Very interesting. La Maddalena is a port on the Maddalena islands just north of Sardinia in the Mediterranean. In WW2 it was an Italian naval base until they abandoned it in 1943 after the armistice between Italy and the Allies was signed. Later that year it was taken over by US Navy MTB Ron 15 squadron, which used it as a patrol torpedo (PT) boat base through 1944. The squadron assisted in allied efforts in Italy and Corsica, patrolling, protecting amphibious and coastal operations, and attacking German shipping. If you pop down to Battleship Cove at Fall River, you can see a couple of PT boats of the type Ron 15 used during the war.
I could be well off the mark, but the location and the date match nicely with known US naval ops there, so it could be worth exploring further if you had any interest in doing so. I wonder too if ‘E-8’ refers to a pay grade such as is used across the armed forces, although I don’t think E-8 was established until the 1950s.
