Transcribed from original documents received from Tony Cooper, England (Advance Sailing Telegram) - His source: Public Records Office, Kew.
Station numbers and sequence of departure were received from Ted Agar - His source: A diary. These numbers are pendants flown on departure Halifax; stations may have changed as the voyage progressed (as can be seen from these numbers, the convoy had 8 columns and 4 rows).
Names of escorts and cargoes for the tankers have been extracted from documents recived from Don Kindell, based on the late Arnold Hague's database - see his listing for SC 71 at ships in all SC convoys. It'll be noticed that in some cases, he has given different station numbers than those provided in the diary and these have been added in parenthesis below.

Crossed out ships did not sail, underlined returned to port, except those that are linked, which will automatically be underlined.

MoWT = Ministry of War Transport

Also, according to the diary, the British Milcrest (cancelled from SC 68 and SC 69) and the Norwegian Solsten were cancelled from this convoy - again, not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram. (Milcrest sailed in SC 73, while Solsten is listed in SC 72).

*A. Hague says that the Icelandic Dettifoss detached on March 5 and arrived Reykjavik on the 7th. Also, he has listed Geo. H. Jones as Panamanian, calling her George H. Jones (again, see his listing for SC 71 at ships in all SC convoys).

Lake Osweya had been sunk on Febr. 20-1942 by U-96. There were no survivors - the 2nd external website that I've linked to at the end of this page has more on this attack.

The ships left port in the following order (according to the diary):
At 11:10 the British freighter Llanover went out, followed at 11:22 by Melmore Head (Flagship) and with a few minutes between each ship:
Sarthe, Bristol City, Lobos, Kelso, Empire Moonbeam, Arica, Empire Tyne, Kingsbury, Katingo Hadjipatera, Geo. H. Jones, Photinia, Norse King, Empire Buffalo, Connector (probably not for Convoy SC 71), Radcombe, Lorient, Anastassios Pateras, Opalia (at 13:00, with a notation saying "Stops north of Tower, later on a water boat comes alongside and she sails later at 2:12), Empire Flame (Catapult freighter, minus her Hurricane). The last ship to leave at 13:22 was the Norwegian Kaia Knudsen (2 red bands on stack).

There's now a note saying: "The following ships also went out today but times not known":
City of Dallas, U.S. freighter - 43, Empire Nightingale, British - 21, Royalite, Canadian tanker - 34, Sarnolite, Canadian tanker - 54, Northern Ranger, U.S. freighter (I believe this ship was British) - 24, Hanjurand, Panama freighter - 44, Dettifoss, Icelandic freighter - 74. Again, as already mentioned in the table above, it was probably just a coincidence that some of these went out at the same time as the ships destined for SC 71. City of Dallas, Empire Nightingale and Dettifoss, however, did sail in this convoy.

The convoy arrived rendezvous on March 6.

A. Hague names the following escorts (extracted from this list of SC convoy escorts, received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year):
Buctouche - From 27/02/42 to 09/03/42
Chambly - From 22/02/42 to 25/02/42
Cobalt - From 27/02/42 to 10/03/42
Dunvegan - From 27/02/42 to 08/03/42
Goderich - From 22/02/42 to 28/02/42
Mayflower - From 22/02/42 to 25/02/42
Midland - From 22/02/42 to 28/02/42
Napanee - From 27/02/42 to 09/03/42
Quinte - From 22/02/42 to 28/02/42
Ramsey - From 22/02/42 to 28/02/42
St. Francis - From 27/02/42 to 09/03/42
Trail - From 27/02/42 to 08/03/42
USS Babbitt - 05/03/42
USS Badger - 05/03/42
USS Schenck - 05/03/42

        

Related external links:
Sl & SL/MKS Convoys - As can be seen, Drammensfjord is listed in SL 101 in Febr.-1942. The site also has a section on the Russian Convoy Series (and several others), and Convoy PQ 15, mentioned in the table above, is included.

The attack on Lake Osweya

Empire Ships

Back to Convoy Index