Sinking of Cossack

23–27 October 1941, Atlantic, west of Gibraltar

German success; Cossack sunk

Cossack, the destroyer that had freed the Altmark prisoners and led the night attacks on Bismarck, was escorting convoy HG 75 from Gibraltar to Britain when, on the night of 23 October 1941, Klaus Bargsten in U-563 hit her with a single torpedo. It blew off her bow and set her forward part on fire; 159 of her crew were killed. A tug from Gibraltar took her in tow, but the weather worsened, the tow had to be slipped, and she sank on 27 October.