Order of battle for Convoy SC-7

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Convoy SC-7 was the seventh of the SC convoys, bound from Sydney, Nova Scotia across the North Atlantic to a number of British ports, mainly Liverpool.^[1] They were designated SC as their departure point was designated Sydney, Cape Breton in order to avoid confusion with Sydney in Australia .^[2] The convoys formed part of the battle of the Atlantic 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 eight knots and so were particularly vulnerable to attack.^[3] 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.^[4]

Convoy SC-7 left Sydney on 5 October 1940, consisting of 36 merchants initially escorted by the Canadian armed yacht HMCS Elk and the British sloop HMS Scarborough.^[5] 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.^[6] One of the merchants, SS Winona had developed engine problems and also turned back.^[7] The crossing was uneventful to begin with, the only casualty being the SS Trevisa which was straggling behind the main convoy and was torpedoed and sunk on 16 October by U-124.^[8]

The main convoy was spotted the following day by U-38, which sank the SS Aenos.^[9] Further sporadic attacks continued that day and the following, despite the arrival of the sloop HMS Fowey and the corvette HMS Bluebell. The night of 18/19 October saw the successful use of the wolf pack tactics of Germany's U-boat fleet. Five U-boats; U-46, U-99, U-100, U-101 and U-123 attacked en-masse, overwhelming the escorts, newly reinforced by HMS Leith and Heartsease.^[10] 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.^[11] The surviving merchants were gathered up by the remaining escorts and brought into port several days later.

Contents 1 Merchants 2 Escorts 3 U-boats 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Merchants

      This along with the * indicates that the ship was sunk

Name	Nationality	Cargo	Fate	Date of attack	Survivors	Dead	Notes
Aenos	Greek	Wheat	Sunk by U-38*	17 October	25	4	Straggler
Assyrian	British	Grain	Sunk by U-101*	19 October	34	17	Convoy commodore's ship
Beatus	British	Steel, timber and aircraft	Sunk by U-46*	18 October	37	0
Blairspey	British	Timber	Damaged by U-101 Damaged by U-100	18 October 19 October	34	0	Reached port, repaired and returned to service.
Boekelo	Dutch	Timber	Damaged by U-100 Sunk by U-123*	18 October 19 October	25	0	Straggler
Botusk	British	Timber	Reached port safely		42	0
Carsbreck	British	Timber	Damaged by U-38	18 October	55	0	Towed into port
Clintonia	British	Pulpwood	Damaged by U-99 Sunk by U-123*	19 October 19 October	35	1
Convallaria	Swedish	Pulpwood	Sunk by U-46*	18 October	22	0
Corinthic	British	Steel and scrap metal	Reached port safely		21	0
Creekirk	British	Iron ore	Sunk by U-101*	18 October	0	36
Dioni	Greek	Grain	Reached port safely		82	0
Eaglescliffe Hall	British	Timber	Reached port safely		64	0
Empire Brigade	British	Various metals and ores	Sunk by U-99	19 October	35	6
Empire Miniver	British	Pig iron and steel	Sunk by U-99	19 October	35	3
Fiscus	British	Steel, timber and aircraft	Sunk by U-99	18 October	1	38	Straggler
Flynderborg	British	Pulpwood	Reached port safely		12	0
Gunborg	Swedish	Pulpwood	Sunk by U-46*	18 October	23	0
Havørn[12]	Norwegian	Pit props	Reached port safely		53	0
Inger Elisabeth[13]	Norwegian	Pit props	Reached port safely		44	0
Karlander[14]	Norwegian	Timber	Reached port safely		92	0
Languedoc	British	Fuel oil	Sunk by U-48*	17 October	39	0
Niritos	Greek	Sulphur	Sunk by U-99*	18 October	27	1
Scoresby	British	Pit props	Sunk by U-48*	17 October	39	0
Sedgepool	British	Wheat	Sunk by U-123*	19 October	36	3
Shekatika	British	Pit props and steel	Damaged by U-123, U-99 and U-100 Sunk by U-123*	19 October	36	0	Had joined from convoy SHX-76. A 'romper' (travelling ahead of the main convoy)
Snefjeld[15]	Norwegian	Timber	Sunk by U-99*	19 October	21	0
Sneland I[16]	Norwegian	Sulphur	Reached port safely		94	0
Soesterberg	Dutch	Pit props	Sunk by U-101*	19 October	19	6
Somersby	British	Flour	Reached port safely		83	0
Thalia	Greek	Steel, lead and zinc	Sunk by U-99*	19 October	4	22
Thorøy[17]	Norwegian	Fuel oil	Reached port safely		63	0
Trevisa	Canadian	Timber	Sunk by U-124*	16 October	14	7	Straggler. First ship lost.
Trident	British	Steel and timber	Reached port safely		43	0
Valparaiso	Swedish	General cargo	Reached port safely		14	0
Winona	American	Timber	Returned to port		34	0

[edit] Escorts

Name	Class	Navy	Date joined	Date departed	Notes
HMS Bluebell	Flower class corvette	Royal Navy	18 October	21 October
HMCS Elk	Armed yacht	Royal Canadian Navy	5 October	7 October
HMS Fowey	Shoreham class sloop	Royal Navy	18 October	21 October
HMS Heartsease	Flower class corvette	Royal Navy	18 October	21 October	Dispatched with the damaged Carsbreck on 18 October
HMS Leith	Grimsby class sloop	Royal Navy	18 October	21 October
HMS Scarborough	Hastings class sloop	Royal Navy	5 October	21 October	Lost contact with the convoy on 17 October and was unable to rejoin

[edit] U-boats

Name	Commander	Ships sunk	Ships damaged	Notes
U-38	Heinrich Liebe	1	1
U-46	Engelbert Endrass	3	0
U-48	Heinrich Bleichrodt	2	0
U-99	Otto Kretschmer	6	1
U-100	Joachim Schepke	0	3
U-101	Fritz Frauenheim	3	1
U-123	Karl-Heinz Moehle	4	0
U-124	Georg-Wilhelm Schulz	1	0

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Paul Lund, Harry Ludlam  : The Night of the U-Boats ( 1973) ISBN 0 572 00828 7
• Stephen Roskill : The War at Sea 1939-1945 Vol I (1954) ISBN (none)
• Dan van der Vat : The Atlantic Campaign (1988) ISBN 0 340 37751 8
• Arnold Hague : The Allied Convoy System 1939-1945 (2000) . Canada ISBN 1 55125 033 0 . UK ISBN 1 86176 147 3

[edit] External links

• A report on the convoy from public records
• Convoy SC-7 at Uboat.net
• SC-7 at Arnold Hague's convoy database