3rd March 1941
12:44am 3rd March 1941 - Watch sighted a column of 2 merchant ships travelling NE roughly 12km South of our position. We had to draw the boat to about 6km to make proper identification after following a standard intercept course. Due to our low supply of torpedo's (1 G7a and 1 G7e in the forward tubes, 1 G7a in the rear tube ) I was forced to consider using the Deck Gun once again.Once the merchants closed within 4km we opened fire at the lead ship identified as a Granville-Type freighter, and set speed to 2 knots to minimise the chances of finding our range. Only the lead ship returned fire so we concentrated on that ship, we could pick off the following ship, a Coastal Merchant at leisure afterwards.
Our average hit rate seemed to be around 40% but was enough to send the Granville to the bottom at 2:10am. We then turned our attention to the Coastal Merchant which was sent to the bottom at 2:16am when it exploded, tearing the ship in half and sinking in under 2 minutes.By the end of the surface engagement we were left with only 86HE 8.8 shells but hadn't sustained even a single hit to our boat.
3rd March 1941 @ 2:10am
SS Sheaf Crown (Granville-type Freighter), 4751 tons. Cargo: General Cargo. Crew: 84. Crew lost: 45
SS Sheaf Crown (Granville-type Freighter), 4751 tons. Cargo: General Cargo. Crew: 84. Crew lost: 45
3rd March 1941 @ 2:16am
SS The Marquis (Coastal Freighter), 1868 tons. Cargo: Bauxite. Crew: 32. Crew lost: 1
SS The Marquis (Coastal Freighter), 1868 tons. Cargo: Bauxite. Crew: 32. Crew lost: 1
