Whenever the German soldiers were flying over to attack, they would be picked up on a radar screen in an operating room, and because Ed's battalion was hooked up to the anti-aircraft communications system, they would get either a yellow or a red alert. The generators were stationed around the perimeter of the port, and would be fired up to create a complete cloud of smoke to cover all the ships in the port. The cloud formed may have little value during the day, but at night was very effective. Observed from the air after dark, the screen sometimes has the appearance of a large body of water. It may lead the bombardier entirely astray in calculating the location of his target with trouble making a direct hit because of such deception.
Dark smoke is better than white smoke since it absorbs the light and blends in with ground objects.
They screened the ports of Algiers, Oran and Bizerti in Africa. After he was sent to Europe, he screened the ports of Palermo, Italy, and Sicily. In Naples they had a screen that extended from Mount Vesuvius through the city of Naples all the way up to Bagnola. This was a 20-mile screen that included five companies. The five companies were the 69th, 78th, 168th, and two black companies, the 163rd and 164th with seven or ten generators in each company.