Convoy SL 125 was the 125th 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 opposing ...

SL convoys of merchant ships from Sierra Leone 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 populat ...

. Ships carrying commodities bound to the British Isles from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

travelled independently to

Freetown, Sierra Leone Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

, to be convoyed for the last leg of their voyage. Thirty-seven merchant ships departed Freetown on 16 October 1942 and were joined at sea by five more.

Initial contact

German cryptographers decoded message traffic containing tactical information about convoy SL 125, and wolf pack ''Streitaxt'' (battle axe), consisting of , , , , , , , , , and was assembled 23 October to intercept the convoy west of the Canary Islands. The only United States merchant ship and escorting sloop , HMS ''Copinsay'' and Free French corvette ''Commandant Drogou'' had been detached by the time ''U-203'' found the convoy on 25 October. U-203 was depth charged and damaged while attempting to attack the straggling British tanker ''Anglo Maersk''. The tanker was subsequently shadowed by ''U-134'' and damaged by ''U-509''.

27 October

The armed merchant cruiser and troopship HMS ''Esperance Bay'' was detached with the HMS ''Juliet'',

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

HMS ''Salvonia'', and repair ship HMNZS ''Kelantan'' when ''U-409'' found and reported the main convoy of 37 ships on 27 October. Forty-one merchant shipsHague 2000 p.142 were left in the care of s ,Rohwer & Hummelchen 1992 p.172 , , and .Blair 1998 p.69 ''U-659'' was depth charged and damaged while attempting to attack the convoy. After moonrise, ''U-604'' sank the damaged ''Anglo Maersk'' while ''U-509'' torpedoed the British freighters ''Pacific Star'' and ''Stentor''.

28 October

After unsuccessful submerged daylight attacks on 28 October, ''U-509'' sank the British freighter ''Nagpore'' and damaged the British freighter ''Hopecastle'' after sunset. ''U-203'' sank the damaged ''Hopecastle'' before dawn.Blair 1998 p.70

29 October

''U-509'' sank the British freighter ''Britanny'' during foul weather on the night of 29–30 October. The British tanker ''Bullmouth'' (sailing in ballast) was damaged by ''U-409'' and sunk by ''U-659''. The British freighter ''Corinaldo'' was damaged by both ''U-509'' and ''U-659'' before being sunk by ''U-203''.

30 October

Improved weather brought coordinated attacks on the night of 30–31 October. ''U-409'' torpedoed the British freighter ''Silverwillow'' while ''U-604'' torpedoed the British transport ''President Doumer'' and the British freighter ''Baron Vernon''. The British freighter ''Tasmania'' was damaged by ''U-659'' and sunk by ''U-103''. The Norwegian freighter ''Alaska'' was damaged by ''U-510'', but reached England safely with the help of newly arriving escorts.

Aftermath

Long-range bombers of

RAF Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

arrived over the convoy on 31 October. Admiral Dönitz cancelled operations on the morning of 1 November. The convoy was reinforced with eleven more escorts and reached

on 9 November. It had suffered the greatest loss of any SL convoy, but its timing focused the available

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 ro ...

s in the area away from the Operation Torch convoys for the allied invasion of North Africa on 8 November 1942. Some historians have suggested that the trade convoy SL 125 was an intentional tactical diversion to keep U-boats away from the loaded troop transports. Eleven of the ships surviving this convoy sailed two months later with convoy ON 154, in which four of them were sunk.

Ships in convoy

Notes

References

* * * * {{cite book, title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945 , author1=Rohwer, J. , author2=Hummelchen, G. , publisher=Naval Institute Press , year=1992 , ISBN =1-55750-105-X SL125 C