Stations are not known.

According to A. Hague, the following ships sailed in this convoy (in alphabetical order):

Swedish Arnold Bratt
Danish Aslaug
Norwegian Blaafjeld I
Norwgeian Borgsten (seized at Bergen when the Germans invaded)
British City of Rangoon
Swedish Consul Bratt
Norwegian Cresco
Norwegian Cygnus (lost during a German attack on July 3-1940 - see Cygnus)
Danish Cyril
British Dunvegan Head
Swedish Ella
Norwegian Erling Lindøe (bombed - see text below)
Norwegian Fanefjeld
Finnish Ferrum
Norwegian Gol
Norwegian Halse
Norwegian Havørn
British Homeside
Norwegian Island
Danish Kronprins Olav
Estonian Lake Lucerne
Norwegian Log
Swedish Narvik
Norwegian Ophir
British Otterpool
Estonian Peet
Norwegian Porsanger
Norwegian Royal
Norwegian Spica
Swedish Stig Gorthon
Norwegian Svinta (bombed - see text below)
British Thistlebrae (seized in Norwegian port - renamed Altkirch)
Norwegian Tora Elise (bombed - see text below. Returned, listed in ON 22)
Norwegian Ursa
Swedish Utklippan (damaged by aircraft - see text below).
Norwegian Varegg
Swedish Värmdö
Finnish Wanda
Finnish Wiides

A document listing all the ON convoys states that ON 21 had a total of 41 ships (including 15 joining from Kirkwall); 6 British, 21 Norwegian, 7 Swedish, 2 Danish, 3 Finnish, 2 Estonian. 3 were detached (not for Norway).

A group of ships joining HN 20 from Kirkwall, as well as both sections of ON 21 were attacked by aircraft at dusk on March 20-1940 as follows:
6 Heinkels attacked the 15 ships on their way eastwards from Kirkwall to join ON 21. 3 of the Heinkels were driven off by 2 Skuas, which were with this section of the convoy.
At 19:15 that evening, 15-20 bombs were dropped, damaging 3 ships, which put in to Kirkwall. One of them, the Norwegian Svinta had to be towed by the tug St. Mellons - follow the link to Svinta for details.
2 Heinkels attacked the northbound Methil section of ON 21, with the result that an incendiary bomb caused a small fire in one of the ships.
A British ship, which was en route from Kirkwall with 2 others to join HN 20 for Methil, received minor damages and returned to Kirkwall. The 7 ships from HN 20 that were destined for Cape Wrath were shadowed but not bombed.
In addition to the Skuas, Gladiators, Blenheims and Hudsons were also sent out to protect these various groups of ships.

One of the ships mentioned above may have been the British tanker Daghestan? This ship is listed in Jürgen Rohwer's "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two" as damaged by a bomb on March 20-1940, later sunk by U-57 on March 25, 9 n. miles E Copinsay, Orkneys. (Uboat.net has a page about the loss of this ship - external link).

Also, there's a note in this report saying that minor damages were suffered from air attacks whilst in convoy by the Norwegian Tora Elise and Erling Lindøe, as well as the Swedish Utklippan and the British Northern Coast. No date or convoy is given for these attacks, but according to my own text for Tora Elise and Erling Lindøe, these ships were both attacked on March 20-1940. Tora Elise is said to have been attacked by a group of Heinkel aircraft and damaged when en route to England, but as can be seen, she's listed in ON 21 from the U.K. Erling Lindøe is said to have been on a voyage from Casablanca to Lysaker, Norway, when attacked on the same date.

For more information on the Norwegian ships in this convoy, see the Master Ship Index.

Escorts:
This document, listing escorts for all HN and ON convoys, has the names of escorts for this convoy. See also this external page (scroll down to text re Convoy ON 21 under March 19).

Back to Convoy Index