As HMS SEALION dived, the depth charges which had been set to explode under her and seemed to hurl SEALION to the surface. The First Lieutenant was flooding every tank he could, but still the boat rocketed upwards out of control, and they could hear the escorts pounding in. If they broke surface, it would be the end of SEALION.

At first, it seemed as nothing would stop her from surfacing, but with less than five feet to spare, she went hurtling down, terribly heavy, as the hunt went on above them. Down came pattern after pattern of depth charges, tossing the boat around like a piece of cork - the lights went out, the depth gauges went haywire then gave up, the ASDIC went off the board and paint ships rained down as the boat shuddered to the shocks. In the darkness, SEALION went plunging down past the 300 foot depth she was designed to stand, her hull creaking and groaning as it was distorted under the water pressure. SEALION blew her main ballast tanks to try and stop their rapid descent. Depth charges reverberated, when at last her bow started to life, the descent was checked.

They vented the main ballast tank and hoped that no one above would notice the air bubbles coming up as the sea was boiling from all the depth charges. They had caught her in time.....but it could not have been much above the depth at which the hull would have collapsed.

The boat was porpoising like a wounded whale as they tried to trim her and bring her under control. The reverberations died away, and all was strangely silent in the boat except for the creaking of the hull protesting at the pressure caused by the water at that depth - and then again the shuddering roar of another pattern of depth charges, but not as close.

The ASDIC set, SEALION’s normal listening device, as well as three of the four hydrophones, were out of action. Eventually the First Lieutenant trimmed the boat and SEALION became controllable, and escaped from her hunters.....at least, temporarily.

In the thunder of their own depth charging patterns, with only one hydrophone working, it was difficult for SEALION to locate her hunters, so as to evade their attacks but good fortune favored them, and the depth charges became less frequent and more distant. The nine ASW vessels who had been hunting SEALION suddenly dashed off to attack someone else! SEALION continued circling around until they could not hear any activity above them whatsoever. The attack lasted for two hours, but to the crew it seemed much longer.

Ben Bryant brought SEALION up to periscope depth and he raised the big bi-focal, high-power periscope with its six magnifications, to give him a much better detailed picture. The sea was clear of the hunters, but coming towards them, unescorted, was a large tanker. The tanker would pass about 1,000 yards off; a nice shot and a fat target. Then, for the second time that day, the fates decreed against SEALION. Down came a blinding rain squall, and visibility dropped to a few yards and the target was completely invisible. SEALION turned onto a parallel course and surfaced to give chase, but when the rain cleared, the tanker had zigged away and was too far away for SEALION to catch. So SEALION took the opportunity to recharge her batteries and ventilate the boat.

In the early hours of the morning, before they could complete the recharge, SEALION had to dive to escape patrolling aircraft. Air patrols had been stepped up one hundred percent, because of the increase in troopship traffic. Apart from constant air and surface patrols, the next day was uneventful for SEALION, but it was evident that the enemy hunters were properly turned on.

HMS SHARK was going to relieve SEALION the next day, and LCDR Ben Bryant decided the he must warn SHARK to keep out of the area and SEALION’s billet because of the increase in the enemy’s ASW activities, this meant relaying a message to England because only RUGBY could transmit to a submerged submarine and SEALION had to surface to do this. It was a risk he had to take.

SEALION surfaced, the skies were clouded over, low clouds, but at least there were no aircraft in sight. After a few seconds of the conning tower hatch being opened and before the lookout could take their stations, a German DORNIER dived out of the low clouds at them. It was if the DORNIER had been waiting just for them. As SEALION dived, two depth charges straddled her as she went down, again without completing their battery charge or getting a message to SHARK. This time there were no surface craft to follow up the DORNIER’s attack.

Soon after midnight, LCDR Ben Bryant brought SEALION to the surface again. The heavens remained black and one could not see what was behind the low clouds, but unless they could charge their batteries, they were impotent, not could they get away from Stavanger submerged. They would have to make a run for it on the surface. Also, it was important to get a message to SHARK and warn her of the potential danger. No sooner had the conning tower broke the surface and the hatch opened, a German HEINKEL bomber came out of the clouds so close that she did not have time to drop her bombs on SEALION! SEALION dived and was clear of that position when the bombs came down, then the HEINKEL dropped depth charges, this time causing no damage to SEALION. The air in the boat was foul and the crew were already panting - one always did as the Carbon Dioxide collected.

The conning tower hatch had not been open for more than a few seconds during either of SEALION’s attempts to surface, and no fresh air had reached the boat. The batteries were practically flat and another dive would finish them off. The enemy knew where SEALION was, and she could not get away submerged and equally they could not surface as they did not have enough battery power. The only thing SEALION could do was to stick it out submerged & hope that the crew would be able to last until the enemy gave up.

SEALION found a water layer to sit on and her crew stopped the main motors, switched out practically every light, turned all machinery off, then settled down to wait. From time to time the crew renewed the trays of soda lime which were laid out throughout the boat. They were meant to absorb the carbon dioxide and so, after a fashion, they did but without a proper air-conditioning plant to force the foul air through the absorbent, it could only be partially effective.

SEALION could still receive routine signals from RUGBY and from time to time SEALION came off her water layer to periscope depth to have a look around, but there was always a German ASW vessel in sight. The hours dragged by and the crew all had headaches. They could not sleep and their bodies felt cold and clammy. SEALION received an enemy report stating a ship was coming their way. With her battery power so low, SEALION could not intercept her. She would have to wait for the enemy ship to come to her.