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.
Please compare with A. Hague's listing for this convoy at ships in all SC convoys. See also SC escorts.

Further details have been added with the help of:
"The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague
"The World's Merchant Fleets 1939", R. W. Jordan.
"Convoy - The Greatest U-Boat Battle of the War", by Martin Middlebrook
"Convoy Rescue Ships", Arnold Hague.

See also my page about Convoy HX 229 which was also involved in this battle.

The stations below show stations at time of departure New York - numbers in parenthesis show stations after meeting Halifax section of convoy. Where there's only one number, stations remained the same after juncture. (By then, of course, the Halifax bound ships were no longer in the convoy).
[ ] indicates the ships still present in the convoy in the evening of March 16, before the beginning of the attacks, and their stations at that time. This is illustrated more clearly on Page 2. (The convoy was reorganised again on March 20, after the attacks - 40 ships remained at that time).

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

Underlined ships returned to port.

Notes:
Commodore, S. N. White R.N.R. was in Glenapp, Vice Commodore was F. R. Neil, captain of Boston City.

Local Escorts:
Destroyer HMS Leamington, Corvettes HMCS Dunvegen, HMCS Rimouski, HMCS New Westminster and mine sweeper HMCS Cowichan.

Ocean Escorts (sailing from St. John's March 11 - relieved Local Escort on March 12): HMS Havelock, HMS Swale, HMS Lavender, HMS Pimpernel, HMS Buttercup, HMS Saxifrage, HMS Godetia (straggled), USS Upshur, and from March 19 the U.S Coast Guard cutter Ingham (the latter 2 were intended to later escort the ships bound for Iceland, but due to the lack of escorts, the Iceland bound vessels remained with convoy to the U.K. The 2 American escorts were detached from the convoy in the morning of March 21)

The trawler HMS Campobello, damaged and leaking was sunk by Godetia, after having transferred crew.

(Martin Middlebrook devides the local escorts as follows:
New York to Halifax: Corvettte HMCS The Pas, and mine sweeper HMCS Blairmore.
New York to St. John's: Corvettes HMCS New Westminster and HMCS Rimouski
Halifax to St. John's: Destroyer HMS Leamington, corvette HMCS Dunvegen, minesweeper HMCS Cowichan).

Zamalek (requisitioned in March-1940) was on her 18th voyage as rescue vessel, having started this voyage at Clyde with Convoy ON 165 on Febr. 2-1943 (to St. John's Febr. 22), then with Convoy JH 38 from St. John's to Halifax Febr. 24-Febr. 28, then returning to the U.K. with Convoy SC 122 March 8 to Clyde March 22-1943. Below is some information on the rescues she performed in this battle:

March 17: Rescued 12 survivors from Alderamin, 44 from Kingsbury, 50 from Fort Cedar Lake and 25 from King Gruffydd; 3 others were found to be dead. She then rejoined the convoy, and was asked to continue searching, then found the lifeboats from Carras, rescuing all 34. She was subsequently given permission to leave the convoy and headed directly for Clyde (under escort), landing the survivors there on March 22.

Again, see the story written by Deane Wynne, a survivor of Kingsbury. The battle for SC 122 and HX 229 is also described at the external links below.

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

HMS Swale

Back to Convoy Index

Will be added: SC 123 and SC 124
(See ships in all SC convoys)
To the next available SC convoy in my list SC 125