Why didn't U-126 attack the oncoming British cruisers?

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Panzerspitze
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Why didn't U-126 attack the oncoming British cruisers?

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Post by Panzerspitze » 03 Oct 2021, 12:00

At that point of the war, Allied ASW air patrol was not that ubiquitous. Given it's always a single British heavy cruiser doing the interception, without accompanying destroyers, why didn't U-boats such as U-126 resurface for a look-see and opportunistically attack the long British cruiser, on these two separate occasions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_aux ... r_Atlantis

"Early on the morning of 22 November 1941, Atlantis was intercepted by HMS Devonshire. U-126 dived, leaving her captain behind, as he had gone aboard Atlantis.[5]: 190  At 08:40, Atlantis transmitted a raider report posing as the Dutch ship Polyphemus. By 09:34, Devonshire had received confirmation this report was false.[23] From a distance of 14–15 km (8.7–9.3 mi), outside the range of Atlantis's 150 mm (5.9 in) guns, Devonshire commenced fire with her 8 in (200 mm) battery.[24]

The second and third salvos hit Atlantis. Seven sailors were killed as the crew abandoned ship; Rogge was the last off. Ammunition exploded, the bow rose into the air, and the ship sank.[citation needed]

After Devonshire left the area, U-126 resurfaced and picked up 300 German sailors and a wounded American prisoner. U-126 carried or towed rafts towards the still-neutral Brazil (1,500 km (930 mi) west). Two days later the German refuelling ship Python arrived and took the survivors aboard. On 1 December, while Python was refueling U-126 and UA,[25] another of the British cruisers seeking the raiders, HMS Dorsetshire, appeared. The U-boats dived immediately and Python's crew scuttled her. Dorsetshire departed, leaving the U-boats to recover the survivors. Eventually various German and Italian submarines took Rogge's crew back to St Nazaire.[citation needed] "

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