Charles Littig was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1920. When he was two years old, his family moved to Evanston which is a suburb of Chicago. He lived there until he left for the Navy in 1941. Littig grew up during the Great Depression. His father had been a salesman for Electric Motor, but because there was no business, his father resigned. He retired and never returned to work after that. While he was in grammar school, Littig saw his father at home during lunch. It was great. Littig's mother had severe arthritis which caused the family to move to Florida for two years. The Florida educational system was not looked upon positively by the family so they returned to Evanston. Littig completed high school and then attended Loyola University in Chicago. After his graduation in June 1942, he was recruited to attend PT boat training school. The PT boat volunteers were interviewed by Bulkeley [Annotator's Note: later US Navy Admiral John D. Bulkeley] who had extracted MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] from the Philippines prior to the Japanese takeover. Kelly [Annotator's Note: US Navy Lieutenant Robert B. Kelly], Bulkeley’s exec [Annotator's Note: executive officer], also participated in the interviews. The Navy officers were looking for people with small boat experience. Littig received that experience in Florida and on Lake Michigan where his father had a sailboat. He passed the test. Kelly made the comment during his interview with Littig that the young man was pretty thin. Littig told Kelly that he was, too. Maybe talking back to Kelly helped Littig during the interview. [Annotator's Note: Littig chuckles at the memory.]

Charles Littig was selected for PT school following his graduation in December 1942 as a Navy midshipman at Northwestern University. There were 50 officers in his class at Melville [Annotator's Note: the motor torpedo boat school in Melville, Rhode Island]. About half went to the Pacific and the other half went to new construction. The new construction PT boat builders were Higgins, Elco, or Huckins. Littig would spend the next two years with Huckins Squadron 26 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 26 (MTB Ron 26) was equipped with Huckins built PT boats]. He returned to the United States in December 1944 following his tour in the Pacific. After a leave, he attended updated training on navigation, gunnery and other new developments. After five weeks, he was to go back to the Pacific. He and a friend learned of the prospective assignment so they decided to go to Washington and seek other possibilities with some of the PT squadrons in the Mediterranean. They requested a change in assignment and were granted the request for the Mediterranean duty. That was how Littig ended up with 22 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 22 (MTB Ron 22)]. Nine new relief officers were assigned to 22 at that point [Annotator's Note: in April 1945]. The new officers traveled as a group from New York to North Africa and then to Naples, Marseilles, and then Golfe Juan. Littig had little experience with 22 except for an attack on an Italian MAS boat [Annotator's Note: the Italian equivalent of the American PT boat]. The MAS boat was sunk with gunfire. A few of the participants received the Croix de Guerre as a result of the action. [Annotator's Note: Littig received the medal for his role in the action.] Shortly after that action, President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] died. Soon after the President's death, the war in Europe ended. It was quickly decided that the PT boats should be transferred back to the United States to be outfitted with rockets for the impending invasion of the Japanese home islands. The squadron made its way to North Africa via Corsica. At Oran, the boat sat idle for about three weeks before it was loaded aboard an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship Tank] for transit back to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It took 21 days to cross the ocean because the LST could only make ten knots and the seas were rough. Upon returning to the United States Littig's vessel, the PT 305, was offloaded and then stripped inside and out. It was reworked as a rocket launching vessel for the invasion of Japan. Not long afterward, the atomic bombs were dropped and the war in the Pacific ended. With the war over, Littig and a friend sought duty as V-12 instructors. [Annotator's Note: The V-12 Navy College Training Program was instituted to provide Navy officers with college training in order to supplement the existing ranks of commissioned officers.] Littig was assigned to Illinois Tech in Chicago. Littig's friend went to the University of Minnesota. The