Convoy HX-84
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HX-84 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX series during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It consisted of 38 merchant ships which sailed eastbound from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada for Liverpool, England on 28 October 1940 and was escorted by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay
[edit] The action
On 5 November 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer found the convoy at and attacked immediately. Captain E.S.F. Fegen of the Jervis Bay attacked the raider so as to delay Admiral Scheer and to allow the convoy to escape. The Jervis Bay was quickly sunk with the loss of 190 of her crew. Nevertheless, their sacrifice gave the convoy time to scatter, allowing many of the merchantmen to escape.
Maiden, Trewellard, Kenbame Head, Beaverford, and Fresno were sunk, and the tanker SS San Demetrio damaged, but failing light now allowed the rest of the convoy to escape. The San Demetrio was abandoned by her crew, but two days later some of the crew, now in a lifeboats, sighted the San Demetrio, still afloat and still ablaze. They reboarded her, got the engines running, and brought her in to port (this incident later formed the basis for the script of a film of the same name).
[edit] References
- Dan van der Vat : The Atlantic Campaign (1988).ISBN 0 340 37751 8
- Arnold Hague : The Allied Convoy System 1939-1945 (2000). ISBN (Canada) 1 55125 033 0 . ISBN (UK) 1 86176 147 3
- Theodor Krancke, Hans Brennecke : The Battleship ‘Scheer’ (1956). ISBN
- Calum MacNeil : San Demetrio (1957). ISBN
