Convoy HX 79

HX 79 was an Allied convoy in the North Atlantic of the HX series, which sailed east from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The convoy took place during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. One ship dropped out and returned to port, leaving 49 to cross the Atlantic for Liverpool. Two armed merchant cruisers and a submarine escorted the convoy to protect it from German commerce raiders.

The oceanic escorts detached from the convoy at noon on 18 October, in the Western Approaches, where Convoy SC 7 had been attacked by a Wolfpack on the night of 18/19 October, which sank many ships and scattered the survivors. The Admiralty sent the ten ships and a submarine escorting Convoy OB 229 to defend Convoy HX 79, which arrived from 8:00 a.m. to noon on 19 October.

During the night of 19/20 October, U-boats attacked the convoy and sank twelve ships. The convoy escorts were inexperienced and not trained in common anti-submarine tactics, the four corvettes were new and crewed with inexperienced wartime recruits; the submarine got in the way and was attacked twice by the ships. The U-boats, having expended their torpedoes turned for home.

German military communiqués exaggerated the results of the attacks on Convoys SC 7 and HX 79, claiming an even greater victory than the one achieved. The British began to revise their tactics and organisation, creating permanent escort groups and hurrying the provision of new equipment like R/T for anti-submarine ships and aircraft to communicate.

Background

U-boats

File:Rockall topographic location map-en.svg

Rockall, Rockall Bank and the North Channel

From 22 September the U-boats , , , , , , , and were to pick off ships sailing independently and attack convoys in the area between the North Channel and the Rockall Bank. The first attempt to intercept a convoy with a line of U-boats on 7 October failed but several independents were sunk, including three from Convoy SC 6.

Convoy SC 7

SC 7 was a slow convoy which departed Sydney on 5 October 1940, ahead of the faster Convoy HX 79, bound for Liverpool with 34 ships. On 17 October, four of the ships had straggled and it had been met by the sloops and with the corvette . The U-boat sank two ships before Coastal Command flying boats forced the U-boat to withdraw.

Convoy HX 79

Convoy HX 79 was an east-bound convoy which sailed from Halifax on 8 October 1940 making for Liverpool. Twenty ships joined at Halifax, nineteen from Sydney, Nova Scotia and then ten ships from Bermuda, one ship dropped out and returned early. The meagre ocean escort of the armed merchant cruisers HMS Alaunia and with the Netherlands submarine accompanied the convoy in case of attack by a surface raider.

Prelude

Attack on Convoy SC 7

File:HMS Aubretia FL1199.jpg

, an example of a flower-class corvette

Having received the sighting report from U-48, Admiral Karl Dönitz, the (Commander, U-boats) established another patrol line with , U-46, U-123, , . During the night of 17/18 October U-38 attacked twice, sinking one ship befire being forced to retire by the corvette , which, with the sloop , had joined the convoy. Later in the evening, the convoy reached the U-boat patrol line and the escorts present, Leith, Fowey and Bluebell were unable to challenge U-101, U-46, U-99 (attacking from inside the convoy), U-123 and U-100 which overwhelmed the convoy escorts with massed attacks and sank sixteen ships, damaged one and scattered the survivors.

On 19 October, the 49 ships of Convoy HX 79 entered the Western Approaches, where the slow Convoy SC 7 had been attacked. In the late morning of 19 October Alaunia and Montclare turned west, handing over Convoy HX 79 to the 1st Escort Group (1st EG). The Admiralty expected an attack on Convoy HX 79 after the disaster befalling Convoy SC 7 and sent the 1st EG, the escorts of Convoy OB 229, to reinforce the convoy; eleven ships arrived from 8:00 a.m. until noon.Template:Sfnm The escort group consisted of the destroyers (Lieutenant-Commander Archibald Russell, escort leader) and , the minesweeper , the corvettes , , and with the anti-submarine trawlers , and . The submarine had also joined during the morning of 19 October.Template:Sfnm

Action

Day: 19 October

File:VIIC uboat shaded.svg

Cross-section of a type VIIC U-boat

Convoy HX 79 was sighted by (Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien) Prien transmitted a sighting report and shadowed the convoy. The U-boats U-99, U-101 and U-123 had fired all their torpedoes in the attack on Convoy SC 7 and sailed for home; those still operational were directed to the scene; (Joachim Schepke), (Engelbert Endrass) and which had failed to reach Convoy SC 7 in time and (Heinrich Liebe) and (Heinrich Bleichrodt) were guided to Convoy HX 79 by U-47, joining during the day. U-boats which failed to reach Convoy HX 79 in time continued to attack ships sailing independently. At the back of the port column, the British Brocklebank liner Matheran was torpedoed by U-38 outside the convoy. The torpedo hit No. 3 hold and the ship sank in seven minutes, with its cargo of Template:Cvt of iron and Template:Cvt of zinc, grain, machinery and general cargo. Captain J. Greenhall and eight crew were killed; 72 men abandoned ship and were picked up later by Loch Lomond, which was acting as a rescue ship.

