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Re: Who knocked out the TA-38 destroyer?
Hello,
From David Brown's book, The Seafire:
The pressure against enemy shipping was sustained through October 9 (1944), with another 52 offensive sorties by the two carriers ("Hunter" and "Stalker"), but the two most valuable targets - a pair of merchant ships off Khalkis - had to be ignored when the torpedo boat "TA 38", formerly the Italian "Spada", was sighted heading south out of the Gulf of Salonika. As she constituted a threat to the Allied light naval forces in the Aegean, she was accorded priority for the fighter-bombers' attentions; eight aircraft of 809 Squadron ("Stalker"), supported by two flak-suppression Seafires of 807 Squadron ("Hunter"), bombed her in the Piliti Channel, claiming a direct hit and many near-misses. German records do not substantiate the hit, but the "TA 38" was stopped for a while and managed to reach Volos only with difficulty; there she was 'scuttled following air attack'. In other strikes on the 9th, 807 Squadron sank one Siebel ferry and left another 'well ablaze' off Cape Kassandra, 809 Squadron damaged two more Siebel ferries and set a large caique on fire, and a small combined force from both squadrons obtained hits on a 600-ton concrete barge off Mudros . At the end of the day, "Hunter" and "Stalker" began to withdraw.
See:
The Seafire.
Brown,David
London:Ian Allan,1973.
p.89.
Col.
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