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TUNISIA PT 205 "CAPTURES" BIZERTE SICILY PT FAKE LANDINGS U.S. LANDING FORCS LANDING FORCES ITALIAN PATROL BASE PT BASE AELIAN ISLES CAPTURED BY PTS AXIS FERRY ITALY SWAY SHOOTS UP GEN. MARK CLARK IN PT 201 ANZIO LANDINGS SARDINIA PT BASE
Just as the destroyer unit commander was about to open fire at 1,500 yards, Roe rammed Swanson at the forward stack. Roe’s bow folded up and both ships went dead in the water. The Swanson’s forward fireroom was partly flooded. Both ships had to be sent to the rear for repairs, carrying with them, of course, their five-inch cannon which were sorely missed by the assault troops of that morning’s landings.
Two nights later, on July 12th, Lieut. Commander Barnes split his PTs into two forces to escort twelve crash boats for another fraudulent demonstration of strength at Cape Granitola. The two forces ran parallel to the beach behind smoke, and noisily imitated the din of a force a thousand times their true size.
Searchlights blazed out from the shore, and the second salvo from shore batteries landed so close to the boats that the skippers hauled out to sea.
“The shore batteries were completely alerted,” said Lieut. Commander Barnes. “Apparently the enemy was convinced that a landing was about to take place when it detected the ‘large number’ of boats in our group approaching the beach, for they opened a heavy and accurate fire with radar control.... I immediately reversed course and opened the range. One shell damaged the rudder of a crash boat and another fell ten yards astern of a PT.
“The demonstration was called a success and we withdrew.”
The next day enemy newspapers reported that an attempted landing on the southwest coast of Sicily had been bloodily repulsed.
Soldiers of the American and British landing forces swarmed over Sicily, taking Italian prisoners by the hundreds. Some Americans were amused, some depressed by the standard joke of many surrendering Italian soldiers: “Don’t be sorry for me. I’m going to America and you’re staying in Sicily.”
Palermo, major city on the northwestern coast, fell to the Allies on July 22nd, and the jaunty boats of Squadron Fifteen were the first Allied naval power to show the flag in the harbor. They picked their way through the sunken hulks of fifty ships. The dockside was a shambles. In a word, Palermo was a typical PT advanced base.