Convoy OA 178 (Outbound Atlantic) was an
Atlantic convoy
''Atlantic Convoy'' is a 1942 American war film directed by Lew Landers. The story follows naval patrols based on the Icelandic coast battling the German U-boats during World War II, and the German efforts to infiltrate their operations with s ...
of 14 ocean-going ships and local coasters, comprising 53 ships. The convoy sailed from
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...
in the
Thames Estuary
The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain.
Limits
An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...
on 3 July 1940 via the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
and was then dissolved on 6 July 1940 as its surviving ships joined convoys to transatlantic destinations. On 4 July,
Portland Harbour and the convoy were attacked by
Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers, followed by (
E-boats
E-boat was the Western Allies' designation for the fast attack craft (German: ''Schnellboot'', or ''S-Boot'', meaning "fast boat") of the Kriegsmarine during World War II; ''E-boat'' could refer to a patrol craft from an armed motorboat to a lar ...
to the British) attacks on the remnants of the convoy, during the night of 4/5 July. No support was forthcoming from
RAF Fighter Command
RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Brita ...
and in the aftermath, the Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, was critical of the lack of protection afforded to the convoy. Henceforth OA convoys were routed northabout Scotland but local Coastal East and Coastal West coal convoys continued and suffered more attacks from the combination of ''Stukas'' and E-Boats ().
Background
Luftwaffe anti-shipping operations
![Cinque Ports map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Cinque_Ports_map.svg)
attacks on shipping were made much easier by the capture of bases in France and the Low Countries; in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
, the Grimsby fishing fleet had been attacked twice in June. Air attacks increased and in July, ship losses off the east coast exceeded those by
naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
s. Attacks on minesweepers, escort vessels and anti-invasion patrols rapidly increased and was made worse by a lack of light anti-aircraft guns and the concentration of the air defence effort in the south-east of England, against a possible invasion. The Admiralty reserved the right for ships to fire on aircraft on an apparently attacking course because it had been found that a high volume of prompt, accurate fire could reduce the accuracy of bombing and sometimes shoot down the attacker. Hurried training and lack of experience in aircraft recognition among navy crews led to many RAF aircraft being taken for hostile and fired on, even when escorts for the ships. While demanding close escort, the Admiralty required ships to engage unidentified aircraft within , a practice the RAF considered irresponsible. More training in aircraft recognition and pilots not flying towards to ships on tracks similar to bombing runs were obvious remedies and with experience, navy gunners made fewer mistakes.
OA convoys
OA convoys (Outbound Atlantic) from the
Thames Estuary
The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain.
Limits
An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...
were a convoy series which was convoyed to the
Western Approaches
The Western Approaches is an approximately rectangular area of the Atlantic Ocean lying immediately to the west of Ireland and parts of Great Britain. Its north and south boundaries are defined by the corresponding extremities of Britain. The c ...
whence they joined convoys to their destinations. OA convoys incorporated coasters from the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
to
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
,
Poole,
Plymouth,
Fowey and
Falmouth along the south coast. The convoys continued to sail along the south coast after the
Fall of France on 22 June 1940 and on 1 July twenty ships of Convoy OA 177G sailed from
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...
. Next morning German aircraft attacked SS ''Baron Ruthven'', two men being killed by machine-gun fire. Later on the 10,000
Gross register ton (GRT) ''Aeneas'' was bombed and abandoned. Most of the coasters left the convoy for local ports before another ten ocean-going ships joined the convoy from Plymouth and Falmouth and eighteen ships joined when it merged with an OB convoy from Liverpool on 2 July, parts of the convoy then turned away for
Bilbao
)
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize = 275 px
, map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao
, pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption ...
,
Lisbon and
Casablanca; only two ships remained when the convoy reached the Atlantic dispersal point.
