Race. Repeated failures were psychologically unnerving. Unable to load the spare torpedoes from deck stowage due to icing and inclement weather, BdU called him home. The eighth war patrol took U-552 to West Atlantic and to the East Coast of the United States. Topp left Saint-Nazaire on 7 March, returning on 27 April. On this patrol, he sank seven ships with a total tonnage of . While at sea, Topp received the message on 11 April that he had been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (). He was the 87th member of the Wehrmacht to be so honoured. On 11 April, Karl Dönitz also awarded him the U-boat War Badge with Diamonds (). Topp's sinking of the has cast a shadow on his conduct in action. When he spotted the coastal steamer off Chincoteague, Virginia, on 3 April 1942, he surfaced U-552, overtook it from astern, and, without offering the captain the chance to surrender, attacked it with his deck gun from 600 yards, firing a total of 93 rounds. Captain Bill Webster was killed in the shelling. Atwater's civilian Merchant Marine crew of 27 suffered 24 lost lives during the attack. According to one account, when United States Coast Guard Cutter number 218 Legare appeared, it found the ship sunk with only several feet of its mast still visible. Bodies were seen, including one in a lifeboat riddled with machine gun holes. No direct evidence indicates he machine-gunned defenseless crewmen, and nothing in Topp's otherwise stellar career or postwar actions suggest he was capable of such an act. Topp's ninth war patrol on U-552 went to the North Atlantic, west of Spain. Leaving Saint-Nazaire on 9 June, Topp sank five ships totaling before returning to port 10 days later. Topp formed part of a strong wolf pack against Convoy HG 84. Topp engaged the convoy west-northwest of A Coruña. Topp achieved all his successes on this patrol against HG 84. On his 10th and last war patrol on U-552, Topp sank two ships of and damaged two further of . Topp had left Saint-Nazaire on 4 July and returned from the North Atlantic on 13 August. Upon his return, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords () on 17 August. He was the 17th member of the Wehrmacht to be so honored. That day, he