1943
Tillman continued convoy duty in the wintry Atlantic and then participated in exercises off Casco Bay, Maine. Departing New York harbor in the early hours of 8 February 1943, a dark night with unusually strong tides, Tillman sideswiped the paravane boom of an improperly illuminated merchant vessel anchored directly in the channel. After repairs at New York, Tillman operated on the Eastern Sea Frontier in February and March, performing escort duties and participating in exercises. In the spring, the destroyer protected convoys in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
On 6 July, she screened the sortie from Oran of a convoy bound for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. In the days that followed, the destroyer provided neutralizing fire on beach defenses and picked off artillery which menaced troops landing near Scoglitti. Before dawn on 10 July, Tillman fired her first salvo into Yellow Beach at 03:31, as the assault got underway. At 04:30, a stick of six bombs dropped by enemy aircraft exploded 300 yards (270 m) off Tillman's starboard bow temporarily knocking out her radar. An hour later, Tillman silenced a shore battery which had been firing on Yellow Beach. Enemy air attackers, flying in low over the land where they were indiscernible by radar, harassed landing troops and supporting ships. Fear of hitting troops on the beaches forced the Allied ships to withhold their fire when aiming at the low-flying planes.
During the night of 10/11 July, Tillman patrolled off the invasion beaches. On the 11th, she repelled enemy air bombing attacks and supplied fire missions called in by shore observers. On 16 July, Tillman returned to Oran to guard returning transports.
During the remainder of 1943, Tillman escorted convoys in Mediterranean and Atlantic waters, experiencing: many dangerous moments as she protected vulnerable merchant vessels from enemy submarines and airplanes. While en route from New York to Bizerte on 2 September 1943, one day after passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, Tillman was attacked by a German torpedo plane. Patchy haze limited visibility to 2,000 yards (1800 m) when the plane, incorrectly identified as friendly, dropped torpedoes. Quick maneuvering saved Tillman from destruction by the torpedo which crossed about 30 yards (27 m) ahead and passed down her port side trailing a sinister wake. During the same attack, Kendrick (DD-612) was damaged by a German torpedo. Two days later, the convoy arrived at Bizerte, but the illusion of safety in port was dispelled on 6 September by a 30 minute air attack on the harbor. Tillman engaged the attackers with her main battery and machine guns. Thirteen members of her crew were injured when a spent shell exploded on the deck of the ship.
On 6 November 1943, as she steamed off the coast of Algeria, Tillman helped repel a German air attack on the port quarter of a convoy carrying troops and supplies for the Italian campaign. An estimated 25 German aircraft, many equipped with glider-bombs, took part in the raid, and sank two merchantmen and Tillman's sister ship Beatty (DD-640). In the first wave of the attack, a Dornier 217 singled out Tillman as the target of her glider-bomb. The radio-controlled missile came in at a terrific speed, but Tillman's machine guns splashed it in a violent explosion only 150 yards (140 m) off the destroyer's port bow. Soon after, a second glider intended for Tillman's destruction splashed and exploded, again only 160 yards (150 m) away, as Tillman shot down its launching plane. A third glider splashed off the ship's starboard beam as its parent craft turned back in the face of Tillman's concerted fire. During this first stage of the attack, Tillman maneuvered constantly and rapidly to evade the gliders. Her own safety temporarily secured, Tillman then turned her guns on planes attacking the convoy and splashed another attacker. Soon, the final and fiercest phase of the attack began as five German planes attacked Tillman. As her main battery engaged the raiders, Tillman turned left full rudder to evade torpedoes, two of which passed nearly parallel to the ship at distances of 60 and 100 feet (20–30 m). Moments later, as the destroyer swung to port to regain her station, a heavy explosion shook the ship. This detonation, thought to have been caused by a torpedo exploding in the destroyer's wake, caused her no serious damage, and she turned to the task of rescuing survivors from the sinking merchant freighter SS Santa Elena. She then proceeded to Philippeville to disembark the survivors.
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