the submarine chaser UJ2203 as it opened fire, zig-zagging until to a range of about , opening fire on the German ships. At Aliseo was hit in the engine room and brought to a stop but the damage was quickly repaired. Aliseo caught up with the German ships again and hit UJ2203 and some of the barges. At UJ2203 exploded with the loss of nine of the crew. Aliseo fired on UJ2219 and after ten minutes it exploded and sank. The barges, which were well armed and had been firing continuously, separated but three were sunk by At Aliseo attacked another two barges, which were also under fire from Italian shore batteries and the corvette Cormorano and their crews beached them. Aliseo rescued 25 Germans but 160 had been killed. Evacuation of Sardinia From 8 to 15 September, the Germans conducted demolitions on seven Sardinian airfields but Italian aircraft had begun landing on other airfields on 10 September, some en route to Sicily and Tunisia to join the Allies, others to operate from Sardinia with the Allies. Five Cant Z 1007 bombers attacked German ships in the Bay of Bonifacio on 16 September and aircraft retaliated with attacks on Sardinian airfields for the next four days. By 19 September, the 90th Panzergrenadier Division, a fortress brigade, anti-aircraft and units comprising 25,800 men, 4,650 vehicles and of supplies had reached Corsica from Sardinia. In Sardinia the XII Paratroopers Battalion of the 184th Paratroopers Division "Nembo" defected to the Germans. Operation Vesuvius The Free French General, Henri Giraud, feared that the Maquis on Corsica would be crushed unless the Allies intervened and gained the agreement of the Allied supreme commander of the North African Theater of Operations, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to intervene. Eisenhower stipulated that no Allied forces engaged in Operation Avalanche, the landings at Salerno (9–16 September) could be spared and the French must use their own ships and troops. From 11 September, French troops were dispatched to Corsica from Algiers; the submarine Casabianca ferried 109 men to Ajaccio and from 13 to 24 September the destroyers and delivered 500 men and of supplies. On 16 September thirty men and of supplies were delivered by the submarine , followed on 17 September by 550 men and of stores in Le Fantastique, and ; of supplies were delivered by the submarine . A US commando unit comprising 400 men, with of