followed in the above image by two Italian 60-ton 92-foot C.R.D.A. type MTBs modified after the war, followed by two ex-U.S. 78-foot Higgins type PT boats and four ex-U.S. 70-foot Elco (Vosper) PTs.
Again, Jane’s:
