9 August 1944 Part 2

9 August 1944 US Navy Maloy account of the Jersey action and casualty evacuation

Editorial note: Parallel contemporary account. Its conflicting times are retained. The original chart explicitly warns that the second and third attacks are inaccurately plotted.

9 August Radar contact and attacks

At 0320 visibility was under 200 yards. At 0450 Maloy recorded radar contact bearing 032° true and described its distance as 12 miles from La Corbière. The enemy plot indicated course 150° true at 14 knots. At 0530 Tunny was vectored towards the enemy and fired torpedoes entirely on radar information in dense fog. No results were observed. At 0558 Barracuda was vectored to intercept southeast of La Corbière. Maloy could not plot the attack because the PT boats were beyond her approximately six mile radar range. Torpedo firing was reported and gunfire was heard. [G page 2]

0616 to 0725 Loss and search

At 0616 PT 509 reported, “I am right in the middle of them.” Radio attempts from 0619 to 0700 failed. Maloy closed to three miles from Jersey but could not find PT 509 by radar. The other PT boats rendezvoused at 0710, eight miles on bearing 140° true from La Corbière. At 0721 Maloy reported the loss to CTF 125. At 0725 the squadron commander boarded PT 503 and searched Jersey’s southern coastline with PT 507; Maloy searched three miles south of Jersey on a westerly course with PT 508 and PT 500. [G page 2]

0800 to 0823 Further action and casualties

PT 503 reported enemy contact at 0800. At 0810, as fog lifted ahead at 400 yards, she fired one torpedo. PT 503 and PT 507 engaged with gunfire and retired under smoke. Maloy heard a loud explosion, considered possibly a torpedoed vessel. At 0820 the boats rejoined. A fire and rescue party was called for PT 503, but smoke on her fantail was later attributed to a ruptured smoke generator bottle. At 0823 PT 503 came alongside and six casualties were taken aboard Maloy for first aid. PT 507 reported one slight wound. [G pages 2–3]

Casualties recorded aboard Maloy

The six men listed from PT 503 were Ensign Koenen, with a light fragment wound in the back; Brumm, GM3c, dead from multiple wounds; Albright, MM2c, with chest, scalp and face wounds and a very weak pulse; Albie, MM2c, with lacerations to the leg and fingers; Peppel, MM2c, with a large shell fragment in the left side of the back; and Lang, QM3c, with a light fragment wound in the shoulder blade. Names and ratings here follow Maloy’s list. [G page 3]

0926 to 1413 Return and hospital transfer

At 0926 increasing visibility prompted a return to Cherbourg at 23 knots. At 0950 Maloy reported her arrival estimate and casualties to CTF 125, requested a doctor be sent out by PT boat and suggested an air search for PT 509. At 1039 she contacted a Plymouth Air Patrol Sunderland flying boat and requested a search south of Jersey. Albright died at 1100 after unsuccessful attempts to administer plasma. [G page 3]

At 1305 the PT boats were ordered to return independently. At 1310 PT 501 transferred Lieutenant (junior grade) Kurrie, Medical Corps, and hospital corpsmen to Maloy. She resumed at 1312. At 1315 Kurrie pronounced Albright and Brumm dead. Maloy anchored at Cherbourg at 1400; at 1413 casualties were transferred to PT 503 for onward movement to the US Naval Hospital. [G page 3]

Assessment and differences between accounts

Maloy recorded PT 503 with two killed and four wounded, PT 507 with one wounded, and PT 509 lost with casualties unknown. No torpedo hit was established by observation; the explosion heard during the third attack remained uncertain. The search ended because improving visibility exposed the force to shore batteries. [G pages 4–5]

The squadron report gives departure at 1800, a first attack at 0535 and final engagement at 0800 and 200 yards. Maloy gives departure at 1707, first attack at 0530 and final torpedo firing at 0810 and 400 yards. The squadron report places reunion at 0837 and departure at 0840; Maloy records reunion at 0820, casualty transfer at 0823 and departure at 0926. These differences have not been reconciled. Maloy’s final page also prints PT 503 and PT 508 retiring, while its preceding page identifies PT 503 and PT 507 in the third attack. [D pages 2–3; G pages 2–5]

Original enclosure A. The chart explicitly states that the second and third attacks are inaccurately plotted. It is evidence of the contemporary plot, not an exact reconstruction. Plotting officer Lieutenant R. W. Harker. [G page 6]

US Navy — USS Maloy track chart for 9 August 1944, source set G page 6. The original warns that the second and third attacks are inaccurately plotted. Original image retained at source resolution.

US Navy. USS Maloy, Enemy Action Report dated 11 August 1944, source set G, pages 2–6. Supplied compilation: Jersey Convoy Action 13 to 14 August 1944.docx. Set letters and page or screenshot numbers refer to that compilation.