Convoy TM 1 was the code name for an Allied convoy during the Second World War. Nine

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

, escorted by

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 F ...

warships, attempted to reach

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

from

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. The convoy was attacked by a

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 role ...

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 ...

in the central

Atlantic Ocean 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 most of the merchant vessels were sunk. This was one of the most successful attacks on Allied supply convoys throughout the entire war.Morison p.326 The convoy was defended by the destroyer , and three s, , and . Seven tankers were sunk during the attacks, two surviving to reach Gibraltar.Blair pp.145-147 Two U-boats were damaged during the attacks.

Battle

located HMS ''Godetia'' on 29 December 1942, escorting two tankers to join up with the main convoy. made contact with the convoy on 3 January and attacked and damaged the tanker , forcing her crew to abandon her though the ship remained afloat. By now aware that a large tanker convoy was headed through the Atlantic, presumably to deliver supplies to the Allied armies in North Africa, 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 German

BdU The ''Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote'' or BdU (Eng: "Commander of the U-boats") was the supreme commander of the German Navy's U-boat Arm (''Ubootwaffe'') during the First World War, First and Second World Wars. The term also referred to the Comma ...

(commander in chief of U-boats) ordered

"Dolphin" to attempt to intercept it. made contact with the convoy on 8 January, and the wolf pack launched their first attacks that evening. attacked and sank and damaged . HMS ''Havelock'' launched a counter-attack, damaging and driving off ''U-381'', while ''Pimpernel'' and ''Godetia'' drove off and respectively.Rohwer & Hummelchen p.184 returned the following morning and attacked the convoy, damaging two tankers, , and , while damaged ''Empire Lytton''. and attacked, but failed to hit any targets. ''Godetia'' damaged ''U-134'' with

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...

s. kept in contact with the convoy, and in the evening of 9 January, ''U-522'' attacked the two tankers she had damaged earlier in the morning, ''Norvik'' and ''Minister Wedel'', and sank both of them. Meanwhile, ''U-442'' returned to the damaged and abandoned ''Empire Lytton'' and finished her off with two torpedoes, while ''U-436'' returned to the abandoned ''Albert L. Ellsworth'' and sank her with shells from her deck gun. came across , a merchant ship sailing unescorted and not part of convoy TM 1, and sank her. The attacks resumed on the night of 10/11 January, with ''U-522'' torpedoing . Her crew abandoned her, but the ship was only damaged and did not sink until ''U-620'' arrived and sank her with a torpedo and gunfire. Other attacks that evening and over the next two days, by ''U-571'' and ''U-511'', fail to score any successes. By now the convoy was approaching Gibraltar, and the destroyer and the corvettes and were sent out to reinforce the escorts. Supported by Allied air cover, the convoy reached Gibraltar without further loss on 14 January. Two tankers, ''Cliona'' and ''Vanja'', survived from the original nine. The final action came on 24 January, when the abandoned hulk of ''British Vigilance'', torpedoed by ''U-514'' on 3 January, was discovered by , and promptly sunk.

Order of battle

Merchants

Escorts

U-boats

Wolf pack Dolphin

Others

Notes

References

* Blair, Clay ''Hitler's U-Boat War The Hunted 1942–1945'' Random House (1998) * Darwin, Peter: ''A Day-By-Day History: World War II'', 2007 * Morison, Samuel Eliot ''History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (Volume I) The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1943'' Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1947) *
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