At about 2200 hours interpreters on board Lightning intercepted a radio message in German, stating that they were about to attack Lightning. At about 2215 hours the German motor torpedo boat (Schnellboot) S-158 of the 7th S-Boat Flotilla (First Lieutenant at Sea Schultze-Jena) fired the first torpedo, disabling Lightning. The ship's company had no time to return fire: they were not operating RDF, ASDIC or HF-DF and were not at full fighting condition due to heavy fighting that had been almost continuous during the past few days. The captain turned the ship hard to port to comb the track of the torpedo, but Lightning was too slow and was hit on the port bow, blowing it clean off. Then a second E-boat, S-55 of the 3rd S-boat flotilla (Kommandant Horst Weber), circled the ship and moved round to the starboard side.Struck by Lightning, The Story of HMS Lightning 1941-1943, John Dann, (eye-witness) pages 136-38, The German torpedo boat fired a second torpedo that hit beneath the funnel, destroying both boiler rooms, the pom pom and forward torpedo tubes on the upper deck. Moments later Lightning was abandoned – she had begun sinking almost immediately after the second torpedo hit. One survivor was picked up by S-158 and the remaining 180 survivors (including the captain, Commander Hugh Greaves Walters DSC) were picked up some hours later by sister ship Loyal, arriving Bone 0500 13 March. Survivors transferred to Sirius. The ship's company disbanded, transferred to other ships and shore base in Algiers.Struck by Lightning, Dann, John (2019) pages 148-49
