Base: Aldergrove
Time Up: 0105 - Time Down: 1715 - Duration: 16 hrs 10mins
Op: A/S Escort

Crew: Capt: F/O G.B Lynch - Nav: W/O W.N Prentice - 2nd Pilot: Sgt A Kenney - P/O K. Wordsworth - F/S T Smith - Sgt J.L Parker - Sgt V.T Riley

F/O GB Lynch RAAF sighted 3 U-boats and attacked two. The first was sighted at 07:45 some 800 nautical miles (1,400 km) from Aldergrove. The U-boat was fully surfaced and an immediate attack forced the boat to dive. No results observed in rough sea and bad visibility, which cuased pilot to fail to rediscover scene of attack until 15 mins later.

At 1030hrs some 30 miles from the convoy another fully surfaced U-boat was sighted off the convoy's port beam. Attacked with 2 D.C's in the face of continuous fire from machine guns and cannon. U-boat remained surfaced after attack and continued firing. Aircraft left owing to P.L.E (Prudent Limit of Endurance - aka Point of No Return) and lack of further D.C's and on way home did dummy attack on U-boat at 1150 hours and forced it to crash dive.

Update July 2012: According to the Ubootwaffe site - the first attack at 0745 hrs was on U-418, from which the U-boat was "heavily damaged"... On 1 Jun 1943 - just under two weeks later, U-418 was sunk by an aircraft of No.236 Sqn RAF.

Unknown

During WWII, the RAF used three-letter codes to identify their aircraft from a distance. Two large letters were painted before the roundel, which signified the squadron to which the aircraft belonged, and another letter was painted after the roundel which indicated the individual aircraft. Aditionally, there was the individual serial number for each aircraft, which was painted in a much smaller size, usually somewhere at the rear of the aircraft: (more)

Codes used by RAF 59 Squadron:

PJ Sep 1938 - Sep 1939
TR Sep 1939 - Oct 1942
1 Aug 1943 - Jul 1944
WE Jul 1944 - Oct 1945
BY Oct 1945 - Jun 1946, Dec 1947 - Oct 1950