Arthur Smith was stationed at La Maddalena [Annotator's Note: Advanced Base La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy]. Pop Bond [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was there from Studebaker [Annotator's Note: American automobile manufacturer] in the United States. He was running a mobile air compressor to charge torpedoes. He put Smith to work with him. The base was run by De Freytas [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] who had raced cars in Illinois. Smith served on the 208 boat [Annotator's Note: PT-208 "Eight Ball", Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15); transferred to Great Britain 17 October 1944 as HM MGB-184; transferred to Yugoslavia as MT-4]. It had an eight ball on the bow. He served on the 210 [Annotator's Note: PT-210, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15)] and 212 [Annotator's Note: PT-212, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15)]. A German shot them, and their engines died. They got the engines started. Smith got two battle stars from the Mediterranean. [Annotator's Note: Smith tells a story about a supply line that is hard to follow.] The German supply line came through the Brenner Pass [Annotator's Note: Alps mountain pass on the border of Italy and Austria] that had been bombed out. The Italian and African campaigns had to be supplied through Southern France. They used an F-lighter [Annotator's Note: German: Marinefahrprahm, "naval ferry barge", German landing craft; Allied name Flak Lighter or F-lighter]. He was on a train going across North Africa and had to stop for some hours. A guy found a place to get a bath. They all got off and went to do that. They found out they were taking a bath in the water supply of the locals. La Maddalena was shared with the British submarine service. That unit was decorated by the Queen and flew a Jolly Roger flag [Annotator's Note: Jolly Roger; flags flown to identify a pirate ship about to attack; used by submariners as a symbol of a victory when returning to port in World War 2]. Smith was not too fond of the British submarine sailors. He worked with the British PT Boats [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat] too. Smith joined 13 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13 (MTBRon 13)] in the Philippines. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer thinks their boat was in the Mediterranean.] When they finally secured the Mediterranean, his squadron was put on decommissioning. They were to train the Free French on the boats but gave up. He went to Oran [Annotator's Note: Oran, Algeria] and waited for transport back to the United States.

Arthur A. Smith was born in August 1924. The war started when he was 17. He had a good idea of what his future would be. The war in Japan ended for him on 18 August 1945. He was born in East Alton, Illinois and grew up there. He was five when the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] hit in 1929. His dad was very self sufficient and raised his five boys that way. His mother was instrumental in his younger years. It is hard to describe wanting something to eat. His father built some houses but lost them all as well as their home. They shucked corn, picked tomatoes and had two paper routes. One brother was crippled from polio. Another brother was good at making ammunition and helped run a small arms plant in Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: East Saint Louis, Illinois]. When Smith was born, he was named Alvin Arthur Smith. When he went into the service, he found out his name was Arthur Alvin Smith. That caused him serious problems because his records had Alvin as his first name. Later when he was getting security clearances that was an issue.

Arthur Smith was 17 when World War 2 broke out for the United States. He volunteered so he could get in the Navy. He went to boot camp in Great Lakes Naval Training Station [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois]. He was sent to Machinist's Mate school. He was assigned to Melville, Rhode Island [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island] for more training. When he finished training, he did not get assigned to becoming part of a crew. He was assigned directly to Squadron 15 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15)] in the Mediterranean. That was his reward for excellence. He had entered the service in March 1943. He went overseas on a troop transport and landed in French Morocco [Annotator's Note: also called French Protectorate in Morocco, Morocco, Africa]. They took a train across North Africa due to the Germans having control of the Mediterranean. He ended up in Bizerte [Annotator's Note: Base 12 in Bizerte, Tunisia] which had become an engine overhaul base. The harbor in Bizerte was full of sunken craft. Smith was going up the line and a Hollywood star was on board with them. He smoked all of Smith's cigarettes. The star was part of the boats that faked invasions [Annotator's Note: Operation Bodyguard, Allied deception plan, 14 July 1943 to 6 June 1944]. Smith went to La Maddalena [Annotator's Note: Advanced Base Maddalena in Sardinia, Italy]. Smith never did get permanently assigned to an individual boat. They had a chow hall that was a big Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. They had an ice cream machine. The Red Cross moved in and set up shop. They took their ice cream machine and then sold ice cream to the troops.

