RECOLLECTION

Bill Bracey 1996

During Operation “Husky”, the invasion of Sicily, on July 10,1943 at approximately 0230 hours, the USS Roe DD 418 rammed the Swanson head on going into the forward fireroom, port side.

The order was given to jettison ship, to remove all top-side weight. This included firing all torpedoes towards the beach.

You know often some people have urgent business else where. There were four of us torpedo men mounts but I fired all ten torpedoes by myself; no not “poor me”. I suppose they felt the need to be on the fantail to jettison depth charges. I installed propeller locks on all props, and was suppose to have tied the trip latch mechanism so the start lever would not be tripped. Normally the trip latch could be held over with your foot and the units could be:

1. Fired from the bridge electrically – didn’t work!

2. Fired by pull lanyard from the torpedo mount – didn’t work!

3. Fired by striking with a rawhide hammer. This worked!

However, the foot could not reach the trip latch mechanism which would result in the start lever being tripped. The propeller lock broke and caused damage to the rudder which caused the erratic runs. This is probably more than anyone wants to know.

Chief Signalman Sloan from the bridge observed what he thought was an illusion as the torpedoes seemed to be turning in an arc before they moved out of sight. It was no illusion!