Convoy SC 121 was the 121st of the numbered series of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Slow Convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island to

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. The ships departed

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

23 February 1943; and were met by the Mid-Ocean Escort Force Group A-3 consisting of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

(USCG) , the American , the British and Canadian s , , and and the

convoy rescue ship During the Second World War, designated convoy rescue ships accompanied some Battle of the Atlantic (1940), Atlantic convoys to rescue survivors from ships that had been attacked. Rescue ships were typically small freighters with passenger accomm ...

''Melrose Abbey''.Rohwer & Hummelchen 1992 p.196 Three of the escorts had defective

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

and three had unserviceable

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

.Morison 1975 p.342

Background

As western Atlantic coastal convoys brought an end to the

second happy time The Second Happy Time (; officially (), and also known among German submarine commanders as the "American Shooting Season") was a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping and Allied naval ve ...

, Admiral

Karl Dönitz Karl Dönitz (; 16 September 1891 – 24 December 1980) was a German grand admiral and convicted war criminal who, following Adolf Hitler's Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide, succeeded him as head of state of Nazi Germany during the Second World ...

, the ''

Befehlshaber der U-Boote The ''Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote'' or BdU (Eng: "Commander of the U-boats") was the supreme commander of the German Navy's U-boat Arm (''Ubootwaffe'') during the First and Second World Wars. The term also referred to the Command HQ of the U ...

'' (''BdU'') or commander in chief of U-Boats, shifted focus to the mid-Atlantic to avoid aircraft patrols. Although convoy routing was less predictable in the mid-ocean, Dönitz anticipated that the increased numbers of U-boats being produced would be able to find convoys with the advantage of intelligence gained through '' B-Dienst'' decryption of British Naval Cypher Number 3. Only 20 percent of the 180 trans-Atlantic convoys, from the end of July 1942 until the end of April 1943, lost ships to U-boat attack.Hague pp.132, 137-138,161-162,164&181

Battle

On 6 March sighted the convoy, which had been scattered by nine consecutive days of northwesterly Force 10 gales and snow squalls. The storm damaged the radio communication system aboard the escort commander's ship ''Spencer'' and ''Dauphin'' had to leave the convoy with damaged steering gear. torpedoed the British freighter ''Egyptian'' on the night of 6–7 March.Hague 2000 p.137 The British freighter ''Empire Impala'' stopped to rescue survivors and was torpedoed after dawn by . torpedoed the British freighter ''Empire Lakeland'' when the gale subsided on 8 March and four more stragglers were sunk by , , ''U-591'', and . On 9 March the convoy escort was reinforced by No. 120 Squadron RAF

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models desi ...

s from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and by the ''Wickes''-class destroyer and the Treasury-class cutters and from

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. torpedoed straggling Swedish freighter ''Milos'' on the evening of 9 March. That night ''U-405'' torpedoed the Norwegian freighter ''Bonneville'' while torpedoed the British freighter and torpedoed the British escort oiler ''Rosewood'' and American ammunition ship ''Malantic''.Hague 2000 pp.137-8 The Flower-class corvettes and reinforced the convoy escort on 10 March, and the convoy reached

on 14 March. Only 76 of the 275 crewmen of the sunken ships were rescued.

Ships in convoy

Sources

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References

{{reflist SC121 Naval battles of World War II involving Canada C Naval battles of World War II involving Germany

Background

Battle

Ships in convoy

See also

Sources

References