HX convoys

Naval convoy series during World War II

HX convoys

Part of The Battle of the Atlantic of the Second World War

Royal Canadian Navy Flower-class corvettes such as HMCS Regina escorted many of the HX convoys
| Date| September 1939 – May 1945

|

Location|

Atlantic Ocean

0°N 25°W﻿ / ﻿0°N 25°W﻿ / 0; -25
Result|  Allied victory

class=notpageimage|

Map of the Atlantic Ocean

* v
* t
* e

Atlantic campaign

* Americas
* United States
* Caribbean
* St. Lawrence
* Northern Barrage
* Blockade of Germany
* Gibraltar

* * *

1939

* River Plate

1940

* HX 47
* HX 49
* 1st Happy Time
* HX 65
* SC 2
* HX 72
* SC 7
* HX 79
* HX 84
* Nordseetour
* HX 90

1941

* SC 19
* SC 20
* Berlin
* HX 106
* HG 53
* OB 293
* HX 112
* 4 April
* OB 318
* HX 126
* Rheinübung
* Denmark Strait
* Bismarck
* HX 133
* OG 69
* OG 71
* SC 42
* HG 73
* SC 48
* HX 156
* HG 76

1942

* Postmaster
* 2nd Happy Time
* Torpedo Alley
* SC 67
* Neuland
* ON 67
* 27 March
* OG 82
* Connecticut
* ON 92
* 6 June
* HG 84
* SL 78
* QS 15
* ON 113
* ON 115
* SC 94
* ON 122
* Bell Island
* QS 33
* ON 127
* Laconia
* SQ 36
* SC 100
* 27 September
* SG 6/LN 6
* SC 104
* HX 212
* SL 125
* SC 107
* ON 144
* ON 153
* ON 154

1943

* TM 1
* SG 19
* SC 118
* ON 166
* UC 1
* SC 121
* HX 228
* UGS 6
* HX 229/SC 122
* HX 231
* Black May
* ONS 5
* HX 237
* SC 129
* SC 130
* Faith
* ONS 18/ON 202
* SC 143
* ONS 20/ON 206
* Sept-Îles
* ON 207
* SL 138/MKS 28
* SL 139/MKS 30
* SL 140/MKS 31
* Stonewall
* Bay of Biscay

1944

* Lyme Bay
* 26 April 1944
* Capture of U-505
* HX 300
* WEP 3
* BX 141

1945

* Teardrop
* Point Judith
* 5–6 May 1945
* 7–8 May 1945

HX convoys were transatlantic convoys in the North Atlantic during the First World War and in the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. HX convoys sailed eastwards from Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, to Liverpool and other ports in Britain. They rendezvoused with BHX convoys from Bermuda en route. After the United States entered the war, HX convoys began at New York.

The HX series consisted of 377 convoys, with 17,744 ships. Thirty-eight convoys were attacked (about 10 per cent), with the loss of 110 ships in convoy; sixty stragglers were sunk and 36 lost while detached or after dispersal, with losses from marine accident and other causes, for a total loss of 206 ships or about 1 per cent of the total.[1]

## Background

[edit]

An HX series had run in the Atlantic Campaign of the First World War in 1917 and 1918.[2] HX convoys were revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic and were run until the end, the longest continuous series of the war. HX 1 sailed on 16 September 1939 with 18 merchant ships, escorted by the Royal Canadian Navy destroyers HMCS St. Laurent and Saguenay to a North Atlantic rendezvous with Royal Navy heavy cruisers HMS Berwick and York.[3] HX 358 sailed on 23 May 1945 and arrived at Liverpool on 6 June 1945.[4] HX convoys were initially considered fast and made up of ships that could make 9–13 kn (17–24 km/h; 10–15 mph), the voyage from New York to Liverpool taking an average of 15.2 days. A parallel series of slow convoys (SC), was run for ships making 7.7–8 kn (14.3–14.8 km/h; 8.9–9.2 mph), which took about 15.4 days from Sydney, Nova Scotia.[5]

Ships making more than 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph) sailed independently; CU (Caribbean to United Kingdom) series were organised in 1943, most being US war-built tankers of 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)+, which later included troop transports and fast merchant ships.[6] Outbound convoys were usually slower than return convoys and summer voyages usually faster than those in winter. Delays for diversions and bad weather could lead to escort vessels at the ocean rendezvous running low on fuel and having to return. A convoy that went way off course or encountered unusually stormy or foggy weather would be lucky to make rendezvous with its escorts.[5] The largest convoy of the Second World War was Convoy HX 300 which sailed from New York to Britain on 25 July 1944, with 166 merchant ships, arriving at Liverpool without incident, on 3 August 1944.[7]

