13 December, 1943, 12.16: The hunt is about to end.Lt. Ogle's Radioman, ARM2c A. G. White, caught the exact moment when U-172's bow, her batteries and air supply exhausted, breaks surface for the last time, at an angle of about 60º and with almost no forward speed. Inside the boat all hands have already donned their life jackets and Dräger Tauchrettern, and are ready to make a hasty exit. ObLt. z. S. Hoffmann is next to the conning tower hatch latching mechanism, the first and second deck watch and the AA gun crews huddled around him in the Zentrale and in the conning tower room.