Convoy HX 156 was the 156th 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, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

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 ...

.Hague 2000 p.127 Forty-three ships departed Halifax on 22 October 1941, and were met two days later by

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Task Unit 4.1.3 consisting of , , , and s and .Rohwer & Hummelchen 1992 p.94

The Action

31 October 1941

The sighted the convoy at dawn on 31 October 1941, and

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

ed as the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

approached to investigate the

Huff-Duff High-frequency direction finding, usually known by its abbreviation HF/DF or nickname huff-duff, is a type of radio direction finder (RDF) introduced in World War II. High frequency (HF) refers to a radio band that can effectively communicate ov ...

bearing of the sighting report.Morison 1975 p.94 A torpedo struck the port side and detonated the forward

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

. The hull aft of the third stack remained afloat for 5 minutes; and 44 men were rescued from the crew of 159. ''Reuben James'' was the first United States warship sunk during

. ''U-552'' was driven off by the escort; but found the convoy that afternoon.

1 November 1941

Task Unit 4.1.3 handed the convoy off to the British 6th Escort Group on 1 November 1941.
''U-552'' and ''U-567'' made two unsuccessful torpedo attacks on 1 November and maintained contact with the convoy through 3 November. launched her

Hawker Sea Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. Some versions were built in Canada by the Canada Car and Foundry Co Ltd British variants Hurricane Mk I ; Hurricane Mk I ( ...

to intercept a

Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ''Condor'', also known as ''Kurier'' to the Allies (English: Courier), was a German all-metal four-engined monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner. A Japanese request for a long-range maritime p ...

aircraft, which it chased off. The Hurricane pilot was rescued by after ditching his aircraft. The convoy reached

on 5 November.

Ships in the convoy

These ships were members of Convoy HX 156.

Notes

References

* * * * {{cite book, title=U.S. Warships of World War II , author=Silverstone, Paul H. , publisher=Doubleday and Company , year=1968 HX156 HX 156 Naval battles of World War II involving Canada