At about 02.30 hours on 12 June 1943 the unescorted Palima (Master Josef Herman Kubinek) was hit by one torpedo from U-97 and sank with a heavy list to port within four minutes about 7 miles west-northwest of Sidon, Lebanon. The master and 23 crew members were lost. There was no time to send a distress signal or launch the lifeboats, so the survivors had to jump overboard. 33 crew members and four British gunners managed to rescue themselves on three rafts that had floated free. At dawn they were spotted by a British Walrus aircraft (701 Sqn FAA) on patrol ahead of a northbound convoy. The flying boat landed near them, took aboard one of the gunners who was injured and brought him to Beirut. Shortly afterwards three aircraft arrived at the scene, soon followed by a Free French motor launch sent from Sidon that began to pick up the survivors, assisted by RHS Aetos (D 01) from the nearby convoy. The Greek destroyer then transferred all survivors to the motor launch which took them to Sidon, where eight injured men were admitted to a hospital.