Convoy OB-256 with over thirty ships departed Liverpool on Dec. 8, 1940, destination the U.S.A., but they had to cross the U-boat infested Atlantic to get there. Six days before on Dec. 2 U-100 sailed from Lorient, France, the boat was assigned not only to sink Allied ships, but to be a weather reporting boat. In this duty it was required that the boat signal back weather reports three times daily, this was not the most desirable task for a U-boat commander. However this was early in the war and Allied radio direction finding was in it's infancy, but the signals would be intercepted by the British and convoys would be re-routed from the area. The Allies welcomed such signals, knowing where a U-boat was reduced the risk to the convoy, the U-boat commander did not, it reduced his chance of scoring another combat victory, adding more tonnage to his tally and it was a tedious and dangerous operation for repeated signals might betray the position of his boat.

The convoy and the U-boat had to fight a heavy December gale, neither making good forward progress, the convoy dispersed on Dec. 12 some 330 miles south of Iceland, the U-100 had made it's way through the storm and had arrived on station at about 56N - 22W and began sending weather reports.

The commander of U-100 was Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke, who had already sent thirty-four ships to the bottom, and he wanted more. Even though bad weather made it difficult for the U-boat commander, he continued to hunt for his quarry. He had fired two torpedoes at an unidentified merchantman on Dec. 8, but both missed, this with the additional task of reporting the weather soured the mood of both he and his crew. But a sour mood would not prevent Schepke from carrying out his appointed task.

On Dec. 14, 1940 he found two ships sailing alone, these were SS Kyleglen, owned by Kyle Shipping Company of Wales and the SS Euphorbia, owned by the Stag Line of North Shields, onboard were sixty-eight men, only Euphorbia had any cargo, that a little over 3,000 tons of coal.

Schepke sank Kyleglen first, followed by Euphorbia, what happened on the ships in their final moments will never be known, all onboard were lost either in the sinking or in lifeboats. (The Stag Line had lost two ships named Euphorbia in the First World War, one on July 16, 1916 sunk by SMS U-39 and the other on Dec. 1, 1917 sunk by SMS UC-75.) It cost Schepke five torpedoes leaving him five fish in the boat. He used three of them on Dec. 18 to sink the Napier Star and fired the last two at an unidentified ship on Dec. 22 without success. U-100 returned to Kiel on Jan. 1, 1941. He sailed again on Mar. 9, 1941 only to be sunk on the 17th by HMS Walker D-27 and HMS Vanoc H-33, six of his crew survived, he did not. He sank no ships on his last patrol, but had sunk over 150,000 tons of Allied shipping before his death.