My grandfather and namesake David Anderson was the captain of the S.S. Benmohr, the first ship to be sunk by the U-505 in March 1942.

As part of my research into the incident, I have tracked down a report dated 26th March 1942, which is based on an interview with my grandfather. In it, he comes to the erroneous conclusion that the Benmohr was attacked by three submarines based on various sightings of some orange lights. (The belief that U-boats always hunted in packs must have been widespread at that time). I have also managed to trace a survivor from the Benmohr, and he confirms that he saw two orange lights. He estimates that they were about a mile away - though clearly it was dark at the time.

The extract from my granfather's report reads:

"After the first torpedo struck the ship I saw 2 bright lights some little distance away, one on each quarter. These lights remained steady and were of an orange colour. The Second Mate informed me that from his boat he saw these 2 lights and also saw a submarine close to him on his starboard beam. I gathered from this that there must have been at least 3 submarines in the vicinity."

Can anyone explain what these lights were and why the crew of the Benmohr were lead to believe that three submarines in the area? Could the lights have come from small boats launched from the submarine? At the time, the sea was reported as being "smooth with wind N.E. force 1-2".

The lights could not have come from the life jackets of survivors. The same report says:

"We left England in March 1941 but we had not been issued with red lights for our life jackets."

Any comments welcome!