Convoy SC 7

TheSecond World War
	Part of Convoy SC 7, theBattle of the Atlantic
Date	16–19 October 1940
Location	Western Approaches
Result	German victory
Belligerents
Germany	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Karl Dönitz	Lachlan Mackinnon
Strength
8 U-boats	35 ships; 5 escorts
Casualties and losses
None	142 men killed; 20 merchant ships sunk; 6 merchant ships damaged (79,592gross register tons(GRT))

SC 7was the code name for a largeAllied convoyin theSecond World Warcomprising 35 merchant ships and six escorts, which sailed eastbound fromSydney, Nova Scotia,forLiverpooland other British ports on 5 October 1940. While crossing the Atlantic, the convoy was attacked by one of the firstU-boat wolfpacks.The escorts were overwhelmed, twenty of the 35 cargo vessels were sunk and two were damaged, with 141 lives lost. The disaster demonstrated the potency of wolfpacks (attacking in numbers) and the inadequacy of Britishanti-submarineoperations.

Ships of the convoy

The slow Convoy SC 7 leftSydney, Nova Scotiaon 5 October 1940 bound for Liverpool and other British ports. The convoy was to make 8 kn (9.2 mph; 15 km/h) but several merchant ships were much slower, reducing its speed. The convoy consisted of older, smaller ships, mostly with cargoes of bulk goods. Much of the freight on these ships originated on Canada's east coast, especially from points to the north and east of Sydney. Typical cargoes included pit props from easternNew Brunswickfor Britishcoal mines,lumber, pulpwood, grain from theGreat Lakesports, steel and steel ingots from the Sydney plant andiron orefromNewfoundland,bound for the huge steel plants ofWales.The largest ship in the convoy was the 9,512GRToil tankerMVLanguedoc,belonging to theAdmiralty,which was bound for theClydewith fuel for theRoyal Navy.Another ship, the BritishSSEmpire Brigade,carried a valuable cargo of trucks.

Many of the ships were British but the convoy included Greek, Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch vessels. Theconvoy commodore,Vice Admiral Lachlan MacKinnon,a retired naval officer who had volunteered for war service, sailed inSSAssyrian,a British ship of 2,962 GRT. Mackinnon was in charge of the good order of the merchant ships but did not command the escort. TheHastings-class sloop HMSScarboroughwas sole naval escort for the first three quarters of the journey. There was no aircraft protection in 1940 for Allied ships in the Atlantic Ocean after leaving coastal regions.Scarboroughwould have had little chance against a surface attack by aGerman raider.Many of the merchant ship captains were resentful at having to sail in convoy and would have preferred to take their chances on their own, rather than risk such a slow crossing with a weak escort. They were often uncooperative; at one point early in the voyageScarborough's captain was shocked to find a Greek merchant ship in the convoy travelling at night with her lights on.

Battle

5–18 October

The convoy sailed on Saturday 5 October 1940. On the first day, one ship,Winonadropped out with mechanical trouble and returned to port. The convoy "ran into a gale" on 8 October and then were engaged byU-boats.^[1]As bad weather set in on 11 October, several ships became separated and were forced to sail independently.Trevisa,was a smallCanadian Lakerof 1,813 GRT, with a cargo of lumber destined forScotland.She was sighted byU-124on 16 October and sunk. TheGreekfreighterAenoswas seen byU-38and sunk on the 17 October butEaglescliffe Hall,another Laker, rescued survivors fromAenos,before arriving atRothesayon 19 October. A fourth straggler regained the convoy on 15 October.

On 17 October, as the convoy entered theWestern Approaches,Scarboroughwas joined by the sloopFoweyand the newcorvette Bluebell.Later that day they were sighted byU-48,which attacked, sinking two ships, including the tankerLanguedoc.ScarboroughdroveU-48deep so she was unable to shadow or report but the attack continued for too long and the convoy moved so far ahead thatScarboroughwas unable to rejoin. On 18 October, Convoy SC 7 was joined by the sloopLeithand the corvetteHeartsease,withLeithassuming command. Later that day,U-38sighted the convoy and attacked, damagingCarsbreck.LeithandHeartseaseattacked without success, thoughU-38was driven off andHeartseasewas detailed to escortCarsbreckhome, weakening the escort further.^[2]