U-38 entered the convoy and six minutes later fired a second salvo of torpedoes at the Maclay & McIntyre tramp Uganda in the third column, carrying Template:Cvt of steel and Template:Cvt of wood. Only one lifeboat was not destroyed by the explosion but there were no casualties, Captain C. Mackinnon and the 39 crew being rescued by Jason. U-47 attacked, also on the surface, sinking first the Dutch general cargo-vessel, Bilderdijk, loaded with Template:Cvt of grain and general cargo, the crew of 39 men surviving. Having sunk the second vessel in column two, U-47 torpedoed the Baltic Trading Company vessel, Shirak, the sixth ship in the second column, carrying Template:Cvt of petroleum products. The crew abandoned ship and Captain L. R. Morrison with his crew were rescued by Blackfly; as the convoy sailed on, U-48 finished Shirak off. U-47 attacked the new Ropner tramp steamer Wandby, on its first journey, with Template:Cvt of lead, zinc and Template:Cvt of wood from Vancouver; the crew being rescued by Angle. Wandby sank slowly going down on 21 October.

File:HMS Jason 1941 IWM FL 14225.jpg

The , photographed in 1941

U-46 had also fired at Wandby and close to midnight torpedoed the British tramp steamer Ruperra full of steel scrap and aircraft, the ship sinking quickly with the captain, D. T. Davies, 29 crew members and a naval gunner being killed; seven men were rescued by Induna. U-100 sank two tankers of the British Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company. Caprella (Captain P. Prior, from Curaçao with a cargo of Template:Cvt of heavy fuel oil .was hit at 11:15 p.m. The fuel did not explode but the torpedo hit it between the bridge and the engine room, breaking the ship's back. Lifeboats amidships and aft were lowered, without the chief officer, who had been on the bridge and was killed by the torpedo explosion. As Captain Prior and his crew abandoned ship, they could see Shirak burning nearby. The 52 survivors were picked up by Lady Elsa after about two hours. U-100 attacked Sitala, also bound for Stanlow with Template:Cvt of crude oil, killing a member of the engine-room staff; Captain J. L. Morgans and 42 crew were rescued by Lady Elsa.

Night 19/20 October

It was now after midnight, and Prien fired at Buries Markes's cargo-vessel La Estancia. Again one man below was lost, along with the Template:Cvt of sugar. Captain J. Meneely, 24 members of the crew and a passenger were rescued by Coreopsis and seven men taken on by Induna. U-47 still on the surface, torpedoed Whitford Point at the back of the convoy, carrying Template:Cvt of steel and sinking quickly with the Captain J. E. Young and 35 men; a survivor was rescued by Sturdy. After stopping to rescue the survivors of Matheran, the Maclay & McIntyre ship, Loch Lomond, carrying Template:Cvt of wood and Template:Cvt of steel, was attacked and sunk by U-100. Captain W. J. Park, the 38 crew and the survivors from Matheran were picked up by Jason. A straggler, the Swedish Johnson Line oil-tanker, Janus, a new 9,965 GRT ship, was sunk by U-46. Janus was the last ship of Convoy HX 79 to be sunk but U-47 damaged the tanker Athelmonarch, which made port. Convoy HX 79 arrived at Liverpool without further loss on 23 October. The convoy had lost twelve ships out of 49, with a tonnage of Template:GRT for no loss to the U-boats.

Aftermath

Analysis

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1976-127-06A, Karl Dönitz (cropped)(2).jpg

Photograph of Karl Dönitz, (rear admiral) and Commander of the Submarines ( BdU)

Based on short signals and the confusion of massed night attacks, Dönitz at U-boat headquarters in Paris announced exaggerated figures for ships sunk, some later being amended after U-boat crews returned and gave more detailed accounts. Seventeen sinkings were claimed against a post-war analysis by Jurgen Rohwer of twelve ships sunk. Despite the number of escorts, their anti-submarine effort had been ineffective; the ships were uncoordinated, the four corvettes were new, with inexperienced hostilities-only crews, the ships were not used to working together and used different tactics. The escorts had arrived singly and command went to the senior officer present and could change if a new arrival was commanded by a more senior officer.

