Did you know about the American PT boat crew who were buried in the Channel Islands?

We recently wrote about the (now empty) American military graves on the island of Jersey (Read the article here), one of the Channel Islands (the only part of the British Isles that came under German occupation in World War II). (The Channel Islands in World War II) A few weeks later we shared the story of some of the people buried there (Read the article here), the crew and passengers of a C-47 Skytrain (The C-47) shot down in the area. Today’s short article is about some of the other former occupants of the graves: the crew of the patrol torpedo boat PT-509 (The “Devil Boats” of America), nicknamed Sassy Sue.
 
On August 8, 1944, PT boat squadron 34 was given a mission to attack a German convoy in the Channel Islands. Intelligence suggested the convoy as transporting supplies and high-ranking officers, but it was actually hauling artillery pieces from Guernsey to Jersey. Six PT boats were assigned to the mission, alongside the destroyer escort USS Maloy, which was to hang back and coordinate the attack based on radar readings. The German convoy consisted of two freighters and an escort of six heavily armed M-class minesweepers, led by M4626.

The PT boats took up two positions, one to the north of Jersey and one to the south, off Noirmont Point headland, in the early hours of August 9. One of the boats broke down on the way, so the southern group, “Barracuda,” only consisted of PT-508 and PT-509. On an interesting note, all PT boats participating were of the ELCO type, built in New Jersey, and the skipper of PT-509, Lieutenant Harry Crist, was a New Jersey native – and, of course, the U.S. state was named after the island where the boats were about to see action. (New Jersey and the Channel Islands)