PT509: The Last Patrol
The true story of courage, friendship and loss surrounding the sinking of PT 509 off the small Channel Island of Jersey in 1944, including rare archive footage and one veteran's remarkable achievement.

On the night of August 8, 1944, PT Squadron 34 rendezvoused with the destroyer USS Maloy a few miles west of the Normandy landing beaches and prepared to ambush a German convoy of ten heavily-armed vessels heading for the occupied Island of Jersey. When the convoy and PT boats met among reefs and shoal a mile from the heavy guns of Jersey's coastal defenses, death and destruction followed. It proved to be PT 509's last patrol.

Fifty-six years later, 77-year-old gunners mate 3rd class Shelton "Boz" Bosley traveled 3,500 miles to the scene and took an emotional journey as he dived the wreck of the 509. There were no flared bows or sleek timber hull - just three twelve-cylinder Packard engines lying on the seabed with a 40-millimeter cannon closeby. It was a chance for Boz to pay his respects to lost comrades and revisit the area in which he fought on that fateful night in 1944.

The programme reconstructs what happened to PT 509 through interviews with both German and American veterans as well as rare colour footage of the PT boats in action, 3D computer-generated images of the battle, and artist impressions. The story of how the wreck was discovered is told using unique underwater footage.

1x 55min, First aired on History TV Canada 2002
Co-produced by Underwater Video Services and Brush Fire Films