The HX series consisted of 377 convoys, with 17,744 ships. Thirty-eight convoys were attacked (about 10 per cent), with the loss of 110 ships in convoy; sixty stragglers were sunk and 36 lost while detached or after dispersal, with losses from marine accident and other causes, for a total loss of 206 ships or about 1 per cent of the total.[1]
Background
An HX series had run in the Atlantic Campaign of the First World War in 1917 and 1918.[2] HX convoys were revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic and were run until the end, the longest continuous series of the war. HX 1 sailed on 16 September 1939 with 18 merchant ships, escorted by the Royal Canadian Navy destroyers HMCS St. Laurent and Saguenay to a North Atlantic rendezvous with Royal Navyheavy cruisersHMS Berwick and York.[3] HX 358 sailed on 23 May 1945 and arrived at Liverpool on 6 June 1945.[4] HX convoys were initially considered fast and made up of ships that could make 9–13 kn (17–24 km/h; 10–15 mph), the voyage from New York to Liverpool taking an average of 15.2 days. A parallel series of slow convoys (SC), was run for ships making 7.7–8 kn (14.3–14.8 km/h; 8.9–9.2 mph), which took about 15.4 days from Sydney, Nova Scotia.[5]
Ships making more than 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph) sailed independently; CU (Caribbean to United Kingdom) series were organised in 1943, most being US war-built tankers of 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)+, which later included troop transports and fast merchant ships.[6] Outbound convoys were usually slower than return convoys and summer voyages usually faster than those in winter. Delays for diversions and bad weather could lead to escort vessels at the ocean rendezvous running low on fuel and having to return. A convoy that went way off course or encountered unusually stormy or foggy weather would be lucky to make rendezvous with its escorts.[5] The largest convoy of the Second World War was Convoy HX 300 which sailed from New York to Britain on 25 July 1944, with 166 merchant ships, arriving at Liverpool without incident, on 3 August 1944.[7]
Convoy battles
Map showing the north Atlantic
Convoy HX 79 Attacked by a U-boat Wolfpack in October 1940. Twelve ships were lost, which, with the attack on Convoy SC 7 on the same day, made 19 October and the night of 19/20 October 1940 the worst period for shipping losses of the Battle of the Atlantic.[8]
Convoy HX 228 Was one of several convoys attacked during March 1943. Two U-boats were destroyed while sinking four merchant ships and the escort commander's destroyer.[14]
Convoys HX 229/SC 122. Attacked in March 1943, this action converged with the operation around Convoy SC 122 and became the largest convoy battle of the Atlantic campaign.[15]
HX convoy statistics
Sinkings of merchant ships in HX convoys; data taken from Hague (2000).[1]
Hague, Arnold (2000). The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945. London: Chatham. ISBN1-86176-147-3.
Newbolt, H. J. (2003) [1931]. Naval Operations (accompanying Map Case). History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. V (facs. repr. Imperial War Museum Department of Printed books and Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: Longmans, Green & Co. ISBN978-1-84342-493-2 – via Archive Foundation.
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. ISBN1-59114-119-2.
Silverstone, Paul H. (1968). US Warships of World War II. New York: Doubleday. OCLC460376599.
Further reading
Vat, Dan van der (1988). The Atlantic Campaign. london: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN0-340-37751-8.
Woodman, Richard (2013) [2004]. The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1943 (repr. Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley ed.). London: John Murray. ISBN978-1-84884-415-5.
