“Goodnight. Sorry for sinking you” said Korvettenkapitän
Karl Merten, Kommandant of
U-68, after sinking the British merchant ship
City of Cairo on 6 November 1942. After the ship went down he surfaced, came close abeam one of the lifeboats and made enquiry of what ship he had sunk. After being told, he gave them the best course to steer for land and apologized for sinking them.
(Source:
Life Line: the Merchant Navy at War 1939-1945 by Peter Elphick. Three stars)
SS City of Cairo in wartime livery.
| Karl-Friedrich Merten, Wolfgang Lüth, Friedrich Guggenberger, and Werner Töniges receiving the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross from Adolf Hitler, Karl-Jesco von Puttkamer, and Karl Dönitz. |
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Images courtesy of Wikimedia.]