Tactics had to be made on the spot and communicated by signal lamp to each ship. The failure of the escort led to a number of changes in policy. Permanent escort groups were formed with a leader, allowing consistent tactics and better teamwork. In the German semi-official history, "Germany and the Second World War" (2015), Bernd Stegemann wrote that the U-boats had their best success per-day-at-sea in October 1940, a period that the submariners called the Happy Time. During the winter of 1940–1941 the U-boats had less success, due to the seasonal weather, the British–US destroyers-for-bases deal, the arrival of more corvettes, the addition of radar sets and radio-telephones to British destroyers and the slow increase in the number of Coastal Command aircraft.

Casualties

Amongst the casualties, Caprella suffered one man killed and 51 survivors, Matheran suffered nine men killed, thirty men wee killed and seven survived on Ruperra, one man was killed and 43 survived on Sitara and there were three survivors and 36 men killed on Whitford Point. The U-Boats sank 21 ships of 79,592 GRT in Convoy SC 7 and stragglers; the U-boats then sank 12 ships in Convoy HX 79 of 75,069 GRT** and damaged a tanker. The six GRT discrepancy in the U-boat claims table is accounted for by it coming from an edition of Axis Submarine Successes 1939–1945 (1983) by Jürgen Rohwer and the larger figure being taken from Chronology of the War at Sea (2005) by Rohwer and Hümmelchen.

Tonnage lost

List of tonnage sunk from Convoy SC 7, Convoy HX 79, stragglers and scattered ships.

U-boat	Flag	Sunk	GRT	Notes
	Template:Navy/core	6	37,083	1 damaged by U-47 (6,032 GRT)
	Template:Navy/core	4	14,562	1 shared with U-100 and U-123 (4,155 GRT), 1 damaged with U-100 (5,458 GRT)
	Template:Navy/core	3	13,214
	Template:Navy/core	5	20,061
	Template:Navy/core	5	22,966	1 shared with U-47 (4,947 GRT)
	Template:Navy/core	6	27,396	1 shared with U-123 (4,144 GRT)
	Template:Navy/core	3	19,900	1 shared with U-101 and U-123 (4,155 GRT), 1 damaged with U-101 (5,458 GRT)
	Template:Navy/core	3	17,065	1 shared with U-48 (6,023 GRT), 1 shared with U-46 (4,947 GRT), 1 damaged (8,995 GRT)

U-boat claims

U-boat HQ claims against Convoy HX 79 and post-war analysis.

	Captain	Flag	Dönitz	GRT	Rohwer	GRT
	Heinrich Liebe	Template:Navy/core	2	13,000	2	12,619
	Engelbert Endrass	Template:Navy/core	3	23,000	2½*	16,987
	Günter Prien	Template:Navy/core	8	50,500	4	22,552
	Heinrich Bleichrodt	Template:Navy/core	1	7,000	½*	3,011
	Joachim Schepke	Template:Navy/core	3	19,600	3	19,894
Totals	* shared with U-47		17	113,100	12	**75,063

