Afterwards the truth — known to Roosevelt at the time — came out: a British warplane had informed the Greer that a German submarine was in the area. The Greer located the submarine and kept tracking it, meanwhile broadcasting its location to any and all British planes and ships in the area. One British plane dropped depth charges, but missed; finally, after hours of being tracked by the Greer, the submarine turned and fired a torpedo, which also missed. The Greer answered with eight depth charges, then, a few hours later, more depth charges. Finally, both ships broke off the engagement.