[Annotator's Note: Arthur Smith left his Mediterranean duty and returned to the US from Oran, Algeria.] He landed in New York [Annotator's Note: New York City, New York] and got 12 days leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He reported back to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He met Boats Ingram there who was supposedly engaged to Admiral Nimitz’s [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] daughter. Ingram had been on the Oklahoma USS Oklahoma (BB-37) that got sunk [Annotator's Note: at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941]. Smith has no idea if any of the story is true, but he believed him. Smith went to Shoemaker, California. There his outfit refused to unload their own gear. They were assigned to serve in a chow hall, refused to do that and they went out through the windows. Smith got caught. [Annotator's Note: His story is hard to follow. He ended up in a hospital with what sounds like men with mental issues.] He boarded the USS Mizar (AF-12) that was a refrigerated ship from an American banana company [Annotator's Note: United Fruit Company]. They had fresh food all the way to north of the Solomons [Annotator's Note: Solomon Islands]. He was trying to catch up to his Squadron 13 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13 (MTBRon 13)]. The island had a sign by Admiral Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey]. His group brought MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] out of Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Corregidor, Philippines 12 March 1942] and took him to Australia. MacArthur decided he needed motor torpedo boats to cut the supplies to the Japanese bases. The boats had four torpedoes that fired through tubes – Mark 8s [Annotator's Note: Bliss-Leavitt Mark 8 torpedo]. The tube firing was a problem for the boats. The Navy changed the torpedoes they used to Mark 13s [Annotator's Note: Mark 13 aerial torpedo].

When Arthur Smith was finishing up in the Mediterranean, they had Mark 8 torpedoes [Annotator's Note: Bliss-Leavitt Mark 8 torpedo] they dumped into an Italian harbor blowing up the harbor installations. A new squadron came to operate with them in La Maddalena [Annotator's Note: Advanced Base La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy]. They were changing an engine in one boat with Guinea [Annotator's Note: derogatory term for people of Italian descent] prisoners washing the bilges out with fuel. A guy started welding on top and it blew up. Smith remembers the bodies in dump trucks; they looked like burnt marshmallows. When Smith went across the equator, he got the usual [Annotator's Note: Neptunus Rex, also called Shellbacks, Sons of Neptune; line-crossing ceremony; initiation rite that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator]. It was quite an experience. Smith finally caught up with his unit. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] went ashore on Leyte [Annotator's Note: 20 October 1944, Leyte, Philippines]. The Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] helped them start a base in Samar [Annotator's Note: Samar Island, Philippines]. Smith went to Mindoro [Annotator's Note: Mindoro, Philippines] and caught up with his squadron. He was assigned to PT-75 as the machinist on a crew of four engineers. The Japanese fleet was missing but Smith and his crew knew where they were. They dumped two or three of their observation planes down. They almost shot down one American seaplane. The planes looked a lot like the Mavis Japanese planes [Annotator's Note: Kawanishi H6K flying boat].

Arthur Smith operated there [Annotator's Note: Mindoro, Philippines] until they secured the Philippines. They worked one day on and one day off; patrols one day and servicing the next day. A PT tender [Annotator's Note: motor torpedo boat tender; service boat] was a converted LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. It got kamikazed [Annotator's Note: hit by Japanese suicide planes]. A cargo ship carrying ammunition exploded outside of the base and the concussion broke the keels on two of their boats. They were under surveillance by the Japanese Navy and lost two boats trying to help out. They secured the Philippines. Their skipper [Annotator's Note: slang for ship's captain or commander] made an excuse to visit Marinduque [Annotator's Note: Marinduque, Philippines] that had a Japanese light cruiser that they liberated. They put torpedoes in it but did not sink it. The Navy got credit for it. The locals had a chicken fry for them when they came to visit. General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] picked up a light cruiser and came to their base. They left to join a task force and they thought they were going to Japan. They picked up the USS Willoughby (AGP-9). Smith knew they were going south instead of north and they got down around Panay [Annotator's Note: Panay, Philippines] and then split to the China Sea to Jesselton [Annotator's Note: now Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia] and Brunei Bay [Annotator's Note: Brunei Bay, Borneo, Brunei and Malaysia]. They set the Jesselton oil fields on fire [Annotator's Note: June 1945]. Their cook had been a chef in a good hotel. He made sure they ate well despite having powdered milk and SPAM [Annotator's Note: canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview to change tapes.]

