Sinking of Python

1 December 1941, South Atlantic

British success; Python scuttled

After Atlantis was sunk, the supply ship Python took her crew aboard and went on to refuel the U-boats heading for the Cape. Codebreakers gave away the meeting, and on 1 December 1941 the cruiser Dorsetshire found her refuelling U-68 and UA. The U-boats dived; Dorsetshire fired a salvo to stop Python, and her crew scuttled her and took to the boats, while UA fired five torpedoes at the cruiser, all of which missed. Dorsetshire steamed off for fear of the U-boats, leaving more than 400 men in boats in mid-ocean. The U-boats took them in tow and aboard, and with the help of four Italian submarines brought every one of them back to France, 5,000 miles away.