Sinking of U-559

30 October 1942, Eastern Mediterranean, off Port Said

British success; U-559 sunk and her codebooks taken

A Wellesley aircraft sighted U-559 north of Port Said on 30 October 1942, and five destroyers, Petard, Pakenham, Hero, Dulverton and Hurworth, hunted her for sixteen hours with depth charges. Late that night she was forced to the surface and her crew abandoned her. Lieutenant Tony Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier of Petard swam across and climbed down into the sinking boat, followed by a sixteen-year-old canteen assistant, Tommy Brown. They passed up her codebooks and Enigma papers, but the U-boat sank suddenly with Fasson and Grazier still inside. The weather tables they saved let Bletchley Park break the four-rotor U-boat cipher, Shark, which had been closed to it for ten months. Fasson and Grazier were given the George Cross.