protected convoys in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. On 6 July 1943, Tillman screened the sortie from Oran of a convoy bound for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. In the days that followed, she 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 off Tillmans starboard bow, temporarily knocking out her radar. An hour later, Tillman silenced a shore battery which had been firing on Yellow Beach. Enemy aircraft, 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 11 July, she repelled enemy aerial 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 Luftwaffe torpedo plane. Patchy haze limited visibility to when the plane, incorrectly identified as friendly, dropped torpedoes. Quick maneuvering saved Tillman from destruction by the torpedo which crossed about ahead and passed down her port side trailing a sinister wake. During the same attack, the destroyer 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 1943 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 French 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 armed with glide bombs, took part in