“He must have seen us, because whatever it was—probably an E-boat—speeded up and ducked into the island before we could make contact. That presented the first difficulty of a rocket installation. There we were with the racks all loaded and the safety pins out. The weather had picked up a little, and getting those pins back in the rockets and the racks unloaded was going to be a touchy job in the pitch dark on wet, tossing decks. I decided to leave them there for a while to see what would happen. “About midnight it started to kick up a good deal more. I had just about decided that whatever it was we were looking for wasn’t going to show up, and I was getting pretty worried about the rockets heaving out of the racks and rolling around in a semiarmed condition on deck. I decided to take one last turn around our patrol area and head for the barn. “On our last southerly leg we picked up a target coming north at about eight knots, and I closed right away, thinking to spend all our rockets on whatever it was. As we got closer, it appeared to be two small targets in column—a conclusion which I later used as an outstanding example of ‘Don’t trust your interpretation of radar too blindly.’ “Just about the time we got to the 1,000-yard firing range the lookouts started reporting vessels everywhere, all the way from our port back around to our starboard bow. I had arranged the other two boats on either side in line abreast and ordered them to stand by to fire on my order over the radio. I gave the order and we all let go together. “During the eleven seconds the rockets were in flight nobody fired a shot, but a couple of seconds after the rockets landed what seemed like a dozen enemy craft opened up. The formation was probably three or four F-lighters escorted by two groups of E-boats. We had passed through the two groups of escorts on our way to our firing position. “Now it was time to turn away, and as my boat turned to the right we found that the 202 was steaming right into the convoy. To avoid collision we had to turn back and parallel the 202. “Just at that time the engines on my boat started to labor and unbelievably coughed and died—all three of them. We were smack dab in the center of the whole outfit, with the enemy shooting from all sides.... The volume was terrific. “The 203 had lost all electric power, including the radar and compass lights. She saw the two of us off our original course and came back to join us, making a wide circle at high speed and laying smoke. It is impossible to say exactly what happened; the melee was too terrific. “The 202 had a jammed rudder which they were able to clear. She eventually got out by ducking around several vessels, passing as close as 100 yards. The 203 likewise got out by ducking in and out of the enemy formation, but we on the 211 just sat there helpless, watching the whole show.