Convoy ON 144 was a trade
convoy of merchant ships during the
Second World War
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 ...
. It was the 144th of the numbered series of
ON convoys
The ON convoys were a series of North Atlantic trade convoys running Outbound from the British Isles to North America during the Battle of the Atlantic.
History
From 7 September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, OB convoys saile ...
Outbound from the British Isles to North America. The ships departed
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 ...
on 7 November 1942 and were joined on 8 November
[Hague pp.158&161] by
Mid-Ocean Escort Force
Mid-Ocean Escort Force (MOEF) referred to the organisation of anti-submarine escorts for World War II trade convoys between Canada and Newfoundland, and the British Isles. The allocation of United States, British, and Canadian escorts to these co ...
Group B-6 consisting of the s , , , and
and the
convoy rescue ship ''Perth''.
[Milner pp.180-181] Group B-6 had sailed without 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 ...
s and which had been damaged in the battle for eastbound
convoy SC 104
Convoy SC 104 was the 104th of the numbered series of World War II Slow Convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island to Liverpool. During October 1942, a U-boat wolf pack sank eight ships from the convoy. The convoy escorts sank ...
. The
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...
cutters
Cutter may refer to:
Tools
* Bolt cutter
* Box cutter, aka Stanley knife, a form of utility knife
* Cigar cutter
* Cookie cutter
* Glass cutter
* Meat cutter
* Milling cutter
* Paper cutter
* Side cutter
* Cutter, a type of hydraulic rescue to ...
''Bibb'',
''Duane'', and
''Ingham'' accompanied the convoy from 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 ...
with ships that detached for
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
on 15 November.
Background
As western Atlantic coastal convoys brought an end to the
second happy time
The "Second Happy Time" (; officially Operation Paukenschlag ("Operation Drumbeat"), and also known among German submarine commanders as the "American Shooting Season") was a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines att ...
, Admiral
Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz (sometimes spelled Doenitz; ; 16 September 1891 24 December 1980) was a German admiral who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of state in May 1945, holding the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Government follo ...
, the ''
Befehlshaber der U-Boote'' (''BdU'') or commander in chief of U-Boats, shifted focus to the mid-Atlantic to avoid aircraft patrols. Although convoy routing was less predictable in the mid-ocean, Dönitz anticipated that the increased numbers of U-boats being produced would be able to effectively search for convoys with the advantage of intelligence gained through ''
B-Dienst
The ''B-Dienst'' (german: Beobachtungsdienst, observation service), also called x''B-Dienst'', X-''B-Dienst'' and χ''B-Dienst'', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (german: Marinenachrichtendienst, MND III) of the OKM, t ...
'' decryption of British Naval Cypher Number 3. However, of the 180 trans-Atlantic convoys sailing from the end of July 1942 until the end of April 1943, only 20 percent lost ships to U-boat attack.
The Norwegian-manned corvettes of escort group B-6 fought three of these convoy battles in sequential voyages with convoys SC 104, ON 144, and HX 217.
[Hague pp.132, 137-138, 161-162, 164, 181]
15 November
After rendezvousing with convoys to and from Iceland, Convoy ON 144 was discovered and shadowed by .
[Blair pp.118-120]
16 November
When initial attempts to summon additional U-boats to the convoy were unsuccessful, ''U-521'' was granted permission to attack, and missed with a salvo of six torpedoes.
''Rose'' unsuccessfully counterattacked with depth charges.
17 November
, and found the convoy and launched a simultaneous attack after sunset. ''U-262'' missed with three torpedoes.
''U-264'' sank the 6,696-ton Greek freighter ''Mount Taurus'', and ''U-184'' sank the 3,192-ton British freighter ''Widestone''.
18 November
''U-624'', , ''U-521'', , , and launched torpedoes in the pre-dawn hours.
''U-624'' sank the 5,344-ton British tanker ''President Sergent'' and the 4,732-ton American freighter ''Parismina'' and damaged the 5,432-ton American freighter ''Yaka'' which was later sunk by ''U-522''.
The
Type 271 centimeter-wavelength radar-equipped corvettes counterattacked, and ''U-184'' was sunk by one of those attacks. ''Montbretia'' was torpedoed by ''U-262'' and sank while still moving forward.
19 November
The U-boats had broken off the engagement by the time the four surviving corvettes were reinforced by the destroyers and , and the
Western Local Escort Force
Western Local Escort Force (WLEF) referred to the organization of anti-submarine escorts for World War II trade convoys from North American port cities to the Western Ocean Meeting Point (WOMP or WESTOMP) near Newfoundland where ships of the Mi ...
assumed responsibility for the convoy on 20 November.
Ships in convoy
See also
*
Convoy Battles of World War II
Notes
References
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