09:05 on 10 May, she attacked the unescorted 5,214 GRT British Clan Line merchant ship Clan Skene about south-east of Cape Hatteras. The ship, carrying 2,006 tons of chrome ore from Beira in Portuguese East Africa to New York, was hit by two torpedoes and sank. Nine crewmen were killed, while 73 survivors were later picked up by the destroyer . Cremer noted in his Kriegstagebücher ("War diary") that the sinking of this ship was like .. a balm after these terrible depth charges. U-333 finally arrived back at La Pallice on 26 May. Third patrol U-333s next patrol was uneventful. Departing La Pallice on 11 August 1942, she joined wolfpack 'Blücher' north-east of the Azores from 14 to 18 August, but had no successes, and returned to port on 24 August after only 14 days at sea. Fourth patrol U-333 sailed from La Pallice once more on 1 September 1942, and headed south to the coast of West Africa, joining wolfpack 'Iltis' between 6–23 September. On 6 October the U-boat engaged the British about south-west of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Crocus detected U-333 by radar, and closed at high speed. The U-boat was rammed twice, and exchanged gunfire at close range before submerging, while the corvette dropped depth charges. The U-333 lay low, later surfacing and making her escape under cover of darkness. Both vessels suffered damage and sustained casualties. On the U-boat three men were killed; Bootsmaat Heinz Kurze, Maschinenobergefreiter Erwin Levermann, and the First Watch Officer (second-in-command) Oberleutnant zur See Bernhard Hermann, while several men were wounded, including the commander Peter-Erich Cremer. Command of U-333 was taken by the Second Watch Officer (third-in-command) Leutnant zur See Helmut Kandzior, who took the U-boat to a rendezvous with three days later, where Kapitänleutnant Lorenz Kasch, a Captain under instruction, assumed temporary command. U-333 also received medical assistance from a doctor on the Milchkuh . On 21 October the inbound U-333 was attacked by the British submarine about north-north-east of Cape Ortegal, Spain. The British submarine was formerly the German U-570, captured on 27 August 1941, extensively studied, and commissioned into the Royal Navy. Graph, on her first war patrol in British service, fired a spread of four torpedoes at the surfaced U-boat, but lookouts spotted the tracks and U-333 managed to evade them. U-333 arrived back at La Pallice two days later, on 23 October 1942, and Cremer then spent