Prelude
![EnglishChannel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/EnglishChannel.jpg)
Convoy OA 178 assembled off Southend-on-Sea; the convoy commander was Lieutenant Commander Frederick Jones in the only escort vessel, the ; the convoy commodore was R. P. Galer, embarked in SS ''Peterton'' and the vice commodore, Commander A. B. Fasting sailed in ''Saluta''. The convoy of 14 ocean-going merchant ships and local colliers departed on 3 July, over-flown by German aircraft.heading inland. The convoy passed the
Straits of Dover during the night of 3/4 July and by dawn, German aircraft again began to pass by. The captain of ''Hartlepool'', W. J. Rogerson, saw the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
in the distance and
By the afternoon of 4 July, OA 178 was south of
Portland Bill.
4 July
Portland harbour
![Junkers Ju 87B dropping bombs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Junkers_Ju_87B_dropping_bombs.jpg)
At 33
Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers of III./StG51 attacked Portland, escorted by Bf 110 heavy fighters (destroyers) of V./() and two of Bf 109s from 1./LG1. The auxiliary anti-aircraft ship (Captain H. P. Wilson Rtd) had been commissioned on 6 June 1940 and carried four twin high-angle 4-inch turrets, two quadruple
2-pounder pom-pom
The 2-pounder gun, officially the QF 2-pounder ( QF denoting "quick firing") and universally known as the pom-pom, was a British autocannon, used as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy.British military of the period traditionally denoted s ...
guns and several
Vickers .50 machine guns. ''Foylebank'' had been based at the harbour for anti-aircraft defence since 9 June. When the ''Stukas'' bombed, they dived at angles of up to 90° towards the stern of the ship; at the dive-bomber eased to 45°, the pilot aligning the gun sight on the stern of the ship and opening fire, the bullets moving forwards to the stem of the ship. The pilot released the bombs as he saw the machine-gun fire pass beyond the bows and hit the water. The pilot had also set the altimeter to the local altitude above mean sea level and a siren blared to warn him to bomb and begin to pull out of the dive. As the ''Stuka'' recovered from its dive, the rear-gunner opened fire to keep heads down; the raid took four minutes.
As gunners were running along the decks of ''Foylebank'' to reach their action stations, many where hit by bullets or caught by bomb blasts. Two sailors ran for their action station at X gun and a bomb blew one of them across the canteen, wounded and dead lying everywhere. The two sailors headed aft along the port side of the ship towards X gun and a bomb fell down the funnel which blew open the side of the ship facing the docks and they had to turn around. At the rear of the ship the sailors passed through the sick bay for a ladder to the deck but a bomb hit the sick bay, killing everyone there and the second sailor, lower on the ladder. The survivor got on deck to find that his gun had been hit and the crew dead or wounded. The sailor saw other crewmembers firing a pom-pom, matting around it on fire. An officer ordered him forward as the ship was going to be abandoned and he jumped , damaging his back, although he was unaware of this for several hours. At the pom-pom guns on the starboard side a pile of bodies blocked the way and he had to clamber through them. A petty officer called out that "Mantle's still firing and when he's finished we'll have to get him down".
Acting leading seaman
Jack Mantle had been severely wounded in the left leg by a bomb explosion but continued to operate his pom-pom gun, despite it being damaged, hitting a ''Stuka'', which also hit him with machine-gun fire. Mantle was helped away from the gun as the ship was about to be abandoned. The ''Stukas'' dropped 104 and bombs, many of which hit the ship and others near-missed. Some of the gunners on ''Foylebank'' managed to fire sixty shells from Y turret. Civilians had sailed their craft over to ''Foylebank'' and received the survivors as they slid down ropes from the
fo'c'sle
The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...
, taking the men to Boscawen, where sixty men were found to have been killed, many more later dying of wounds, including Mantle. The German fighters circled overhead but no RAF fighters appeared, the only
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
(RAF) aircraft in the area being a
Fairey Battle
The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and ...
bomber from
RAF Warmwell
Royal Air Force Warmwell or more simply RAF Warmwell is a former Royal Air Force station near Warmwell in Dorset, England from 1937 to 1946, located about 5 miles east-southeast of Dorchester; 100 miles southwest of London.
