The Rebels of PT-218

Merchant mariner Lex Fanjoy from North Woburn, MA was a boatswain aboard SS Lawton B. Evans on August 10, 1945, when the vessel was anchored off the Anzio beachhead during a violent gale and electrical storm. The barrage balloon floated from the stern of the ship at the end of a 1,000 foot cable. This wire was anchored to a winch and it became heavily charged with static electricity that discharged near an open hatch containing gasoline in cans. Fanjoy volunteered to cut the balloon adrift. Disregarding the possibility of electrocution, a shock that might knock him down, or dismemberment from the whip of the released wire, boatswain Fanjoy went aloft and cut the line adrift. He received minor shocks and when he cut the wire he was stunned by an electrical discharge that knocked him into the crosstrees below, narrowly escaping death.

The crew of the German U-Boot are wearing Wehrmact (German Army) uniforms, not Kriegsmarine (German Navy) uniforms.

References Machete (2010)