When They Put P-40 Warhawk Nose on a Little Boat - The Germans Called Them "Shockwave"

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August 15th, 1943. Rendova Island, Solomon Islands. PT boats face a deadly problem: Japanese armored steel barges shrug off .50 caliber fire like rain. The 8mm steel plate armor turns twin machine gun turrets into noise makers. American patrol boats need penetration power they don't have. Then Lieutenant Commander James Thornton sees a crashed P-40 Warhawk on the beach—the forward fuselage severed clean, but all six wing-mounted .50 caliber guns intact and functional.

This is the untold story of the most aggressive PT boat modification in the Pacific: mounting a complete P-40 fighter nose section—with its shark-mouth paint scheme, stripped cockpit, and six .50 caliber machine guns—directly on the bow of PT-174. Fourteen feet of fighter aircraft fuselage. Wing root sections extending 6 feet to each side. 4,800 rounds per minute of concentrated forward firepower that no Japanese barge could withstand.

The engineering was audacious: fabricating steel adapters to mate circular aircraft fuselage to a PT boat's curved wooden bow, retaining the original aircraft ammunition boxes and feed systems within salvaged wing structure, wiring six 24-volt gun solenoids to a single trigger on the helm. PT-174 became a hybrid predator—half patrol boat, half fighter aircraft—with a shark's grin pointing the way to combat.

The first engagement: August 29th, 1943. Two Japanese Daihatsu barges in Blackett Strait. Six guns open fire at 600 yards. The concentrated fire stream punches straight through 8mm armor that deflected conventional weapons. Both barges destroyed in under 90 seconds. Nineteen more combat missions follow. Fourteen barges destroyed. Three coastal freighters sunk. The shark boat becomes legend.

But four months in the salt environment reveal brutal realities: aluminum corrodes to powder, wing skin develops pitting so extensive it looks like sandpaper, maintenance consumes more time than combat operations. On December 8th, Japanese dive bombers catch PT-174 during daylight operations. The boat is destroyed. The P-40 nose goes down with it.

Featuring the remarkable salvage engineering that turned aircraft wreckage into devastating naval armament, the combat record that made PT-174 the highest-scoring boat in the squadron, and the corrosion realities that doomed aircraft components in maritime service. This is the story of the shark that patrolled the Solomon Islands—proving that six guns beat two, that concentrated fire penetrates armor, and that fighter aircraft and patrol boats belong in different worlds despite four months of successful violence.

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Disclaimer: This is entertainment storytelling based on WW2 events from internet sources. While we aim for engaging narratives, some details may be inaccurate. This is not an academic source. For verified history, consult professional historians and archives. Watch responsibly.