Medal of Honor: Arthur Murray Preston, Wasile Bay, Halmahera Island, 16 September 1944

Arthur Murray Preston
World War II – Wasile Bay, Halmahera Island – 16 September 1944

In the shadow of enemy guns, courage becomes the only compass. On the night of 16 September 1944, Lieutenant Arthur Murray Preston, commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 33, faced one of the Pacific War’s most harrowing challenges. A Navy pilot had been shot down in Wasile Bay, just 200 yards from a heavily defended Japanese dock and supply depot. Attempts by the pilot’s squadron mates and even a PBY Catalina rescue plane had failed. The mission was deemed hopeless, a death sentence for any crew who dared to try again. But Preston volunteered.

Guiding PT-489 and PT-363, he led his men 60 miles through waters thick with mines and bristling with Japanese defenses. Twice they were turned back, their boats hammered by fire from powerful coastal defense guns guarding the 11-mile strait. Yet Preston pressed on. With only a smokescreen from aircraft to shield them, he brought his boats to within 150 yards of the downed airman, pulling him aboard under a storm of Japanese fire. As they made their escape, Preston’s boats engaged and sank a small enemy cargo vessel, all while outrunning the fury of the guns.

For more than two hours, Preston and his men were under relentless fire. When covering aircraft had to withdraw for lack of fuel, the danger only deepened. Still, Preston pushed his PT boats through the maelstrom, racing across minefields and shell-slashed waters at high speed. By dawn, against all odds, they had survived—without a single man lost. What others had judged suicidal, Preston made possible through leadership, daring, and sheer indomitable will.

Arthur Murray Preston’s gallantry at Wasile Bay embodies the soul of the PT boat sailor—courage at the water’s edge, defiance in the face of impossible odds, and devotion to comrades in peril. His mission was not only a rescue, but a triumph of determination and valor that echoes through naval history.

Medal of Honor Citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commander, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 33, while effecting the rescue of a Navy pilot shot down in Wasile Bay, Halmahera Island, less than 200 yards from a strongly defended Japanese dock and supply area, 16 September 1944. Volunteering for a perilous mission unsuccessfully attempted by the pilot’s squadron mates and a PBY plane, Lt. Comdr. (then Lieutenant) Preston led PT-489 and PT-363 through 60 miles of restricted, heavily mined waters. Twice turned back while running the gauntlet of fire from powerful coastal defense guns guarding the 11-mile strait at the entrance to the bay, he was again turned back by furious fire in the immediate area of the downed airman. Aided by an aircraft smokescreen, he finally succeeded in reaching his objective and, under vicious fire delivered at 150-yard range, took the pilot aboard and cleared the area, sinking a small hostile cargo vessel with 40-mm. fire during retirement. Increasingly vulnerable when covering aircraft were forced to leave because of insufficient fuel, Lt. Comdr. Preston raced PT boats 489 and 363 at high speed for 20 minutes through shell-splashed water and across minefields to safety. Under continuous fire for 2 1/2 hours, Lt. Comdr. Preston successfully achieved a mission considered suicidal in its tremendous hazards, and brought his boats through without personnel casualties and with but superficial damage from shrapnel. His exceptional daring and great personal valor enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.