At 18.15 hours on 5 Sep 1944 the unescorted Ioannis Fafalios (Master Pantelis Palios) was hit on the starboard side amidships and in #4 hold by two torpedoes from U-861 while steaming on a non-evasive course at 8.75 knots in bad visibility about 250 miles east of Mombasa, Kenya. The engines of the ship stopped immediately and the crew began to abandon ship in rough seas without sending distress signals because the radio cabin had been destroyed. The U-boat was seen to surface on the starboard quarter about 250 yards away, passed on a parallel course and disappeared without questioning the survivors. The ship settled quickly and sank by the stern within four minutes. Seven of 29 crew members and one of four gunners (the ship was armed with one 6pdr, four 20mm and two machine guns) were lost. During the morning on 9 September, the lifeboat reached the uninhabited coast of Somalia and eventually made landfall near Kismayo at 22.30 hours on 10 September.