Office of Strategic Services Operational Groups

Mission:
To interdict the Genoa-La Spezia rail line which was the main supply route for supplies, weapons and armaments to the Cassino front and the Anzio bridgehead, by sabotaging two tunnel entrances southeast of the Framura rail station and booby trapping the open rails between them.

Summary:
1.Departed Bastia harbor on 27 Feb 1944 at 1845 aboard two PT boats delayed by 45 minutes because the lead boat with the working party on board had to be replaced due to a faulty radar. Lt. Harold Nugent, commanding the replacement, had no knowledge of the mission and only after clearing the mine fields was told to head to within four miles of the Framura station where the OSS personnel would take over the navigation.

2. 28 Feb. 1944 at 0125 they were three hundred yards from the shore and began debarking completed ten minutes later. Lt. Materazzi watching their progress by binoculars and radar noted they were drifting southeast of the target and to turn northwest. At 0200 Lt. Russo, commanding the shore group radioed that they were landing.

3. At 0245 having left the personnel on the shore he had climbed to the target and reported that it would take another 1.5 hours to complete the mission and return to he PT boats. He requested permission to remain to prepare the charges and complete the mission the following night. Lt. Materazzi noting that time was running out and possibility that weather or other factors might not permit a return told him to abort the mission and return to the PT boats. Reimbarkation completed 0315.

4. They arrive in Bastia at 0730. The mission is postponed until the next month.