men were detached from Squadron 22 in about October [Annotator's Note: October 1945]. Littig learned that his boat, the PT 305 was sold for 25,000 dollars to a fisherman who threw the Packard engines overboard and installed diesel engines instead. When the 305 was stripped, Littig maintained the original ship's log, commissioning pendant, and a .45 caliber pistol. Littig had graduated from college in June 1942. He had previously enlisted in the Navy just after Pearl Harbor in January 1942. He was placed in the Navy's V-7 program and was allowed to finish his college work and graduate. After college graduation, he entered the midshipman program in preparation for a Navy commission. After his graduation, he was called to duty and had 30 days at Notre Dame for physicals and basic orientation followed by 60 days at Northwestern for midshipman training. He was in midshipman school in about August 1942. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Littig was listening to a football game on the home radio. The announcement broke into the broadcast and shocked him with the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. The next day, the school halls were buzzing with everyone excitedly talking about enlisting and getting at the enemy. There was great enthusiasm and no one was hanging back. Littig chose the Navy because he always liked the Navy. He had previously visited Annapolis and was impressed with what he saw. In the Navy's V-7 midshipman school training program at Northwestern, Littig studied navigation, ordnance, and seamanship. There were also lots of drills. The men had to learn to follow orders. Northwestern was a good training facility. Each night there was a brief liberty outside the campus. There were great bars with good food. Studies were difficult and the men were examined closely. The new uniforms they received were nice. Littig's first posting was to PT school in Melville, Rhode Island. It was a terrible place because of the harsh, cold weather. Often, underway training would be cancelled because of ice on the boats. The Miami PT boat shakedown location would have been a better place for the training. Littig left Northwestern as an ensign. Melville was the training location for both the green officers and future PT boat crewmen.

After PT boat training at Melville, Rhode Island, Charles Littig went to new construction at Jacksonville for Huckins PT boats. He arrived there in March 1943. Huckins' rate of production was about one boat a month compared to Elco which produced approximately 12 boats per month. The Huckins boats were well built boats. Huckins is still in business today where Higgins and Elco are no longer operating. The basic difference in the boats was in the hull construction. It was obvious upon comparison. Higgins, however, was more of a departure from the other two vessels. It had a large open deck all the way up to the cabin. Most of Littig's time on PT boats was spent in the Pacific on the Huckins boat. Although his experience with the Higgins boat was limited to the time with the 22 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 22 (MTBRon 22)], the Higgins PT boat was a good boat. Littig picked up Huckins built PT Boat 256 [Annotator's Note: PT-256] at Jacksonville and served as the executive officer. Later, he would become skipper of 255. When he picked up the 256, it was one of six boats that were ready for shakedown. The six boats headed to Miami for the shakedown which was run by guys who had previously served in the Pacific. They knew what was going on. There was two to three weeks of training in that process. There was a lot of night time operation since the PTs did quite a bit of that in the Pacific. After that training, the boat went to Cuba, Jamaica, British Columbia, and then to Panama for transit to the Pacific. The long run from Jamaica to British Columbia required ten 55 gallon drums of added fuel on the stern of the boat for the lengthy and rough voyage. It was difficult to refuel the fuel tanks since the boat was in rough waters. The boats ran from British Columbia to Panama in the face of a 20 knot headwind. Littig and the skipper alternated two hours on and two hours off during that portion of the trip. During his two hours off, Littig would go to the engine room rather than his cabin because it was better to sleep there. After arriving in Panama, the PT boats were mustered at a little island named Taboga. After six weeks or so, the 256, along with other PTs, was put on a tanker for transit through the Panama Canal. After arriving on the Pacific side, it took 14 days transit on the tanker to get to Pearl Harbor. It was a good trip with good food. There were no additional passengers onboard the tanker for the trip.

