Convoy TM 1

Convoy TM 1 was the code name for an Allied convoy during the Second World War. Nine tankers, escorted by Royal Navy warships, attempted to reach Gibraltar from Trinidad. The convoy was attacked by a U-boat wolf pack in the central Atlantic Ocean, and most of the merchant vessels were sunk. This was one of the most successful attacks on Allied supply convoys throughout the entire war.Morison p.326 The convoy was defended by the destroyer , and three s, , and . Seven tankers were sunk during the attacks, two surviving to reach Gibraltar.Blair pp.145-147 Two U-boats were damaged during the attacks.

Battle

located HMS ''Godetia'' on 29 December 1942, escorting two tankers to join up with the main convoy. made contact with the convoy on 3 January and attacked and damaged the tanker , forcing her crew to abandon her though the ship remained afloat. By now aware that a large tanker convoy was headed through the Atlantic, presumably to deliver supplies to the Allied armies in North Africa, Admiral Karl Dönitz, the German BdU (commander in chief of U-boats) ordered wolf pack "Dolphin" to attempt to intercept it.

made contact with the convoy on 8 January, and the wolf pack launched their first attacks that evening. attacked and sank and damaged . HMS ''Havelock'' launched a counter-attack, damaging and driving off ''U-381'', while ''Pimpernel'' and ''Godetia'' drove off and respectively.Rohwer & Hummelchen p.184 returned the following morning and attacked the convoy, damaging two tankers, , and , while damaged ''Empire Lytton''. and attacked, but failed to hit any targets. ''Godetia'' damaged ''U-134'' with depth charges.

kept in contact with the convoy, and in the evening of 9 January, ''U-522'' attacked the two tankers she had damaged earlier in the morning, ''Norvik'' and ''Minister Wedel'', and sank both of them. Meanwhile, ''U-442'' returned to the damaged and abandoned ''Empire Lytton'' and finished her off with two torpedoes, while ''U-436'' returned to the abandoned ''Albert L. Ellsworth'' and sank her with shells from her deck gun. came across , a merchant ship sailing unescorted and not part of convoy TM 1, and sank her.

The attacks resumed on the night of 10/11 January, with ''U-522'' torpedoing . Her crew abandoned her, but the ship was only damaged and did not sink until ''U-620'' arrived and sank her with a torpedo and gunfire. Other attacks that evening and over the next two days, by ''U-571'' and ''U-511'', fail to score any successes. By now the convoy was approaching Gibraltar, and the destroyer and the corvettes and were sent out to reinforce the escorts. Supported by Allied air cover, the convoy reached Gibraltar without further loss on 14 January. Two tankers, ''Cliona'' and ''Vanja'', survived from the original nine. The final action came on 24 January, when the abandoned hulk of ''British Vigilance'', torpedoed by ''U-514'' on 3 January, was discovered by , and promptly sunk.

Order of battle

Merchants

Escorts

U-boats

Wolf pack Dolphin

Others

Notes

References

* Blair, Clay ''Hitler's U-Boat War The Hunted 1942–1945'' Random House (1998)
* Darwin, Peter: ''A Day-By-Day History: World War II'', 2007
* Morison, Samuel Eliot ''History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (Volume I) The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1943'' Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1947)
*

U-boat.net

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