## Convoy battles

[edit]

Map showing the north Atlantic

* Convoy HX 79 Attacked by a U-boat Wolfpack in October 1940. Twelve ships were lost, which, with the attack on Convoy SC 7 on the same day, made 19 October and the night of 19/20 October 1940 the worst period for shipping losses of the Battle of the Atlantic.[8]
* Convoy HX 84 Attacked on 5 November 1940 by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer. Five ships were quickly sunk but the sacrifice of HMS Jervis Bay an armed merchant cruiser and the armed merchant ship SS Beaverford along with failing light, allowed the rest of the convoy to escape. The oil tanker San Demetrio was part of the convoy.[9]
* Convoy HX 106 On 8 February 1941 two German battlecruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau appeared over the horizon. The presence of the escorting battleship HMS Ramillies deterred an attack.[10]
* Convoy HX 112 Attacked in March 1941, this battle was notable for seeing the loss to the Kriegsmarine (German navy) of two of its U-boat aces, Otto Kretschmer and Joachim Schepke.[11]
* Convoy HX 156 was being escorted by the United States Navy in October, 1941, when U-552 torpedoed USS Reuben James, the first US warship sunk in the Second World War.[12]
* Convoy HX 212 suffered the worst loss of an HX convoy in 1942.[13]
* Convoy HX 228 Was one of several convoys attacked during March 1943. Two U-boats were destroyed while sinking four merchant ships and the escort commander's destroyer.[14]
* Convoys HX 229/SC 122. Attacked in March 1943, this action converged with the operation around Convoy SC 122 and became the largest convoy battle of the Atlantic campaign.[15]

## HX convoy statistics

[edit]

Sinkings of merchant ships in HX convoys[1] Year  | No. convoys  | No. ships  | Lost  | Stragglers lost  | Non-convoy losses  | Total  | %  | Notes

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

1939  | 22  | 431  | 1  | —  | 2  | 3 | 0.70  |
1940  | 91  | 3,424  | 48  | 22  | 24  | 94 | 2.75  |
1941  | 70  | 3,050  | 21  | 18  | 7  | 46 | 1.51  |
1942  | 54  | 1,811  | 8  | 6  | 3  | 17 | 0.94  |
1943  | 53  | 2,958  | 27  | 14  | —  | 41 | 1.39  |
1944  | 55  | 4,085  | 2  | —  | —  | 2 | 0.05  |
1945  | 32  | 1,985  | 3  | —  | —  | 3 | 0.15  |
Total  | 377 | 17,774 | 110 | 60 | 36 | 206 | 1.16 |

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b Hague 2000, p. 116.
2. ^ Newbolt 2003, p. 104.
3. ^ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 4; Roskill 1957, p. 93.
4. ^ Hague 2000, pp. 123, 129.
5. ^ a b Roskill 1957, p. 345.
6. ^ Hague 2000, p. 38.
7. ^ Hague 2000, p. 129.
8. ^ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 44.
9. ^ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 48.
10. ^ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 58.
11. ^ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, pp. 63, 65.
12. ^ Silverstone 1968, p. 9.
13. ^ Hague 2000, pp. 127–128; Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, pp. 203, 208.
14. ^ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, pp. 236–239.
15. ^ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, pp. 237–239.

## References

[edit]

* Hague, Arnold (2000). The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945: Its Organisation, Defence and Operation. London: Chatham. ISBN 1-86176-147-3.
* Newbolt, H. J. (2003) [1931]. Naval Operations (accompanying Map Case). History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. V (facs. repr. Imperial War Museum Department of Printed books and Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: Longmans, Green & Co. ISBN 978-1-84342-493-2 - via Archive Foundation.
* Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (3rd rev. ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
* Roskill, S. W. (1957) [1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The War at Sea 1939–1945: The Defensive. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. I (4th impr. ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 881709135. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022.
* Silverstone, Paul H. (1968). US Warships of World War II. New York: Doubleday. OCLC 460376599.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Vat, Dan van der (1988). The Atlantic Campaign. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-37751-8.
* Woodman, Richard (2013) [2004]. The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1943 (repr. Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley ed.). London: John Murray. ISBN 978-1-84884-415-5.

