The book, United States PT-Boats Of World War II (In Action), represents a pictorial history of the development, production and major combat deployments of United States Navy motor torpedo boats during World War II.  The concept of a PT-Boat force, as was originally planned before World War II, was that of an offensive weapon system.  The reality early in World War II in the pre-radar days was that the PT-Boats were most often used in a defensive role.  While PT-boats during World War II only sank a handful of enemy destroyers and cruisers, they were quite valuable and used their wide variety of cannons, machine guns and torpedos in the sinking of many enemy barges and lighters  Also of note, is the fact that while PT Boats were used in virtually every World War II combat theater, their impact was the most pronounced in the Pacific combat zone.  The major sections of this book are as follows: 1) Origins; 2) The First American Boats; 3) The Myth of the United States PT-Boat; 4) Production and Modification; 5) The Solomons Test; 6) Wild Nights in the Med.; 7) Barge Busting Victory; 8) To the Philippins with a Vengence and 9) Epilogue.  This book also includes the following information in the Appendix section: 1) PT-Boat Building Program and 2) Nicknames of PT-Boats.  This book includes approximately 218 vintage black and white photographs many never-before-seen along with 6 black and white line drawings.  This book is 160 pages and is in excellent condition.  The author is Frank D. Johnson with John Batchelor (line illustrations).  Edition published in 1983.