Arthur Smith and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13 (MTBRon 13)] set up their shore base in Brunei Bay, Borneo. They had a new skipper [Annotator's Note: slang for ship's captain or commander] of the squadron aboard their boat [Annotator's Note: PT-75]. They were off the beach near Jesselton [Annotator's Note: now Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia] and the skipper wanted an antenna cut down from the boat. They cut it right in half, pure luck. When the war was over, 18 August 1945, all patrols were cancelled. They did not know much about the atom bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945]. There was a prisoner of war camp in Kuching [Annotator's Note: Batu Lintang camp, also called Lintang Barracks and Kuching POW camp, Kuching, Malaysia]. Smith was part of a task force to liberate it [Annotator's Note: 8 to 9 September 1945]. A hospital ship [Annotator's Note: MS Wanganella] anchored in the mouth of the river. Smith's boat liberated the camp at high tide. It was gruesome. It was really hot being on the equator. They went 27 miles up the river. They found Australian military, a Red Cross nurse, and two Americans sailors from the Sam Houston [Annotator's Note: USS Houston (CA-30)]. The Americans were in pretty good shape. Smith says it is amazing the inhumanity that man can introduce to man. The prisoners had to be lifted in sheets and placed on mattresses.

Arthur Smith says that when they were sinking Japanese luggers [Annotator's Note: slang for cargo ships], the often wondered where they all came from. A skipper [Annotator's Note: slang for ship's captain or commander] thought they were being built on the Kuching River [Annotator's Note: Borneo]. They did discover mobile artillery on both sides of the river. Once, Smith was patrolling with another boat in enemy territory and it started raining. The other boat gave them their direction and speed. They hit the beach. They unloaded their tools and a lot of ammo and food. The tide came up and saved them. They used cables and rope to pull the other boat loose. Smith and Bloom [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] were still in the water and were nearly left behind by accident. Smith got coral poisoning [Annotator's Note: palytoxin, PTX, or PLTX, highly toxic poison produced by corals] doing that. He was scheduled to go home. The day before he was to leave, he went to the infirmary in Tubabao [Annotator's Note: Tubabao Island, Philippines]. He went in the hospital and got the new drug, penicillin, he got 21 shots of it. After he left the service, a crewmate wrote him a letter. He wrote that another crewmate died on the ship back. Smith thinks he had coral poisoning too. When Smith got out of the hospital he was reassigned. He was in flight when he found out he was going to Zamboanga [Annotator's Note: Zamboanga Peninsula, Philippines] in Mindanao [Annotator's Note: Mindanao, Philippines] as chief engineer on a submarine chaser, the USS SC-1267. He then spent months aboard that. They were ordered to get rid of their depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum]. They went down to the Sulu Sea [Annotator's Note: Sulu Sea, Philippines]. The ship had diesel engines and Smith did not know how to work on them. They got rid of all of their depth charges.

