bombers, E-boats, and human torpedoes. From 22 to 29 January 1944, the ship repulsed repeated attacks by enemy aircraft and received credit for destroying one plane and probably splashing two others. During one attack, two ships of her division, DesDiv 13 were put out of action, Plunkett by a bomb and Mayo by a mine. In February, Niblack returned to New York for a brief overhaul, but was back on duty in the Mediterranean in May. The enemy driven from Sicily, North Africa, and Southern Italy intensified his submarine and air attacks on Allied shipping along the African Coast. One of the U-boats made the mistake of firing at a hunter-killer group which had just finished off another enemy U-boat. These American ships had begun the work of rooting the sub out, but were soon relieved by Woolsey, , Benson, , and Niblack. Niblack and Ludlow worked together in the hunt, which began 18 May 1944. British planes picked up the sub by radar at 02:40 the next morning and Niblack and Ludlow raced to investigate. Establishing sonar contact, the two destroyers dropped eleven depth charges, forcing the sub to the surface. As she started down again both ships opened fire, while the planes dropped bombs close aboard. When the target had gone under again, Niblack rushed in to hit her again with ten more ash cans. Coming up once more, turned nose down and made her final dive, leaving 20 survivors who were promptly captured. The summer months of 1944 were spent in fighter-director training. Gleaves and Niblack qualified as the only two fighter director destroyers in the 8th Fleet, and directed French and British planes in repelling the intense German torpedo plane attacks against Allied convoys during the invasion of Southern France. The initial landings on 15 August 1944 met little resistance, and for several days the ship controlled the routing and dispatching of all outbound convoys, taking her place in the outer screen at night. On 20 August she joined the inshore screen for , and during the siege of Toulon. She was frequently taken under fire by the large coast defense batteries of St. Mandrier and St. Elme and escaped damage from several near misses. Following the capture of Marseille and Toulon, she was assigned to Task Force 86 and later to "Flank Force," the Allied Naval forces which provided fire support for the 1st Airborne