the bridge and a rain of debris showered the tanker from stem to stern. The plane's bomb failed to detonate. Captain Mason was telephoned from aft by the chief officer, who told Mason that the Ju 87 had crashed into the sea and then bounced onto the ship. Mason 'rather curtly' replied: "Oh that's nothing. We've had a Junkers 88 on the foredeck for nearly half an hour." As the ship turned slowly to comb torpedoes, two sticks of bombs fell, one on either side of the tanker. The vessel was lifted clean out of the water. Cascades of spray and bomb splinters lashed the deck, she fell back with a crash. Ohio had differential gearing which slowed the propeller automatically; on other ships, the same effect would have shaken the engines out of their rooms. Continuously bombed, the tanker kept on steaming until another explosion to starboard sent her reeling to port. The engine-room lights went out because the master switches had been thrown off by the force of the explosion. An electrician quickly switched them on again. The boiler fires had been blown out, and it was a race against time to restore them before the steam pressure dropped too low to work the fuel pumps. The engineers lit the fire starter torches to restart the furnaces. The complicated routine of restarting went forward smoothly and within 20 minutes Ohio was steaming at 16 knots again. Then another salvo of bombs hit the ship, shaking every plate, and once more the engines slowed and stopped. The concussion had broken her electric fuel pumps. While the crew tried to reconnect the electrical wires and restart the engines via the auxiliary steam system, the engine room was filled with black smoke until the engines were properly re-lit. The ship was making alternate black and white smoke and, with oil in the water pipes and a loss of vacuum in the condenser, Ohio started to lose way slowly, coming to a stop at 1050 hrs. The crew abandoned ship, boarding that had come to Ohios aid with another destroyer, . Ledbury soon left the stricken tanker after being ordered to go in search of the cruiser , which had been crippled by Italian motor torpedo boats. Under tow Penns commanding officer, Commander JH Swain RN, offered Captain Mason a tow with a heavy 10-inch manila hemp rope. With the tow line