After Charles Littig reached Pearl Harbor, his boat was unloaded. [Annotator's Note: At this time, Littig was the executive officer PT-256 in Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 26 (MTBRon 26).] PT-256 operated out of Pearl Harbor in Squadron 26 but nothing much was going on since the Japanese had been pushed back in the Pacific. On Midway Island, there was Squadron 1 which had never been relieved. Its boats were old Elco 72 foot boats that were breaking up. Littig and his squadron were sent to Midway along with a floating drydock to relieve Squadron 1. Squadron 1 was still at Midway when Littig received his orders to return to Melville. [Annotator's Note: Littig was trained in Patrol Torpedo or PT boats at Melville, Rhode Island]. Littig had been ordered to Midway in April or May 1944. Midway was very quiet when he arrived. The four PT boats in his squadron along with an old destroyer plus two squadrons of aircraft, one SBD [Annotator's Note: Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber] Scout Bomber and an F4U Corsair [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aricraft] squadron were the defense forces for Midway at that time. There were also four or five thousand Marines on Midway. The PT boats would take care of picking up ditched flyers or taking any dead off the island about five miles and committing them to a sea burial. The chaplain would say words over the dead but sometimes he would get seasick and ask to be rushed back to shore. When Littig reached Midway, he had already been named as commanding officer on PT-255. There was not much going on at that time in Midway because it was a secure area. As the skipper of the boat, Littig had to make sure that the boat was fueled, the crew was happy, and supplies were sufficient on the boat. He had to make sure everything on the boat was satisfactory. From Midway, Littig headed to Pearl Harbor for transport back to the United States. Transportation was always a problem. He reached the United States in January 1944 [Annotator's Note: December 1944]. He had a 30 day leave then had to report to Melville by News Years of 1945. When Littig was first in Pearl Harbor, his squadron was used to work out with the new ships arriving there. This was part of the new vessel's shakedown. There would be simulated attacks and torpedo runs. At times, the PTs would anchor off Maui and wait for the fleet to come out. They would wait for night and track the fleet on their radar. When the fleet fired a star shell over a PT, it meant that the simulated aggressor had been discovered. On one such simulated attack, the PT got so close to the opposing ship that they threw tomatoes on the bow.

Charles Littig and his PT crewmen had informal interchanges without the formality found on larger Navy vessels. That was an advantage to PT duty. Additionally, it was good to have his own command. In contrast to these advantages, regular Navy officers knew that duty on PT boats was not a good way to promotion. The PT officers did not care much about promotions, but the regulars wanted duty on the cans [Annotator's Note: Navy slang for destroyers], cruisers, carriers or battlewagons [Annotator's Note: battleships]. The Pacific was rough riding for the PT boats. By contrast, the Mediterranean was not bad for the time Littig spent there.

Charles Littig returned to the United States after his posting to Pearl Harbor and Midway. He learned that he was to be sent back to the Pacific so he and a friend requested an alternative assignment in the Mediterranean. The Bureau of Personnel in Washington changed the orders for the two enterprising men to the Mediterranean. Littig was one of nine officers sent to the Mediterranean as replacement officers for 22 [Annotator's Note: Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 22 (MTB Ron 22)]. Before redeployment overseas, the replacement officers had to wait three weeks. They were billeted at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. It was like a vacation with few assignments. The officers would call base in the morning to confirm that no assignments for them had been given. After that, they were free to explore New York City. They went to a health club, Broadway shows, and other entertaining things. After three weeks, they left New York on a United Fruit Company boat with a stop in Norfolk. It took seven days to reach Oran where they waited again. After that they traveled to Naples by boat then Marseilles by airplane. Littig became the executive officer of the PT-305. Since the skipper was a friend, it was not a bad situation. The 305 was a Higgins built boat and was similar in overall design to the Huckins boats Littig had served on in the Pacific. There were the same three Packard Marine propulsion engines and the same armaments which included twin .50 caliber machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, 40mm cannon aft and a 37mm forward. The crew made very little modifications to their boat because they could not. Early in the war, the American torpedoes were unreliable. One of the jobs that the French asked the PTs to do was to fire the old Mark 8 torpedoes at the seawalls in Southern France to alert the partisans that they were there. The 305 fired these torpedoes multiple nights. As soon as they fired the torpedoes, they