Technical
Armed Merchant Cruiser
Sulzer diesel - twin screws, IHP 13,000
10,549 GRT - 10,192 DWT
502' x 60'25" x 29'75"
Service speed 15.5 knots
Armament: 6 x 6 inch - 2 x 3 inch AA

At 04:00 CET HMS Salopian, which was escorting convoy SC-30 (28 ships), was spotted by U-98 which was part of Gruppe West (8 U-boats). The first two torpedo spread fired upon it missed because the ship was zigzagging every 7 to 12 minutes. The next torpedoes, fired at 06:19 and 06:22 CET also missed.

While running on the surface at high speed in the fog to search the AMC, Gysae reloaded two bow torpedo tubes. At 07:20 CET the ship once again came in sight and at 07:25 CET, while still running at high speed on the surface, the two reloaded bow torpedo tubes were fired. One torpedo struck amidships, the other one in the bow. Since the AMC opened fire at the U-boat, Gysae then had to dive.

At 08:00 and 08:50 CET another two torpedoes were fired and both struck in the engine room. Nevertheless the ship still stayed afloat. U-98 once again reloaded the torpedo tubes, and while doing so observed more than ten lifeboats being launched while a motorboat tried to hide the ship by laying a smoke screen.

Finally, at 10:43 CET a coup-de-gr�ce was fired, which hit the target amidships. Now Salopian broke in two and sank in two minutes. A British warship rescued 278 officers and ratings.

Thanks to Walter Janssens for extra information on this page.

Unless otherwise stated, all dates and times are from the German perspective and are given in CET.
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