RN:
County-class heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland underway in wartime disruptive paint scheme, 11 Mar 1942, location unknown. Note large aircraft hangar enclosure on the afterdeck.
L class destroyer HMS Lightning (G55) at a bouy
During late February and March 1943
Lightning was escorting troop and supply ships between
Algiers and
Bône in the day and attacking enemy convoys at night. When in harbour she was attacked every day by enemy aircraft and acted as an anti-aircraft ship. On her last voyage,
Lightning left Bône alone at 1745 hours on the evening of Friday 12 March 1943 and after joining
Loyal provided flanking screening cover to the cruisers
Aurora and
Sirius. The plan was to attack a German convoy out of Sicily bound for Tunisia. But when the convoy heard
Lightning had left port, they returned to harbour. At 1851 hours
Lightning was attacked by twelve German torpedo bombers.
Lightning shot down one of the bombers and the attack itself failed to do any damage.
At about 2200 hours interpreters on board
Lightning intercepted a radio message in German, stating that they were about to attack
Lightning. At about 2215 hours the
German motor torpedo boat (
Schnellboot)
S-158 of the 7th S-Boat Flotilla (First Lieutenant at Sea Schultze-Jena) fired the first torpedo, disabling
Lightning. The ship's company had no time to return fire: they were not operating
RDF, ASDIC or
HF-DF and were not at full fighting condition due to heavy fighting that had been almost continuous during the past few days. The captain turned the ship hard to port to comb the track of the torpedo, but
Lightning was too slow and was hit on the port bow, blowing it clean off. Then a second E-boat,
S-55 of the 3rd S-boat flotilla (Kommandant
Horst Weber), circled the ship and moved round to the starboard side.
[6] The German torpedo boat fired a second torpedo that hit beneath the funnel, destroying both boiler rooms, the
pom pom and forward torpedo tubes on the upper deck. Moments later
Lightning was abandoned – she had begun sinking almost immediately after the second torpedo hit. One survivor was picked up by
S-158 and the remaining 180 survivors (including the captain, Commander Hugh Greaves Walters DSC) were picked up some hours later by sister ship
Loyal, arriving Bone 0500 13 March. Survivors transferred to
Sirius. The ship's company disbanded, transferred to other ships and shore base
HMS Hannibal in Algiers.
Swan class sloop HMS Wild Goose (U 45) 1 April, 1943