Convoy SLS 64

12 February 1941, North Atlantic, east of the Azores

German victory; seven merchant ships sunk

Admiral Hipper sailed from Brest again on 1 February 1941. On 11 February she sank a straggler, and at dawn the next day came on convoy SLS 64, 19 slow ships from Freetown that had no warship escort. Passing herself off as a British cruiser until she was close, she opened fire and in an hour sank seven ships and damaged two more before the rest scattered. She was back in Brest on 15 February. Her engines were giving so much trouble that in March she went home to Germany through the Denmark Strait.