At 21.26 hours on 10 March 1943 the lead ship of the Andrea F. Luckenbach´s column in the HX-228 , the Tucurinca was torpedoed and sunk by U-221. Five minutes later, immediately after lookouts spotted the periscope two FAT torpedoes from the same U-boat hit the ship. The first struck on the port side about 90 feet forward of the stern post and caused the after magazine to explode. The after end of the ship was blown off, destroying the after gun platform and killing the ten armed guards on station. The second torpedo hit just forward of the first and the majority of the nine officers, 46 men, 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and one passenger (US Army officer) immediately abandoned ship in two lifeboats. Others jumped overboard and swam to the boats, the rafts and wreckage. The Armed guard officer gave his life jacket to a seaman who did not have one, but the officer could not swim and was unable to reach a lifeboat after he jumped overboard and drowned. The Andrea F. Luckenbach(Master Rolf Neslund) sank within seven minutes.
In just over an hour the British fleet oiler Orangeleaf rescued 17 armed guards, nine officers, 37 men and the passenger and landed them at Clyde, Scotland.