"vance" next got underway on 12 april with the other ships of cortdiv 45 and a destroyer escort division to screen the 102 merchantmen of convoy ugs-39 to tunisia. arriving at bizerte on 3 may, the warship left tunisian waters eight days later, bound for new york with gus-39. off oran on 14 may, a german u-boat slipped through the screen of escorts and torpedoed two merchantmen. "vance", holding the "whip" position of the screen (where the ship had the duty of shepherding stragglers) came up through the convoy, sighted the periscope, and attempted to ram. the u-boat "pulled the plug" and dove deeper, evading the onrushing escort's sharp bow. "vance" remained on the scene for 10 hours, subjecting the u-boat to depth charge and hedgehog attacks, until relieved by a squadron of navy destroyers. three days later, after an extensive hunt, the relief ships sank "u-616".