Sources: "The Critical Convoy Battles of March 1943" and "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two", both by Jürgen Rohwer, with written permission from the author.

Further details have been added with the help of:
"The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague
"The World's Merchant Fleets", R. W. Jordan.
"Convoy - The Greatest U-Boat Battle of the War", by Martin Middlebrook

The stations shown are stations upon leaving New York. Stations in parenthesis are stations as per March 16 (before the attacks started). Some ships had taken the positions vacated by others who had returned to port. Cruising orders at various dates are available on Page 2.

See also my page about Convoy SC 122 which was also involved in this battle.

Underlined ships returned to port.

Number of casualties and survivors varies according to source in some cases - hence my question marks.

Notes:
The Commodore, M. J. D. Mayall RNR, was in Abraham Lincoln, Vice Commodore was initially R. J. Parry, captain of Clan Matheson, but when this ship could not keep up with convoy speed and had to return to Halifax, Nariva took over in the evening of March 10. That ship was sunk, and Nebraska became Vice Commodore vessel.

* After the U-boat attacks and heavy losses during the night the convoy was reformed in the morning of March 17 (28 ships were still in sight). Most of the losses had taken place on the starboard side of the convoy, creating quite a few gaps there, so the Commodore decided to reduce the "width" of the convoy to 9 columns, then reorganized the ships on the starboard side into columns number 7, 8 and 9. (On March 20, the 24 ships remaining in the convoy were reorganized again). All this is illustrated more clearly on Page 2.

Local Escort Vessels: Destroyer HMS Chelsea (left for St. John's in the evening of March 12)
New York to St. John's: Destroyer USS Kendrick, corvettes HMCS Fredericton and HMCS Oakville.
From 55 degr. to St. John's: Destroyer HMCS Annapolis.

Ocean Escort (sailed from St. John's March 13): Destroyers HMS Volunteer, HMS Beverley, HMS Witherington (dropped out on March 16), HMS Mansfield (straggler), corvettes HMS Anemone, HMS Pennywort.

From March 18: Destroyer HMS Highlander.
From March 19: Destroyer USS Babbitt (from Reykjavik) and corvette HMS Abelia.
From March 20: Destroyer HMS Vimy and corvette HMCS Sherbrooke.

USS Babbitt lef the convoy in the morning of March 21-1943, as did Anemone, with 158 rescued survivors on board, and Pennywort with 127 survivors, as well as the merchant Tekoa with 138 survivors. Volunteer was also released that morning, as she had a sick crew member. Beverley had 31 and Volunteer 68 survivors.

Merchant ships intended for northern ports were detached from the convoy in the morning of March 22-1943, accompanied by HMS Vimy. That same afternoon the Eastern Local Escort Group with the trawler Aquamarine arrived to relieve the rest of the escorts (Highlander, Sherbrooke and Abelia, as well as the escort oiler Gulfdisc).

The battle for SC 122 and HX 229 is described at the links below.

Related external links:
The battle for Convoy SC 122 and HX 229 - Uboat.net's account.

Back to Convoy Index

To the next HX convoy in my list HX 229 A