Sailing out of Lorient in early 1941, heading towards the BE grids by way of the Southern part of the Biscay Bay to minimize the threat of detection by aircraft. As we approached the BE grids at night, a lookout reported sighting a warship closing fast. A quick look revealed a destroyer coming from the North, and while he was quite a ways off yet, he was coming fast. I was sure we hadn't been spotted, yet why was he coming South so fast? Another look revealed that while he was closing, and would pass close to us, he wasn't headed directly towards us, a most puzzling question I could not answer at the moment. I ordered a sound check dive and soon had my answer. There was a whole task force up there with several heavy units being heard in it. I plotted their course as due South and saw we had a chance of a long range intercept with the main column if we stayed hidden at periscope depth. We pressed onward while I checked the scope. They soon popped into view, and what a shock to see, a Bogue class carrier was leading the center column, followed by an Illustrious class carrier, and a Southhampton class cruiser. I could not believe what I was seeing! Shaking off the shock, I quickly decided to try and damage both carriers enough that I could finish them off once the escorts left the area, provided I survived the pounding that was sure to follow the attack. I targeted one eel for the Bogue, and three for the Illustrious, hoping to get at least one hit on both, and fired. Being outside the destroyer screen, gave enough time to go into reverse and put a little distance between the firing point, and our position. Being as the Task Force was moving fast, they evidently never picked up the sound of our torpedoes, because they never reacted to them till the first one hit on the Bogue minutes later. There was a huge explosion after the hit, and the Bogue went dead in the water. I turned my attention to the Illustrious and saw she was starting to turn. Thinking there was not much of a chance of a hit on her, I almost ordered the scope down when boom, boom, boom, three hits on her near the bow, luck was with us this time! Long story short, both carriers went down, the escorts never found us, and we survived the patrol.
