USN:
Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Savannah (CL-42) is hit by a German "Fritz X" radio-controlled bomb, while supporting Allied forces ashore during the Salerno operation, 11 September 1943. The bomb hit the top of the ship's number three 6/47 gun turret and penetrated deep into her hull before exploding. The photograph shows the explosion venting through the top of the turret and also through Savannah's hull below the waterline. A motor torpedo boat (PT) is passing by in the foreground.
USS Savannah (CL-42) afire immediately after she was hit by a German radio-controlled "Fritz X" bomb while supporting Allied forces ashore during the Salerno operation September 1943. Smoke is pouring from the bomb's impact hole atop the ship's number three 6-inch turret.
Savannah was the first American ship to open fire against the German shore defences in Salerno Bay. She silenced a railroad artillery battery with 57 rounds, forced the retirement of enemy tanks, and completed eight more fire support missions that day. She continued her valuable support until the morning of 11 September 1943, when she was put out of action.
A radio-controlled Fritz X glide-bomb had been released at a safe distance by a high-flying German warplane and it exploded 49 ft (15 m) distance from
Philadelphia. Savannah increased her speed to 20 kn (23 mph, 37 km/h) as a Dornier Do 217 K-2 bomber approached from out of the sun. The USAAF's P-38 Lightnings and
Savannah's anti-aircraft gunners, tracking this warplane at 18,700 ft (5,700 m), failed to stop the Fritz X bomb, trailing a stream of smoke. The bomb pierced the armoured turret roof of
Savannah's No. 3 gun turret, passed through three decks into the lower ammunition-handling room, where it exploded, blowing a hole in her keel and tearing a seam in the cruiser's port side. For at least 30 minutes, secondary explosions in the turret and its ammunition supply rooms hampered firefighting efforts.
Savannah's crew quickly sealed off flooded and burned compartments, and corrected her list. With assistance from the salvage tugs
Hopi and
Moreno, Savannah got underway under her own steam by 1757 hours and steamed for Malta.
Savannah lost 197 crewmen in this German counterattack. Fifteen other sailors were seriously wounded, and four more were trapped in a watertight compartment for 60 hours. These four sailors were not rescued until
Savannah had already arrived at Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta on 12 September.
