- Order of battle for Convoy SC 7
-
HMS Fowey was one of the Royal Navy ships to come to the assistance of the convoy
Convoy SC-7 was the seventh of the SC convoys, bound from Sydney, Nova Scotia across the North Atlantic to a number of British ports, mainly Liverpool.[1] They were designated SC as their departure point was designated Sydney, Cape Breton in order to avoid confusion with Sydney in Australia.[2] The convoys formed part of the battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. Large numbers of merchants travelled together with naval escorts to protect against U-boat attacks. They were often slow, the merchants often only being capable of a speed of around eight knots and so were particularly vulnerable to attack.[2] This problem was exacerbated by a shortage of suitable escorts from either the Royal Canadian Navy or the Royal Navy in the early stages of the war.[3]
Convoy SC-7 left Sydney on 5 October 1940, consisting of 36 merchants initially escorted by the Canadian armed yacht HMCS Elk and the British sloop HMS Scarborough.[4] Having seen the convoy out of Canadian waters, Elk turned back on 7 October leaving the convoy to spend three quarters of the crossing escorted by the lone Scarborough.[4] One of the merchants, SS Winona had developed engine problems and also turned back.[4] The crossing was uneventful to begin with, the only casualty being the corvette HMS Bluebell. The night of 18/19 October saw the successful use of the wolf pack tactics of Germany's U-boat fleet. Five U-boats; U-46, U-99, U-100, U-101 and U-123 attacked en-masse, overwhelming the escorts, newly reinforced by HMS Leith and Heartsease.[7] They sank 16 merchants in a six hour period, bringing the total to twenty merchants sunk and a total tonnage lost of 79,592 Gross registered tons. The U-boats only broke off their attacks to intercept Convoy HX-79 that had arrived in the area. They went on to sink a further 12 ships from this convoy, for a total of 28 ships sunk on 18/19 October, making this the deadliest two days of the battle of the Atlantic.[7] The surviving merchants were gathered up by the remaining escorts and brought into port several days later.
Contents
Merchants
This along with the * indicates that the ship was sunk
Name Nationality Cargo Fate Date of attack Survivors Dead Notes Aenos Greek Wheat Sunk by U-38* 17 October 25 4 Straggler Assyrian British Grain Sunk by U-101* 19 October 34 17 Convoy commodore's ship Beatus British Steel, timber and aircraft Sunk by U-46* 18 October 37 0 Blairspey British Timber Damaged by U-101
Damaged by U-10018 October
19 October34 0 Reached port, repaired and returned to service. Dutch Timber Damaged by U-100
Sunk by U-123*18 October
19 October25 0 Straggler Swedish Pulpwood Sunk by U-46* 18 October 22 0 Corinthic British Steel and scrap metal Reached port safely 21 0 Norwegian Pit props Reached port safely 53 0 Canadian Timber Sunk by U-124* 16 October 14 7 Straggler. First ship lost. American Timber Returned to port 34 0 Escorts
Name Class Navy Date joined Date departed Notes HMS Bluebell Flower class corvette Royal Navy 18 October 21 October HMCS Elk Armed yacht Royal Canadian Navy 5 October 7 October HMS Fowey Shoreham class sloop Royal Navy 18 October 21 October HMS Heartsease Flower class corvette Royal Navy 18 October 21 October Dispatched with the damaged Carsbreck on 18 October HMS Leith Grimsby class sloop Royal Navy 18 October 21 October HMS Scarborough Hastings class sloop Royal Navy 5 October 21 October Lost contact with the convoy on 17 October and was unable to rejoin U-boats
Name Commander Ships sunk Ships damaged Notes U-38 Heinrich Liebe 1 1 U-46 Engelbert Endrass 3 0 U-48 Heinrich Bleichrodt 2 0 U-99 Otto Kretschmer 6 1 U-100 Joachim Schepke 0 3 U-101 Fritz Frauenheim 3 1 U-123 Karl-Heinz Moehle 4 0 U-124 Georg-Wilhelm Schulz 1 0 Notes
- ^ Canadian convoys
- ^ a b The Allied Convoy System
- ^ Battle of the Atlantic
- ^ a b c Convoy web
- ^ Sinking of Trevisa
- ^ Sinking of Aenos
- ^ a b Timeline of World War II
- ^ D/S Havørn, warsailors.com
- ^ D/S Inger Elisabeth, warsailors.com
- ^ D/S Karlander, warsailors.com
- ^ D/S Snefjeld, warsailors.com
- ^ D/S Sneland I, warsailors.com
- ^ D/T Thorøy, warsailors.com
References
- Paul Lund, Harry Ludlam : The Night of the U-Boats ( 1973) ISBN 0 572 00828 7
- Stephen Roskill : The War at Sea 1939-1945 Vol I (1954) ISBN (none)
- Dan van der Vat : The Atlantic Campaign (1988) ISBN 0 340 37751 8
- Arnold Hague : The Allied Convoy System 1939-1945 (2000) . Canada ISBN 1 55125 033 0 . UK ISBN 1 86176 147 3
External links
Categories:- World War II orders of battle
- North Atlantic convoys of World War II
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