[Annotator's Note: Arthur Smith was serving as chief engineer aboard the USS SC-1267 (SC-1267) in the Sulu Sea, Philippines.] There were people there, Christians and Moros [Annotator's Note: Moro people, or Bangsamoro people], who liked the Americans and wanted to show their appreciation. They had a thatched roofed building. The groups were not friendly with each other. The young ladies were good dancers. He got in trouble on ship [Annotator's Note: he does not say why]. Their skipper [Annotator's Note: slang for ship's captain or commander] was selling their food to the groups that lived on Bangka boats [Annotator's Note: native watercraft of the Philippines]. A small cargo ship tied up to the same dock they were at. The boat was loaded with American bodies going back to the states. It was quite an experience. Smith learned that he needed an education. He attended the University of Missouri-Rolla [Annotator's Note: Missouri S&T: Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri] as a mechanical engineer. He became an education nut. His five children all have degrees as do his seven grandchildren.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Arthur Smith if he recalls where he was or what he was doing when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He was a student in high school. He had a peculiar feeling about what it was all about. He recognized it was going to have an impact on his life. His father had finally gotten a job as had his older brother. He never was worried about it. He found out in the war that fear turns into excitement. Smith joined the military on his own so he could be in the Navy. He used to swim in the Mississippi River with his buddies. He loved the water. He was chosen and asked to attend the PT Boat school at Melville, Rhode Island [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island, 1943] while he was in machinist's mate school.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Arthur Smith to talk about the PT-Boat.] Smith got a ride on Elco [Annotator's Note: Elco; Electric Launch Company] 487 [Annotator's Note: PT-487; reclassified C105336 Small Boat 27 August 1946]. The Higgins PT [Annotator's Note: Motor torpedo boat built by Higgins Industries] was a more rugged boat. The Huckins [Annotator's Note: Huckins Yacht Corporation] motor torpedo boat looked like a box. The Elco was the slickest and most accommodating to the crew. He trained in the Elco and the Higgins. In combat, he was only on Higgins. The crews were usually 12 men. His oldest son took him on a tour of a PT-boat and Smith had never been in the officer's quarters until then. In the Mediterranean, they got torpedoed by one of their own boats. It had not been armed yet fortunately. There were a lot of accidents in World War 2.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Arthur Smith what his first introduction to the war was.] Hard to answer. In the Mediterranean, they came under fire from a F-lighter [Annotator's Note: German: Marinefahrprahm, “naval ferry barge”, German landing craft; Allied name Flak Lighter or F-lighter]. Fear turns to excitement in combat. He had a number of those experiences. Smith was aboard PT-208 [Annotator's Note: PT-208 "Eight Ball", Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15); transferred to Great Britain 17 October 1944 as HM MGB-184; transferred to Yugoslavia as MT-4] in Southern France. He was on the beach and the boat hit a couple of mines. He thinks it was sunk but is not sure. He served on the 210 [Annotator's Note: PT-210, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15)] and 212 [Annotator's Note: PT-212, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15)]. On one of those, the skipper [Annotator's Note: slang for ship's captain or commander] almost tied up to a German boat. They were dead in the water and Smith got the engines started. They were attacked in La Maddalena [Annotator's Note: Advanced Base La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy] by aircraft.

Arthur Smith did not burden his children with World War 2. It became current in his life as a result of his youngest son coming into contact with a circular published by the Motor Torpedo Boat Association. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Smith about his most memorable experience with Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 15 (MTBRon 15).] He had so many different things. Meeting the Hollywood actor they took from Bizerte [Annotator's Note: Bizerte, Tunisia] to La Maddalena [Annotator's Note: Advanced Base La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy] was one. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Smith about the differences between operating in the Mediterranean and operating in the Pacific.] Big differences. They were more of a torpedo boat sinking shipping like F-lighters [Annotator's Note: German: Marinefahrprahm, "naval ferry barge", German landing craft; Allied name Flak Lighter or F-lighters in the Mediterranean]. In the South Pacific, other than liberating Marinduque [Annotator's Note: Marinduque, Philippines] they used mostly small arms and the 40mm [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] to sink Japanese luggers [Annotator's Note: slang for Japanese cargo ships]. They used .50 calibers [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] and 20s [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] against aircraft. Liberating the prisoner of war camp [Annotator's Note: Batu Lintang camp, also called Lintang Barracks and Kuching POW camp, Kuching, Malaysia, September 1943] made him think about what could have happened to him. Doing this interview is a miracle. He was married for 67 years and had five children who are all reputable individuals.

Arthur Smith was discharged in May 1946 at Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois] as a Motor Machinist's Mate 2nd Class. He did not join the Reserves. He used the G.I. Bill to go to the University of Missouri [Annotator's Note: Missouri S&T: Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri] to be a mechanical engineer. He would not have been able to go to college otherwise. He came from a very poor family. He worked as kid. The G.I. Bill allowed him the opportunity to expand his education from the service. The Navy opened his eyes and made him infatuated with expanding education in his children. He worked at Rock Island [Annotator's Note: Rock Island Arsenal Army Base, Arsenal Island, Illinois] in artillery as a recoil designer. He worked with the Army's CONARC [Annotator's Note: Continental Army Command] in New Jersey. Smith has a good reputation for mathematical modeling and launcher dynamics. Smith helped install the first computers in Rock Island.