At 06.04 hours on 8 June 1941 the unescorted and unarmed Dirphys (Master Nicholas Zambelis), dispersed from convoy OB-328 on 2 June, was hit on starboard side amidships by one G7e torpedo from U-108 about 550 miles east of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The ship broke in two and sank after a boiler explosion. The Germans tried to question the survivors, but most of them were swimming in the water or clinging to debris and were picked up by the only lifeboat that could have been launched.

At 09.45 hours on 10 June, the U-boat encountered this lifeboat again and this time took a German speaking radio operator (Robert Coninx from Hasselt, Belgium) aboard for questioning. He told them that he had been three months in prison in Liverpool after the Secret Intelligence Service filed a charge against him because he had met a former crew member of Admiral Graf Spee in Rosario and asked to be taken home, but the commander refused. The Germans gave the radio operator the course to the nearest coast and sent him back to the boat, which was provided with water, bread, two bottles of rum, aspirin and a box of matches. Only four hours later the 19 survivors were picked up by HMCS Orillia (K 119) (T/LtCdr W.E.S. Briggs, RNCR) in position 47°34’30N/40°11’45W and taken to St. John’s, Newfoundland.