R.D. Oliver was a Captain in the Royal Navy, during World War II, and was commanding the HMS Devonshire, a heavy cruiser, on 21 November 1941 when he was informed that codebreakers had determined that German U-boats were going to be surfacing near him, to refuel from a merchant raider, the Hilfskreuzer (cruiser) Atlantis. Devonshire sunk Atlantis.