Source...
NZETC
On the same day and about the same hour, Flying Officer L. A. Trigg34 made a most gallant attack on another U-boat about ninety miles farther north. It was his first operational sortie in a Liberator aircraft. His unit, No. 200 Squadron, was only in process of converting from Hudsons to the new type of aircraft, but as several U-boats were known to be in the area, it was essential that a Liberator be despatched on patrol that morning. The aircraft took off from Rufisque, near Dakar, shortly after dawn. Four hours later a surfaced U-boat was sighted and Trigg prepared to attack. The enemy submarine did not attempt to submerge. Instead it engaged the Liberator with its anti-aircraft guns, scoring repeated hits and setting the aircraft on fire during its approach. Trigg continued with his run in and made such an accurate attack that the U-boat sank a few minutes later. Unfortunately, immediately after making the attack, the Liberator crashed into the sea. There were no survivors.
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When the aircraft failed to return to its base, a search was organised, and during the next afternoon a Sunderland sighted a dinghy containing several men who were reported as survivors from the missing Liberator. It was not until a naval vessel reached the scene on the following morning that the occupants of the dinghy were found to be seven Germans, the only survivors from the U-boat. By a strange irony of fate the dinghy was one which had floated free from the Liberator at the moment of the crash. It had been found and inflated by one of the Germans half an hour after the U-boat sank. Among the survivors was the U-boat commander, who expressed sincere admiration of the pilot's courage in not allowing the submarine's heavy and accurate fire and the precarious condition of his aircraft to deter him from pressing home his attack.
'We sighted an aircraft and engaged it with all our guns,' he declared. 'As the machine was coming in to attack, it was hit and set on fire. Although his plane was well alight the pilot continued the attack, releasing his depth-charges from a height of fifteen metres. We could see our fire entering through its open bomb doors as the aircraft passed over us. Then the depth- charges burst near the submarine and I momentarily lost sight of the machine. However, I recovered from the shock in time to observe it dive straight into the sea.'
Flying Officer Trigg was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. Only a few weeks earlier he had received the Distinguished Flying Cross for two skilful attacks against U-boats whilst protecting a West African convoy in March 1943.
The members of his crew who perished with him were Flying Officer J. J. Townshend, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, Pilot Officer G. N. Goodwin, of Vresto, British Columbia, Flight Sergeant R. Bonnick, of Hendon, London, and four New Zealanders, Flying Officer I. Marinovich,35 Flight Sergeant A. G. Bennett,36 Flight Sergeant L. J. Frost,37 and Flight Sergeant T. J. Soper.38
Trigg Road at RNZAF base Whenuapai (Auckland, New Zealand) is named after F/O Trigg