Charybdis was assigned to a coastal sweep for the first time, with her captain, George Voelcker, also placed in command of the operation. German radar operators tracked the British force and passed its movements to a mixed force of R-boat minesweepers, radar-equipped patrol craft, and Elbing-class torpedo boats. Warnings were intercepted elsewhere in the British formation but did not reach the cruiser because radio silence lacked a procedure for relaying them to the commander. Charybdis withheld fire without visual contact while the Germans launched 24 torpedoes; she sank within about half an hour with her captain and roughly 400 crew. Roger Hill, the senior surviving officer aboard Grenville, then took charge of rescue and reorganization, and the loss helped shape the more disciplined methods later used by the 10th Destroyer Flotilla.
Chapter · 33:11-37:13
The Sept-Îles ambush
German radar, torpedo boats, and a British command-and-control failure turned the Sept-Îles patrol into a devastating ambush.