SERGEANT JOHN HOYE, a rare enlisted-man pilot, was at the controls of his C-47 Skytrain My Little Ass, of the 316th Troop Carrier Group, when it had a close call during the July 1943 invasion of Sicily. On the night of July 11, American ships mistakenly opened fire on transport planes full of US paratroopers and gliders full of infantrymen. Hoye, whose plane was pulling a glider, describes running the gauntlet of friendly anti-aircraft fire.

Written by John Hoye, 316th Troop Carrier Group

We kept our altitude below 500 feet so the enemy wouldn't know we were coming. We learned later that as we were approaching the invasion fleet, a number of German planes had just bombed the ships from a higher altitude. Despite all the prior arrangements and coordination, we were suddenly caught in a terrifically heavy barrage of anti-aircraft fire from the ships as we flew over them. We came under fire and began searching for every flair [flare] we had on board. The flair we used that night was a red-red, so the Navy must’ve thought we were firing back at them.

The sound of falling shrapnel glancing off our plane was like hail on a tin roof, and we must have taken hits as we approached shore. I was too busy to notice, trying to maintain formation among the burning and falling airplanes around us. Some of the crippled planes came under fire after they were clearly finished, and some crews were shot at as they left their planes, having crashed in the water between ships. Many horror stories about that!