## External links

[edit]

* Private page about the convoys
* Ships sailing in HX convoys
* HMS Jervis Bay and the battle of HX84
* Convoy HXS 300 from Halifax (later New York) to UK, includes list of merchant vessels in the convoy

* v
* t
* e

World War II

* Outline
* Battles
* Operations
* Leaders
* Allied
* Axis
* Commanders
* Casualties
* Conferences

General|

| Topics|

* Air warfare of World War II
* In Europe
* Blitzkrieg
* Comparative military ranks
* Cryptography
* Declarations of war
* Diplomacy
* Governments in exile
* Home front
* Australian
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Lend-Lease
* Manhattan Project
* British contribution
* Military awards
* Military equipment
* Military production
* Naval history
* Nazi plunder
* Opposition
* Technology
* Allied cooperation
* Mulberry harbour
* Total war
* Strategic bombing
* Puppet states
* Women
* Art and World War II
* Music in World War II
* Weather events during World War II

|

Theaters|

* Asia and Pacific
* China
* South-East Asia
* Pacific
* North and Central Pacific
* South-West Pacific
* Indian Ocean
* Europe
* Western Front
* Eastern Front
* Mediterranean and Middle East
* North Africa
* East Africa
* Italy
* West Africa
* Atlantic
* timeline
* Americas

Aftermath|

* Chinese Civil War
* Cold War
* Decolonization
* Division of Korea
* First Indochina War
* Expulsion of Germans
* Greek Civil War
* Indonesian National Revolution
* Keelhaul
* Marshall Plan
* Occupation of Germany
* Occupation of Japan
* Osoaviakhim
* Paperclip
* Soviet occupations
* Baltic
* Hungary
* Poland
* Romania
* Territorial changes of Germany
* Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
* United Nations

War crimes|

* Allied war crimes
* Soviet war crimes
* British war crimes
* United States war crimes
* German war crimes
* forced labour
* Wehrmacht war crimes
* The Holocaust
* Aftermath
* Response
* Nuremberg trials
* Italian war crimes
* Japanese war crimes
* Nanjing Massacre
* Unit 731
* Prosecution
* Croatian war crimes
* Genocide of Serbs
* Persecution of Jews
* Romanian war crimes
* Sexual violence
* German military brothels
* Camp brothels
* Rape during the occupation of Germany / Japan / Poland
* Rape during the liberation of France / Serbia
* Sook Ching
* Comfort women
* Rape of Manila
* Marocchinate

Participants|

| Allies|

* Algeria
* Australia
* Belgium
* Brazil
* Bulgaria (from September 1944)
* Canada
* China
* Cuba
* Czechoslovakia
* Denmark
* Ethiopia
* Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)
* Finland (from September 1944)
* France
* Free France
* Greece
* India
* Italy (from September 1943)
* Liberia
* Luxembourg
* Mexico
* Netherlands
* Newfoundland
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Philippines
* Poland
* Romania (from August 1944)
* Sierra Leone
* South Africa
* Southern Rhodesia
* Soviet Union
* Tuva
* United Kingdom
* British Empire
* United States
* Puerto Rico
* Yugoslavia

|

Axis|

* Albania protectorate
* Bulgaria (until September 1944)
* State of Burma
* Republic of China (Wang Jingwei)
* Independent State of Croatia
* Finland (until September 1944)
* German Reich
* Hungary
* Azad Hind
* Iraq
* Italy (until September 1943)
* Italian Social Republic
* Empire of Japan
* Manchukuo
* Mengjiang
* Philippines
* Romania (until August 1944)
* Slovak Republic
* Thailand
* Vichy France
* Guangzhouwan
* French Indochina
* French Madagascar
* Syria–Lebanon
* French North Africa
* French West Africa
* Collaboration

Neutral|

* Afghanistan
* Andorra
* Bhutan
* Ireland
* Liechtenstein
* Monaco
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Saudi Arabia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Tibet
* Turkey
* Vatican City
* Yemen

Resistance|

* Albania
* Austria
* Belgium
* Bulgaria
* Czech lands
* Denmark
* Dutch East Indies
* Estonia
* Ethiopia
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hong Kong
* Italy
* Japan
* Jews
* Korea
* Korean Liberation Army
* Korean Volunteer Army
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malaya
* Netherlands
* Northeast China
* Norway
* Philippines
* Poland
* Romania
* Thailand
* Soviet Union
* Slovakia
* Western Ukraine
* Vietnam
* Quốc dân Đảng
* Viet Minh
* Yugoslavia

POWs|

* Finnish prisoners in the Soviet Union
* German prisoners
* Soviet Union
* Azerbaijan
* United States
* United Kingdom
* Italian prisoners in the Soviet Union
* Japanese prisoners
* Soviet Union
* German atrocities against Polish POWs
* Soviet prisoners
* Finland
* atrocities by Germans
* Polish prisoners in the Soviet Union
* Romanian prisoners in the Soviet Union

