Convoy SC 7 SC 7 was the code name for a large Allied World War II convoy of 35 merchant ships and six escorts, which sailed eastbound from Sydney, Nova Scotia, for Liverpool and other United Kingdom ports on 5 October 1940. While crossing the Atlantic, ...

was the seventh of the SC convoys, bound from

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Nova Scotia across the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

to a number of British ports, mainly Liverpool. They were designated SC as their departure point was designated Sydney, Cape Breton in order to avoid confusion with Sydney in Australia.The Allied Convoy System The convoys formed part of the

battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade ...

during the Second World War. Large numbers of merchants travelled together with naval escorts to protect against U-boat attacks. They were often slow, the merchants often only being capable of a speed of around and so were particularly vulnerable to attack. This problem was exacerbated by a shortage of suitable escorts from either the Royal Canadian Navy or the Royal Navy in the early stages of the war. Convoy SC 7 left Sydney on 5 October 1940, consisting of 36 merchants initially escorted by the Canadian armed yacht and the British

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

.Convoy web
/ref> Having seen the convoy out of Canadian waters, ''Elk'' turned back on 7 October leaving the convoy to spend three quarters of the crossing escorted by the lone ''Scarborough''. One of the merchants, had developed engine problems and also turned back. The crossing was uneventful to begin with, the only casualty being which was straggling behind the main convoy and was torpedoed and sunk on 16 October by . The main convoy was spotted the following day by , which sank .
/ref> Further sporadic attacks continued that day and the following, despite the arrival of the sloop and the

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

. The night of 18/19 October saw the successful use of the

wolf pack A pack is a social group of conspecific canines. Packs aren't formed by all canines, especially small sized canines like the Red fox. The number of members in a pack and their social behavior varies from species to species. Social structure is v ...

tactics of Germany's U-boat fleet. Five U-boats; , , , and attacked en-masse, overwhelming the escorts, newly reinforced by and .Timeline of World War II
/ref> They sank 16 merchants in a six-hour period, bringing the total to twenty merchants sunk and a total tonnage lost of 79,592 Gross registered tons. The U-boats only broke off their attacks to intercept convoy HX 79 that had arrived in the area. They went on to sink a further 12 ships from this convoy, for a total of 28 ships sunk on 18/19 October, making this the deadliest two days of the battle of the Atlantic. The surviving merchants were gathered up by the remaining escorts and brought into port several days later.

Merchant ships

Escorts

U-boats

Notes

References

* Paul Lund, Harry Ludlam : The Night of the U-Boats ( 1973) *

Stephen Roskill Captain Stephen Wentworth Roskill, (1 August 1903 – 4 November 1982) was a senior career officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the Second World War and, after his enforced medical retirement, served as the official historian of the Royal ...

: The War at Sea 1939–1945 Vol I (1954) ISBN (none) * Dan van der Vat : The Atlantic Campaign (1988) * Arnold Hague : The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945 (2000). Canada . UK

External links

A report on the convoy from public recordsConvoy SC-7 at Uboat.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Order of battle for Convoy SC 007 Convoy SC 007 SC007Order