Convoy HX 133 was the 133rd of the numbered series of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

HX convoys of merchant ships from HalifaX to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. The ships departed Halifax on 16 June 1941,Hague p.127 and were found on 23 June by

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s of the

1st U-boat Flotilla The 1st U-boat flotilla (German ''1. Unterseebootsflottille'') also known as the Weddigen flotilla, was the first operational U-boat unit in Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy). Founded on 27 September 1935 under the command of ''Fregattenkap ...

, operating out of

Brest, France Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French mi ...

. U-boats sank six ships before the convoy reached Liverpool on 3 July. There was strong criticism of the RCN corvette's signalling capabilities as borne out by the number of collisions that occurred.

Ships in the Convoy

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book , last = Hague , first = Arnold , title = The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945 , year = 2000 , isbn = 1-86176-147-3 , ref = {{sfnRef, Hague HX133 Naval battles of World War II involving Canada