The concluding operational account turns from famous actions to the routine escort work that defined much of a destroyer's war. The attacker is identified as a Type VIIC U-boat. Tribals carried ASDIC and depth charges, but only in limited numbers by later standards. Their large internal spaces also left them badly exposed to a torpedo hit near the center of the hull, unlike the survivable loss of a bow that Eskimo had endured. Cossack's fate contrasts a ship capable of dramatic offensive and diplomatic missions with its continuing vulnerability during ordinary anti-submarine escort duty.
Notable Point · 46:37-48:43
Cossack's loss and the destroyer's vulnerable routine mission
Cossack survived celebrated surface actions but was lost while escorting a convoy, exposing the destroyer class's limits against submarine attack.