strafing runs. Nelson splashed one plane at 17:42 and an hour later departed in convoy for Algiers, North Africa. Returning to the battle area on 17 July, she took up antisubmarine patrol station around Gela and Scoglitti until 23 July, when she returned to Algiers. Later, on 30 July, she escorted troopships into Palermo Harbor on the north coast of Sicily. During this operation she was harassed by constant German air attacks. At 05:48 on 1 August she opened fire on a single plane, splashing it with the third salvo. Nelson returned to New York on 22 August, where Lt. Comdr. Thomas D. McGrath relieved Lt. Comdr. Riker of command on 3 September. The ship was assigned to North Atlantic convoy runs for the winter. This duty took the destroyer to Belfast, Northern Ireland three times and to Greenock Bay, Scotland, and Gibraltar once each. Invasion of Normandy, 1944 In May 1944 Nelson steamed to England to stage for the coming Normandy invasion. While moored alongside a tanker at Plymouth, England on 24 May, her port screw fouled a mooring buoy, causing extensive damage to the screw and shaft. Nelson was placed in drydock where the screw and shaft, deemed beyond repair, were removed. But the need for fighting ships was so great that Nelson got underway on 2 June with only a starboard screw. At Milford Haven she rendezvoused with a convoy, and by 8 June was in the Normandy assault area. The next day she steamed into position No. 13 on the "Dixie Line" as part of the anti-submarine and E-boat screen around the Omaha beachhead. E-boats were the German version of PT boats – speedy, agile, hard-hitting, and hard to hit. Armed with 40 mm guns and torpedoes, they specialized in night attacks. On the night of 8/9 June several destroyers on the "Dixie Line" had taken under fire and chased several of these E-boats, sinking two. Nelson was anchored in position 13 the night of 12 June. Thus far her only contact with the enemy had been in the form of a glide bomb which had exploded harmlessly off the starboard quarter during her first night in the area. At 01:05 on 13 June she made a radar contact, challenged the contact by flashing light, and opened fire. The target slowed, turned away, and split into three distinct blips. The destroyer had loosed ten salvos when