time the fighter escort was late, only finding the bomber force once it had been engaged by Japanese Nakajima Ki-27 fighters, with a further five Vildebeests and two Albacores shot down, and a further two more damaged so badly that they were written off. These losses—which included the commanding officers of both Squadrons—could not be sustained, and the remnants of the two squadrons were evacuated to Java on 31 January, being merged into a single unit. On 28 February, nine Videbeests attacked a Japanese convoy off Rembang in Northern Java, claiming eight ships sunk but losing another commanding officer. It ceased to exist on 7 March 1942 after its last two Vildebeests ditched off Sumatra while attempting to evacuate to Ceylon. No 36 Squadron reformed at Thanjavur in India on 22 October 1942, although it did not receive any aircraft until December that year when it was equipped with Vickers Wellington bombers for anti-submarine patrols off Madras. It flew its first convoy escort mission on 13 January 1943. It moved to Algeria in June 1943. One tactic used against German U-boats in the Mediterranean was known as "Swamp", the area around a sighting would be saturated with aircraft, keeping the submarine submerged and stopping it from charging its batteries. On 12 December 1943, the destroyer was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine while escorting the convoy KMS 34 off Algeria. In response, the area was saturated by ships and aircraft. During the hunt, U-593 sank another destroyer, , before a Wellington of 36 Squadron detected the submarine on radar on the night of 12/13 December. While its attack was unsuccessful, its sighting report directed the destroyers and to the vicinity, where they sank U-593 by depth charging, the first submarine sunk by the "Swamp" tactic. On the night of 7/8 January 1943, a 36 Squadron Wellington sighted off the coast of southern Spain, but was shot down when it attempted to attack the submarine. A second 36 Squadron Wellington responded to the sighting report and attacked U-343, but was damaged by return fire from the submarine although it did manage to safely return to base. On the next night a third 36 Squadron aircraft found U-343 and directed two Wellingtons from 179 Squadron to attack, one of was shot down by the submarine, which after yet further attacks by a Catalina flying boat of 202 Squadron finally managed to