During the Second W ...
on a training sortie near
Chesil Beach
Chesil Beach (also known as Chesil Bank) in Dorset, England is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain.A. P. Carr and M. W. L. Blackley, "Investigations Bearing on the Age and Development of Chesil Beach, Dorset, and the Associat ...
. When the pilot saw the raid, he dived for home at full speed. Two ''Stukas'' of 7./StG51 were shot down by ground fire, one into the Channel off Portland, the crew being killed and the other crew rescued off the
Cotentin Peninsula
The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...
; a Bf 109 crashed on landing at
Théville near
Cherbourg. The tug was also sunk and the steamers ''City of Melbourne'', ''East Wales'' and
MV ''William Wilberforce'' were damaged by bombs in Portland Harbour.
Off Portland
Soon after the bombing of
Portland harbour, a
Junkers Ju 88
The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...
reconnaissance aircraft of 1.()/123 (1 Squadron, Long Range Reconnaissance Wing 123) signalled that OA 178 was south-west of Portland and 24 Ju 87s of I./StG2 from
Falaise
Falaise may refer to:
Places
* Falaise, Ardennes, France
* Falaise, Calvados, France
** The Falaise pocket was the site of a battle in the Second World War
* La Falaise, in the Yvelines ''département'', France
* The Falaise escarpment in Quebe ...
, escorted by a of I./JG1 took off, followed by 23 Ju 87s of III./StG51 as soon as they had refuelled and rearmed. At about the ''Stukas'' attacked ''Flimstone'' whose master watched the ''Stukas'' pull out of their dives at and the bombs fall close astern, shaking the ship. The attack lasted for about two hours, ''Clarkia'' engaging the ''Stukas'' with its 4-inch gun and four machine-guns. The chief officer of ''Deucalion'' wrote later that the sky seemed full of aircraft which hit the ship with nine bombs and began to sink. The captain and the carpenter were seriously wounded by machine-gun fire and as soon as a lull occurred, the crew abandoned ship. The gunner on ''Dallas City'' fired at the ''Stukas'' as they began to pull out of their dives, their machine-gun fire hitting the ship around him. Three bombs hit ''Dallas City'', one through the skylight to the engine room, one down the funnel and one into number 3 hold, two crew being wounded. ''Flimstone'', already damaged, tried to avoid ''Dallas City'' by increasing speed and putting the helm hard to starboard but was hit on the port side by ''Dallas City'', which smashed a lifeboat. It took ''Flimstone'' fifteen minutes to manoeuvre free and set course for Portland. Captain Norman Shalton got the crew of ''Dallas City'' into the two portside lifeboats and abandoned the ship at about which sank at . (The crew was rescued about three hours later by ''Antonio'').
''Antonio'' was machine-gunned and near-missed by German bombing south south-west of Portland Bill; the rudder and propeller shaft stanchions being damaged; the crew had to slow the ship and found it difficult to steer, the ship following an erratic ourse. ''Antonio'' rescued 67 shipwrecked mariners and eventually anchored at Weymouth at The Dutch steamer ''Deucalion'' was bombed and sunk south south-west of Portland, 27 survivors being amongst those picked up by ''Antonio''. ''Britsum'', also Dutch, was sunk by bombers off
Selsey
Selsey is a seaside town and civil parish, about eight miles (12 km) south of Chichester in West Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea. It is bounde ...
at and the Estonian ''Kolga'' was bombed and sunk at with the loss of one crewman. The British ''Fairwater'' was hit and damaged by bombs at ; ''Argos Hill'', ''Briarwood'' and TS ''Lifland'' were damaged by bombs off Portland. ''Eastmoor'' was bombed off Portland Bill and ''King Frederick'' suffered bomb damage at , ''Irene Maria'' was damaged by bombs at . ''Flimstone'' reached Portland Harbour and the rest of the convoy was reduced to a disorganised condition. The convoy commodore, R. P. Galer, ordered the remnants of the convoy to run for the shelter of the Portland Harbour defences but these had been attacked in the morning. When OA 178 came into sight of Portland, three merchant ships in the harbour had already been damaged and the confined space of the harbour would have been a death-trap for the forty ships left in the convoy and it was turned away. No
RAF Fighter Command
RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Brita ...
