Convoy HX 65

HX 65 formed of three sections sailing from the Americas, and was to divide into two sections for the landfall in the United Kingdom. The main body, of 13 ships, departed Halifax on 12 August 1940;[1] with ships gathered from the US eastern seaboard; it was led by convoy commodore V.Adm. BG Washington in the steamship Harpalyce. It was accompanied by its ocean escort, the Armed Merchant Cruiser Voltaire, and a local escort of two RCN warships. It was joined on 14 August by 16 ships from Sydney, on Cape Breton Island, also with a local escort. These had gathered from ports on the St Lawrence and the Great Lakes.[2] On 16 August the convoy was joined by BHX 65, 22 ships from the Caribbean and South America, that had gathered at Bermuda, departing there on 11 August escorted by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Montclare .[3]

Ranged against HX 65 were U-boats of the German Navy's 1st, 2nd and 7th U-boat Flotillas, operating from Kiel and Wilhelmshaven.

On 22 August HX 65’s Western Approaches escort began to arrive; the destroyer Skeena and the corvette Godetia left the outbound OA 201, arriving later that day. On 24 August the destroyer Westcott and the corvette Gladiolus arrived from OB 201.[4]

On the morning of 24 August tanker La Brea (one of two ships that had dropped out of HX 65 5 days earlier) was sighted by U-48 in the North West Approaches WNW of Rockall. She was attacked and sunk, leaving two boats of survivors in bad weather and rough seas. They made landfall in the Hebrides over the next two days.[5][6]

On the evening of 24 August the convoy divided, one section (referred to in some sources as HX 65A) of 20 ships bound for Methil on Scotland’s east coast via Cape Wrath and the north of Scotland, and a second section (HX 65 B) of 22 ships bound for Liverpool.

The Methil section, led by Harpalyce and escorted by Skeena and Godetia was found by U-48, which attacked during the night of 24/25 August, sinking 2 ships, Empire Merlin and Athelcrest. She was counter attacked by Godetia but escaped without damage. Later, on the morning of 25 August the convoy was sighted twice more, by U-28 and U-32, but the convoy had been joined by a Sunderland from Coastal Command, and both submerged on sighting the aircraft. U-32 made a perfunctory attack, which failed. That evening the convoy was found again, by U-124, and attacked just before midnight. U-124 fired four torpedoes and claimed four ships sunk; the actual success was two ships sunk (Harpalyce and Fircrest) and another (Stakesby) damaged. Harpalyce and Fircrest went down quickly with heavy loss of life. Stakesby was abandoned, but was later salvaged by the tug Thames and repaired. U-124 was counterattacked by Godetia and damaged when she ran onto a rock. After the corvette had left, U-124 was unable to continue convoy operations relegated to weather reporting.[7] Later that day the convoy was reinforced by Jaguar and Javelin, two destroyers from Scapa Flow.[8] On the evening of 26 August the convoy came under air attack near Kinnaird Head by Luftwaffe aircraft from occupied Norway; eight Ju 88s of KG 30 based at Aalborg. four ships were hit; one was sunk and three damaged. Nellie and City of Hankow made port safely, but Cape York sank under tow on the following day. Later on the night of 26/27 August a second air attack by four He 115 torpedo bombers of KuFlGr 506, based in Stavanger, hit Remuera, which sank. The remaining 16 ships arrived at safely at Methil on 27th.[9]

Meanwhile on 25 August the Liverpool section, led by V.Adm. Leir in Manchester Merchant and escorted by Westcott, was found by U-57 which gave chase. Several tankers had fallen out of the convoy, to be chivvied by the escort, and one of these, Pecten, was torpedoed by U-57. The escort counter-attacked, but U-57 escaped. This section was also reinforced on 26 August, by the sloop Lowestoft. No further attacks developed and the 21 ships arrived without further incident at Liverpool on 27 August.[10][11]

• List of shipwrecks in August 1940

• Blair, Clay (1996) Hitler’s U-boat War Vol I Cassell ISBN 0-304-35260-8
• Hague, Arnold (2000). The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945. ISBN 1-86176-147-3.
• Rohwer, J.; Hummelchen, G. (1992). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-105-X.

• HX.65 at convoyweb