would exit the area before the enemy shore based artillery opened up on them. There was one occasion for a running gun battle with an enemy fast attack craft similar to the American PT boat. The two American PTs were the 305 and the 310 boats [Annotator's Note: Littig will change this later to be the 305 and 307]. Littig was the division leader at that time in the lead boat. Both boats picked up a target on radar and closed on them at high speed. The enemy began firing tracers at them and dropping depth charges to discourage them. The lead boat made a few passes at the enemy vessel and fired multiple rounds at them. After continually firing on the enemy, the MAS boat [Annotator’s Note: an Italian vessel similar to the American PT boat] sunk. The Americans were ordered out of the area because German E Boats [Annotator’s Note: heavily armed torpedo boats] were in the vicinity and those boats had 88mm cannon on the stern. The Americans had followed their reliable radar, as well as, the enemy incoming tracers to their target. The PTs fired on the MAS boat and destroyed it. Because the American PTs had to leave the area quickly, they did not search for survivors. Years later, Littig met the skipper of the other participating PT and discussed the fact that he had heard enemy survivors calling out for help. They had no time to help because of the order to exit the area immediately to avoid the German E boats. There was never any contact by the 305 with German E boats while Littig was aboard. During Littig's Mediterranean tour, the 305 did not go out every night. There was time to play bridge and leave the base on occasion. There were times for shore based duty to assure that the boats were secure and not tampered with. Regular nightly patrols involved going along the French and Italian Riviera. Monaco would have its lights all lit up since people were there gambling. The nighttime patrols involved two boats that used radar to identify potential targets. A requirement prior to getting underway was to confirm the boat was loaded with fuel. Orders would be received by the officers during the day so the crew would be alerted that they would be going out that night. Littig would confirm that the men had eaten prior to departure. The three motor mechanics on the PT would confirm each of their engines was performing properly. With all aboard, the skipper would get the engines started to warm them up. After leaving the harbor at slow speed, patrol would be at about 18 to 22 knots rather than chasing up and down the coast. The PT top speed depended on hull conditions with barnacles. It could range from 34 knots to 44 knots at top speed, but that was with the boat light with no torpedoes. Patrols at night would be a stealthy operation. At the end of the war, the men went into Cannes and all the bars were thrown open. The conga lines were formed and the French were shouting finie la guerre [Annotator's Note: the war is over]. It was quite a celebration that night when the war ended. [Annotator's Note: The war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945.]

Charles Littig rode an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship Tank] back to the United States [Annotator's Note: after the war in Europe ended]. The seas were rough, and at times, it felt like the ship was going backwards. In the United States, the 305 [Annotator's Note: PT-305] was going to be converted to a rocket launching vessel. Littig never saw the rockets but the boat was stripped at City Island. The only duty they had at that time was to muster in the morning for roll call and then release half the men that were not assigned to guard duty. It probably would have taken three months to convert the 305, but in August [Annotator's Note: August 1945], the atomic bombs were dropped and V-J Day came around. [Annotator's Note: Victory over Japan or V-J Day was 15 August 1945.] Littig and another officer were in Times Square when the war was over. It was a madhouse. After the war ended, Littig left PTs at the end of September. He was assigned to Illinois Institute of Technology to teach navigation. He was there until April 1946. He had enough points to exit the Navy. There was a big push to keep some of the officers onboard. There was an attempt made to talk Littig into staying in the Navy, but he was ready to go home. He took his discharge in April 1946 as a full lieutenant. Looking back, the time in the service resulted in him meeting lots of people. There was a PT Officers Association that started a few years after the war. He started attending the yearly gatherings, but his career kept him from continuing his attendance until after he retired. The meetings were a lot of fun. There were a lot of sea stories. Littig went into the advertising business which had no relation to what he did in the Navy. The United States armed forces did a good job throughout the world during the war. The population was behind the service people not like the Vietnam experience. There was an influx of women into the workforce which helped war production, but those women lost their jobs when the men returned. The servicemen had been promised their jobs upon their return. The National WWII Museum is important to keep the memory of the war experiences alive and to prevent denial of what happened during those years.