Find...and destroy! The order buzzed in Palethorpe’s brain as he leaned over the map, working quickly with dividers and pencil along the latitude scale.

‘I know it!’ he said savagely. ‘If that blasted bearing isn’t fixed soon, the enemy will be clear before we get into position!’

‘He might be that anyway,’ his friend Renshaw put in helpfully. ‘If he didn’t take the course we thought he would.’

Palethorpe jerked his head around. He stared hotly into the other’s eyes. Then he brought his head back slowly to stare at the chart. ‘Maybe you’re right, Boomer. Which only goes to prove what a blasted fool I’ve made of myself.’

Out there was an enemy convoy as big as either had ever seen – a mass of heavy ships, all heavily loaded, headed towards the Indies. And here they were, a crippled submarine, a good six miles away, with no hope of carrying out their mission. When Renshaw spoke, his bitterness was intense. ‘We find all right – but how do we destroy?’