Timeline|

| Prelude|

* Africa
* Second Italo-Ethiopian War
* Asia
* Second Sino-Japanese War
* Battles of Khalkhin Gol
* Europe
* Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
* Anschluss
* Munich Agreement
* Occupation of Czechoslovakia
* Operation Himmler
* Italian invasion of Albania

|

1939|

* Invasion of Poland
* Battle of the Atlantic
* Phoney War
* First Battle of Changsha
* Battle of South Guangxi
* Winter War
* 1939–1940 Winter Offensive

1940|

* Norwegian campaign
* German invasion of Denmark
* Battle of Zaoyang–Yichang
* German invasion of Luxembourg
* German invasion of the Netherlands
* German invasion of Belgium
* Battle of France
* Dunkirk evacuation
* Battle of Britain
* Battle of the Mediterranean
* North Africa
* West Africa
* British Somaliland
* Hundred Regiments Offensive
* Baltic states
* Eastern Romania
* Japanese invasion of French Indochina
* Italian invasion of Greece
* Compass

1941|

* Battle of South Henan
* Battle of Shanggao
* Invasion of Yugoslavia
* German invasion of Greece
* Battle of Crete
* Anglo-Iraqi War
* Battle of South Shanxi
* Syria–Lebanon campaign
* East African campaign
* Invasion of the Soviet Union
* Summer War
* Finland (Silver Fox)
* Lithuania
* Battle of Kiev
* Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
* Second Battle of Changsha
* Siege of Leningrad
* Battle of Moscow
* Bombing of Gorky
* Siege of Sevastopol
* Attack on Pearl Harbor
* Japanese invasion of Thailand
* Fall of Hong Kong
* Fall of the Philippines
* Battle of Guam
* Battle of Wake Island
* Malayan campaign
* Battle of Borneo
* Japanese invasion of Burma
* Third Battle of Changsha
* Greek famine of 1941–1944

1942|

* Fall of Singapore
* Battle of the Java Sea
* St Nazaire Raid
* Battle of Christmas Island
* Battle of the Coral Sea
* Battle of Madagascar
* Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign
* Battle of Gazala
* Battle of Dutch Harbor
* Battle of Midway
* Aleutian Islands campaign
* Kiska
* Attu
* Blue
* First Battle of El Alamein
* Battle of Stalingrad
* Kokoda Track campaign
* Rzhev
* Jubilee
* Second Battle of El Alamein
* Guadalcanal campaign
* Torch
* Chinese famine of 1942–1943

1943|

* Black May
* Tunisian campaign
* Battle of West Hubei
* Battle of Attu
* Bombing of Gorky
* Battle of Kursk
* Allied invasion of Sicily
* Smolensk
* Solomon Islands campaign
* Cottage
* Battle of the Dnieper
* Allied invasion of Italy
* Armistice of Cassibile
* Burma
* Northern Burma and Western Yunnan
* Changde
* Second Battle of Kiev
* Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
* Tarawa
* Makin
* Bengal famine of 1943

1944|

* Tempest
* Monte Cassino / Anzio
* Korsun–Cherkassy
* Narva
* U-Go
* Imphal
* Ichi-Go
* Kohima
* Overlord
* Neptune
* Mariana and Palau
* Bagration
* Western Ukraine
* Second Battle of Guam
* Tannenberg Line
* Warsaw Uprising
* Eastern Romania
* Liberation of Paris
* Dragoon
* Gothic Line
* Belgrade offensive
* Battle of San Marino
* Lapland
* Market Garden
* Estonia
* Crossbow
* Pointblank
* Vietnamese famine of 1944–1945
* Philippines (1944–1945)
* Leyte
* Syrmian Front
* Hungary
* Budapest
* Burma (1944–1945)
* Ardennes
* Bodenplatte
* Dutch famine of 1944–1945

1945|

* Vistula–Oder
* Battle of Manila
* Battle of Iwo Jima
* Indochina
* Vienna offensive
* Project Hula
* Western invasion of Germany
* Bratislava–Brno offensive
* Battle of Okinawa
* Second Guangxi campaign
* West Hunan
* Italy (Spring 1945)
* Battle of Berlin
* Prague offensive
* Surrender of Germany
* document
* Borneo
* Taipei
* Naval bombardment of Japan
* Manchuria
* Atomic bombings
* Debate
* South Sakhalin
* Kuril Islands
* Shumshu
* Surrender of Japan
* Potsdam Declaration
* document
* End of World War II in Asia

* World portal
* Bibliography
* Category

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template