At 01.00 hours on 8 July 1942 the Olopana (Master Mervin Clement Stone), dispersed from convoy PQ-17 since 4 July, was hit by one torpedo from U-255 about 10 miles west of Moller Bay, Novaya Zemlya. The torpedo struck on the port side in the engine room, the explosion blew in all bulkheads. The vessel settled immediately, but did not sink allowing the survivors among the eight officers, 28 crewmen and five armed guards (the ship was armed with five .30cal guns) to abandon ship on four rafts. One officer, two armed guards and four crewmen were lost, three of them on watch below.
The U-boat surfaced and began shelling the ship at 01.16 hours with 20 rounds until it sank about 20 minutes later and questioned the survivors, gave them the course to land and asked if they had enough food and water before leaving the area. The survivors, 14 of them suffering from frostbite, made landfall in the Moller Bay on Novaya Zemlya more than two days later and were flown by a Soviet Catalina flying boat to Matochkin Strait, where they were put aboard the British steam merchant Empire Tide and reached Archangel on 24 July.