K for Killing

Last week the R.A.F. Coastal Command and the U.S. Navy let out a story about one of their most important antisubmarine operations. Over the Bay of Biscay giant, white Liberators keep a constant, 24-hour patrol. They sweep back & forth in a perpetual search to nail subs before they spew out into mid-Atlantic from their pens on the French west coast. During most of the long hours the scanning eye sees only a wilderness of sea and sky.

But at 4 a.m. on a recent morning Liberator B for Baker sighted a surfaced U-boat, bright in the moonlight. Immediately he released depth charges. The sub fired back with cannon, then dived. For 2 1/2 hours B for Baker searched for it. saw nothing. Then suddenly R for Roger sighted it again and dove to attack from 60 feet. But Roger's bombs stuck, and on his second try shells from the battling sub wrecked his hydraulic system. Over & over he circled to keep watch on the sub while his gunner slithered in oil trying to fix the bomb releases.

After three hours Lieut. Kenneth Wright, pilot of U.S. Navy Liberator E for Edward, sighted Roger circling the sub, came roaring down to plant his depth charges astraddle the U-boat in face of its heavy gunfire, circled and came back for strafing. Said Lieut. Wright: "We saw a big explosion. A moment later its bow submerged and it started trailing oil. We saw a dead man in the conning tower. When we left after 75 minutes the U-boat was down at the stern and still trailing oil."

Nine and a half hours after the fight first began, D for Donald found the sub awash, machine-gunned its conning tower as it sank out of sight.

Back in the Nissen huts, huddled around stoves, blue-jacketed flyers recounted the kill to shipmates. The story would brighten the hundreds of less profitable wave-skipping hours.

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