18/19 October

On the night of 18/19 October,U-46,U-99,U-100,U-101andU-123made a concerted attack.U-99andU-100were captained by two famous aces,KorvettenkapitänsOtto KretschmerandJoachim Schepke.The attack was coordinated fromLorientby AdmiralKarl DönitztheBefehslshaber der Unterseeboote(Commander, U-boats) and his staff. An early casualty was the iron ore ship,Creekirk,bound forCardiff,Wales. With her heavy cargo, she sank quickly, taking all 36 crew members with her. Later that night, Convoy SC 7 lost many of its members, includingEmpire Brigadewith her cargo of trucks and six of her crew andFiscuswith her cargo of steel ingots from Sydney. She sank quickly as well, taking with her 38 of her 39-man crew. Also among the casualties was the commodore's ship,Assyrian,which went down with 17 crew (Mackinnon was rescued after a long immersion in the chilly waters). In all, 16 ships were lost in this six-hour period.^[2]

18–20 October

On 18 October,Blairspeywas torpedoed byU-101and was abandoned. She was torpedoed again on 19 October byU-100but remained afloat. She was towed to the Clyde and later repaired atGreenock.^[3]The escorts were unable to prevent any of these losses; their responses were uncoordinated and ineffective. They never realised that the attacking submarines did not attack submerged or from outside the convoy but were actually running surfaced between the ships inside the convoy. The escorts were unable to mount any serious attacks on the U-boats and spent much of their time rescuing survivors.^[4]During 19 October, the escorts, loaded with survivors, gathered together those ships that remained.Foweycollected eight ships and made for the Clyde, arriving there a few days later.Scarboroughpassed through the scene of the battle later on 19 October; she found wreckage, but no survivors. Later that afternoonLeithmetHeartsease,still escorting the damagedCarsbreck;together they headed forGourock,Renfrewshire,collecting two more stragglers on the way.Bluebellwith over 200 survivors on board, headed directly for the Clyde, arriving on 20 October.

Aftermath

SC 7 had lost 20 ships out of 35, of which seven fell to Kretschmer'sU-99.The total tonnage lost was 79,592 GRT. The arrival ofconvoy HX 79in the vicinity had diverted the U-boats and they sank twelve ships from Convoy HX 79 that night. No U-boats were lost in either engagement. The loss of 28 ships in 48 hours made 18 and 19 October the worst two days for shipping losses in the entire Atlantic campaign. The attack on Convoy SC 7 was a vindication of theU-boat Arm's wolfpack tactic and was the most successful U-boat attack of the Atlantic campaign. Convoy tactics were rudimentary at this early stage of the war. The escorts' responses were uncoordinated, as the ships were unused to working together with a common battle plan. Command fell to the senior officer present and could change as each new ship arrived. The escorts were torn between staying with the convoy, abandoning survivors in the water, asDefensively Equipped Merchant Ships(DEMS) regulations demanded and picking them up, leaving the convoy unprotected and risking being torpedoed themselves.^[5]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. During the winter of 1940–1941 the U-boats had less success due to the seasonal weather, the British–USdestroyers-for-bases deal,the arrival of the first corvettes, the addition of radar sets and radio-telephones to British destroyers and the slow increase in the number ofCoastal Commandaircraft.^[6]

Citations

Sources

Keegan, John (2002).Intelligence In War.ISBN 0-375-70046-3.
Lund, Paul; Ludlam, Harry (1973).The Night of the U-Boats.ISBN 0-450-01833-4.
Maier, Klaus A.; Rohde, Horst; Stegemann, Bernd; Umbreit, Hans (2015) [1991]. Falla, P. S. (ed.).Germany and the Second World War:Germany's Initial Conquests in Europe.Vol. II. Translated by McMurry, Dean S.; Osers, Ewald (trans. pbk. Clarendon Press, Oxford ed.). Freiburg im Breisgau: Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt [Research Institute for Military History].ISBN 978-0-19-873834-3.
- Stegemann, Bernd. "Part VI The Battle for Hegemony in Western Europe. Part VIII The Second Phase of the War at Sea (until the Spring of 1941) I. The Submarine War". InMaier et al. (2015).
Rohwer, Jürgen;Hümmelchen, Gerhard (2005).Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two(3rd rev. ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
Sawyer, L. A.; Mitchell, W. H. (1995).The Empire Ships.London: Lloyd's of London Press.ISBN 1-85044-275-4.