“Engaged the nearest. She stops after three minutes.” (D-645)
There follows an account of a shot fired as the trawler lay stopped, and then, the final entry:
“Sunk by flak, with shots into her side. Sank by the stern.” (D-645)
The U-Boat Command made this comment on the action:
“Recognized success: Fishing vessel ‘Noreen Mary’ sunk by flak.” (D-645)
An affidavit by James MacAlister, who was a deck-hand on board the “Noreen Mary” at the time of the sinking, describes the torpedo tracks which missed the trawler, and continues as follows:
“At 2110 hours, while we were still trawling, the submarine surfaced on our starboard beam, about 50 yards to the northeast of us, and without any warning immediately opened fire on the ship with a machine gun. We were 18 miles west from Cape Wrath, on a north-westerly course, making 3 knots. The weather was fine and clear, sunny, with good visibility. The sea was smooth, with light airs.”
* * * * * *
“When the submarine surfaced I saw men climbing out of the conning tower. The skipper [of the trawler] thought at first the submarine was British, but when she opened fire he immediately slackened the brake to take the weight off gear, and increased to full speed, which was about 10 knots. The submarine chased us, firing her machine gun, and with the first rounds killed two or three men, including the skipper, who were on deck and had not had time to take cover. The submarine then started using a heavier gun from her conning tower, the first shot from which burst the boiler, enveloping everything in steam and stopping the ship.
“By now the crew had taken cover, but in spite of this all but four were killed. The submarine then commenced to circle round ahead of the vessel, and passed down her port side with both guns firing continuously. We were listing slowly to port all the time but did not catch fire.