On 9 Sep, 1939, the Breedijk picked up 22 survivors from the Kennebec, which had been sunk by U-34 (Rollmann) one day earlier and landed them at Milford Haven the next day.

In the afternoon of 14 Sep, 1942, U-68 spotted the Breedijk, but she was in Zone A, an area previously reserved for own surface vessels. Merten queried the BdU to find out if it was friendly and got the answer: Angriff frei (attack allowed).

At 00.58 hours on 15 Sep, 1942, U-68 fired one torpedo, which struck the Breedijk (Master B.L.J. Ruygrok) in the starboard quarter and the vessel sank within 15 minutes. The master and one crew member were lost.

The crew abandoned ship in four lifeboats and Merten questioned the survivors. One boat was picked up by a British armed merchant cruiser on the 18 September and brought the occupants to Freetown nine days later. On 21 September, the survivors in a second boat were picked up by the Portuguese steam merchant Cubango and taken to Lisbon on 5 October. On 23 September, a British destroyer picked up the occupants of a third boat and brought them to shore two days later. A fourth boat with 13 men eventually made it to French West Africa (Cote d´Ivoire), where they were treated harshly, before they were allowed to go to Sekondi in British Ghana in December 1942.