:hmm:
Here we go, leaves room for doubt unforutnatly.
"A sunderland was flying a course directly toward us. Lowe ordered us to dive, but the relief valve for one of the diving tanks refused to open. The stuck valve not only prohibited us from submerging, but also caused a dramatic imbalance of weight within the sub. Within seconds, u-505 was stranded on the surface with its bow buried deep underwater and it's stern sticking high up into the air at a 40-degree angle! We were absolutely helpless to escape the approaching Sunderland.
Lighting fast reactions by our CE Fritz Forester managed to temporarily free the valve. Meanwhile, the skippered ordered all crewmen to run to the stern end of the boat to help even the imbalance of weight. We all held our breath as the stern slowly began to descend back into the water, wondering when the sunderland would attack. Luckily it did not attack before we had a chance to escape.
We resurfaced at 1430 hours. All sorts of gallows humor enlivened our work as we repaired the relief valve. The best joke was that the English pilot failed to attack because he thought U-505 was an ostrich, with its head buried in the water and its tail sticking into the air. The grim humor masked the fact that we came very close to being killed, either by the sunderland or by an uncontrolled plunge to the bottom of the ocean."
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