At 12.13 hours on 22 Feb 1944, U-969 fired a spread of three torpedoes at convoy GUS-31 about 15 miles off Bône, Algeria and heard two detonations. The Peter Skene Ogden and George Cleeve were each hit by one torpedo and were both beached, but later declared total losses.

The Peter Skene Ogden (Master William Petit Magann), the ship of convoy vize-commodore in station #111, was hit by one torpedo on the starboard side at the #5 hold. The explosion threw sand ballast, hatch beams and covers into the air, blew one of the after booms over the side, damaged the shaft and caused the propeller to drop off. When the ship began to settle by the stern, the eight officers, 33 crewmen, 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and eight naval staff members abandoned ship in four lifeboats and four rafts about two hours after the hit. They were picked up by a British escort vessel at 16.30 hours and landed at Bône, while the master and ten volunteers reboarded the Peter Skene Ogden to prepare her salvage. She was towed by the British tug HMS Hengist (W 110) to Herbillon, Algeria where she was beached at 18.00 hours on 23 February and later declared a total loss.