Orders of battle

Allied merchant ships

Convoyed ships

Name	year	Flag	GRT	Notes
Athelmonarch	1928	Template:Flagcountry	8,995	Damaged no casualties
Atland	1910	Template:Flagcountry	5,203
Axel Johnson	1925	Template:Flagcountry	4,915	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Baron Carnegie	1925	Template:Flagcountry	3,178	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Benwood	1910	Template:Flagcountry	3,931	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Biafra	1933	Template:Flagcountry	5,405
Bilderdijk	1922	Template:Flagcountry	6,856	Sunk , no casualtiesTemplate:Sfnm
Blairnevis	1930	Template:Flagcountry	4,155	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Brittany	1928	Template:Flagcountry	4,772	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Cadillac	1917	Template:Flagcountry	12,062
Cairnvalona	1918	Template:Flagcountry	4,929	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Campus	1925	Template:Flagcountry	3,667	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Cape Corso	1929	Template:Flagcountry	3,807
Caprella	1931	Template:Flagcountry	8,230	Sunk 1 killed, 51 survivorsTemplate:Sfnm
City Of Lancaster	1924	Template:Flagcountry	3,041
Egda	1939	Template:Flagcountry	10,050
	1921	Template:Flagcountry	7,964
Empire Trader	1908	Template:Flagcountry	9,990	Ex BHX 79
Enseigne Maurice Prehac	1924	Template:Flagcountry	4,578	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Erna III	1930	Template:Flagcountry	1,590	Returned early
Flowergate	1911	Template:Flagcountry	5,161
Gunda	1930	Template:Flagcountry	1,770
Harbury	1933	Template:Flagcountry	5,081
Harlesden	1932	Template:Flagcountry	5,483
Hoyanger	1926	Template:Flagcountry	4,624	Joined Ex BHX 79
Induna	1925	Template:Flagcountry	5,086	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Janus	1939	Template:Flagcountry	9,965	Sunk no casualtiesTemplate:Sfnm
Kiruna	1921	Template:Flagcountry	5,484	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
La Estancia	1940	Template:Flagcountry	5,185	Ex BHX 79, Sunk
Loch Lomond	1934	Template:Flagcountry	5,452	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia, sunk 39 crew, 72 survivors rescued Jason
Marathon	1919	Template:Flagcountry	7,926
Matheran	1919	Template:Flagcountry	7,653	Sunk , 9 killedTemplate:Sfnm
Ravnefjell	1938	Template:Flagcountry	1,339	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Rio Blanco	1922	Template:Flagcountry	4,086	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Ruperra	1925	Template:Flagcountry	4,548	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia, sunk by 30 killed 7 survivorsTemplate:Sfnm
Rydboholm	1933	Template:Flagcountry	3,197
Salacia	1937	Template:Flagcountry	5,495
San Roberto	1922	Template:Flagcountry	5,890
Sandanger	1938	Template:Flagcountry	9,432
Shirak	1926	Template:Flagcountry	6,023	Ex BHX 79, sunk by , , no casualtiesTemplate:Sfnm
Sir Ernest Cassel	1910	Template:Flagcountry	7,739	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sitala	1937	Template:Flagcountry	6,218	Ex BHX 79, sunk by , 1 killed, 43 survivorsTemplate:Sfnm
Thyra	1920	Template:Flagcountry	1,655	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Tiba	1938	Template:Flagcountry	5,239	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Tribesman	1937	Template:Flagcountry	6,242	Joined Ex BHX 79
Triton	1930	Template:Flagcountry	6,607	Joined Ex BHX 79
	1927	Template:Flagcountry	4,966	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia, sunk
Wandby	1940	Template:Flagcountry	4,947	Ex BHX 79, , no casualties, sank 21 OctoberTemplate:Sfnm
Wellington Court	1930	Template:Flagcountry	4,979	Sailed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Whitford Point	1928	Template:Flagcountry	5,026	Sunk , three survivors, 36 killedTemplate:Sfnm

Convoy escorts

Convoy escorts (some in relays)

Name	Flag	Type	Period	Notes
HMS/HMT Angle	Template:Country data UKGBI	ASW trawler	19 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI		19–23 October 1940
HMS/HMT Blackfly	Template:Country data UKGBI	ASW trawler	19 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI		19–22 October 1940
	Template:Naval	Armed yacht	8–9 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI		19–23 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI		19–23 October 1940
	Template:Naval	Armed yacht	9–10 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI		9 October 1940
HMS/HMT Lady Elsa	Template:Country data UKGBI	ASW trawler	19 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI	Armed merchant cruiser	9–18 October 1940
	Template:Navy/core		9–18 October 1940
	Template:Naval	Armed yacht	9–10 October 1940
	Template:Naval		8–9 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI	S-class destroyer	20 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI	S-class destroyer	19 October 1940
	Template:Country data UKGBI	Modified W-class destroyer	19–21 October 1940

U-boats

U-boats attacking Convoy HX 79. Data from Rohwer and Hümmelchen (2005) unless indicated.

	Captain	Flag	Type	Notes
	Heinrich Liebe	Template:Navy/core	Type IX submarine
	Engelbert Endrass	Template:Navy/core	Type VIIB submarine	Damaged by RAF on return journey, 1 killed.
	Günther Prien	Template:Navy/core	Type VIIB submarine
	Heinrich Bleichrodt	Template:Navy/core	Type VIIB submarine
	Joachim Schepke	Template:Navy/core	Type VIIB submarine

Bibliography

• • Template:Harvc
• First published as North Atlantic Run: The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle for the Convoys (1985) University of Toronto Press.

External links

• HX 79 at convoyweb