aircraft had appeared to protect the convoy and during the evening, S 19, S 20, S 24 and S 26 (
E-Boats
E-boat was the Western Allies' designation for the fast attack craft (German: ''Schnellboot'', or ''S-Boot'', meaning "fast boat") of the Kriegsmarine during World War II; ''E-boat'' could refer to a patrol craft from an armed motorboat to a lar ...
to the British) of 1. (commanded by Birnbacher in S 24) sailed.
Night 4/5 July
![English Channel location map - Halsewell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/English_Channel_location_map_-_Halsewell.svg)
Near midnight, the E-Boat S 19 torpedoed ''Elmcrest'' south of Portland which took on a list as the crew abandoned ship. The fired its other torpedo at the starboard side as the lifeboat was being rowed clear; the torpedo passed underneath the lifeboat before hitting the ship and the lifeboat capsized, sixteen men being drowned; survivors were rescued by destroyer . Soon afterwards, S 20 (
Götz von Mirbach) and S 26 hit the tanker ''British Corporal'' with two torpedoes at . Two crewmen were killed and the ship was abandoned but did not sink and was later towed into port. ''Hartlepool'' was torpedoed by S 26 and abandoned, south, south-west of Portland, apparently in a sinking condition, the survivors being rescued by destroyer ; the ship was later beached at
Weymouth.
5–6 July
On 5 July, OA 178 was reinforced by the destroyer until 6 July when the surviving ships of OA 178 dispersed in the
Southwest Approaches
The Southwest Approaches is the name given to the offshore waters to the southwest of Great Britain and Ireland. The area includes the Celtic Sea, the Bristol Channel and sea areas off southwest Ireland. The area is bordered on the north by the S ...
and joined oceanic convoys.
Aftermath
Analysis
In 2008, Nick Hewitt wrote that hitherto, 3,404 ships had sailed the Channel with eight losses, which was some explanation for British complacency. In 2013, the historian Andy Saunders wrote that the convoy was too far from the English coast for fighters easily to have protected it and when the ''Stukas'' attacked. If Fighter Command squadrons had been scrambled from RAF bases they would have not arrived before the raid was over. Saunders called the losses inflicted on OA 178 a British failure, which showed the Germans that the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
and the RAF were incapable of protecting Channel convoys. After OA 178 local CE and CW coal convoys proved equally vulnerable to the combination of ''Stukas'' and . The British prime minister,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, issued an Action this Day memo to the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
inquiring about the measures to defend convoys along the south coast, particularly the matter of air cover. The severity of the losses to OA 178 was such that henceforth OA convoys were assembled at
Methil in
Fife and sailed northabout Scotland to avoid the English Channel.
Casualties
Temporary Lieutenant Commander (E) B. Nish RNR, Temporary Lieutenant (E) J. R. Bissett RNR, Temporary Sub/Lieutenant (E) J. W. McMullan RNR, Lieutenant W. G. P. Brigstocke RNVR, Probationary Temporary Surgeon Lt E. I. Smith, MB, ChB RNVR and one hundred and seventy one ratings (total 176) were killed on ''Foylebank''; thirteen officers and one hundred and forty-four ratings (total 157) were rescued. Sixteen men of ''Elmcrest'' were killed and one man was killed on ''Kolga'', a total of 193 men were killed. One ''Stuka'' crew was shot down and killed by antiaircraft fire from HMS ''Foylebank'' during the attack on Portland Harbour.
Convoy OA 178
Escorts
Ship losses in Portland Harbour
Notes
Footnotes
References
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Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:OA-178
Aerial operations and battles of World War II
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
OA178