U-99's crash dive ends in damage, rescue, and scuttling

After firing his last torpedoes at a convoy, Otto Kretschmer intended to escape on the surface if a destroyer found U-99 at night. Panic, exhaustion, and inexperience instead led the crew to crash-dive against his standing orders. At 120 metres, the submarine came under a depth-charge attack from HMS Walker that smashed instruments and extinguished the lights. Kretschmer took her down to 185 metres, but failed motors, torpedo-room flooding, and a starboard list made depth control impossible. Blowing the tanks brought U-99 up bow-first, where the failed engines again prevented escape. Kretschmer ordered the Enigma machine destroyed and signalled Walker to rescue his men, prompting the destroyer to stop firing and approach cautiously. An engineering officer died during the scuttling, one of three crew lost that night. Kretschmer was the last man hauled aboard Walker and spent the rest of the war in British captivity.