Convoy ON 154

Convoy ON-154 was the 154th of the numbered series of World War II merchant ship convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America. It lost 13 of its 50 freighters.

The ships departed Liverpool on 18 December 1942 and were met by the Royal Canadian Navy Mid-Ocean Escort Force Group C-1, consisting of the River class destroyer HMCS St. Laurent (H83) with the Flower class corvettes HMCS Battleford (K165), HMCS Chilliwack (K131), HMCS Kenogami (K125), HMCS Napanee (K118), and HMCS Shediac (K110). ON-154 included the convoy rescue ship Toward, the oiler Scottish Heather and the French-crewed 2456-ton Special Service Vessel HMS Fidelity (D57). Fidelity was armed with four 4-inch (10-cm) guns, four torpedo tubes and a defensive torpedo net. She carried two landing craft (LCV-752 and LCV-754), two OS2U Kingfisher float planes and Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) 105.

The convoy sailed in 12 columns of three or four ships each. The convoy formation was five miles wide and 1.5 miles long.

Background
As western Atlantic coastal convoys brought an end to the second happy time, Admiral Karl Dönitz, the Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU) or commander in chief of U-Boats, shifted focus to the mid-Atlantic to avoid aircraft patrols. Although convoy routing was less predictable in the mid-ocean, Dönitz anticipated that the increased numbers of U-boats being produced would be able to effectively search for convoys with the advantage of intelligence gained through B-Dienst decryption of British Naval Cypher Number 3. However, only 20 percent of the 180 trans-Atlantic convoys sailing from the end of July 1942 until the end of April 1943 lost ships to U-boat attack.

Discovery on 26/27 December
ON-154 was routed south to avoid storms and remained distant from escort support groups and out of range of Allied patrol bombers for longer than most convoys. GS U-662 reported the convoy on 26 December. That night GS U-356 torpedoed the leading ships from two of the starboard columns. Empire Union was hit at 0140, Melrose Abbey was hit ten minutes later. Both British freighters sank at about 0230. Toward rescued 63 survivors from the first ship and 47 from the second.

In a second attack, U-356 torpedoed the Dutch freighter Soekaboemi at 0410, and the British freighter King Edward at 0415. King Edward sank within three minutes. U-356 was detected by the escorts and was sunk with no survivors following depth charge attacks by St. Laurent, Chilliwack, Battleford and Napanee. At dawn, Toward rescued 25 men from the King Edward and assisted Napanee, recovering all but one of Soekaboemi's crew. Soekaboemi remained afloat when abandoned at 0730.

Second attack on 27/28 December
GS U-225 began stalking Scottish Heather as she refuelled some of the escorts fifteen miles astern of the convoy on the afternoon of 27 December. U-225 was twice driven off by Chilliwack before hitting the oiler with a single torpedo in a third approach at 2040. The ship was temporarily abandoned, but the second mate re-boarded her with ten men and sailed the ship out of the danger zone. At dawn he returned and pattern-searched for lifeboats. The oiler returned to England independently after recovering all of her crew.

Main attack on 28/29 December
GS U-260 began shadowing the convoy on the morning of 28 December and directed 18 U-boats to the convoy. Fidelity attempted to launch a Kingfisher, but the plane capsized and sank at 1915. While St. Laurent rescued the Kingfisher crew, a coordinated night attack began with U-boats entering the starboard side of the convoy at 1958. GS U-591 torpedoed the Norwegian freighter Norse King at 2000. U-225 torpedoed the British freighters Melmore Head at 2003 and Ville de Rouen at 2005. U-260 torpedoed the British freighter Empire Wagtail at 2045. As Empire Wagtail disintegrated in an explosion that claimed all of her crew, Fidelity reported a main engine failure; Shediac was sent to assist her two miles astern of the convoy.

U-boats then entered the port side of the convoy. GS U-406 torpedoed the British freighters Lynton Grange at 2120, Zarian at 2123, and Baron Cochrane at 2124. GS U-662 hit the damaged Ville de Rouen again at 2210 and U-225 torpedoed the convoy commodore's freighter Empire Shackleton at 2215 and the Belgian freighter President Francoui at 2230.

Disabled ships were also being attacked astern of the convoy. Baron Cochrane was sunk at 2150 by GS U-123 (1940) and GS U-628 sank Lynton Grange a few minutes later. The crews had abandoned both ships when they were hit earlier. U-123 and GS U-435 sank Empire Shackleton at 2255. GS U-591 sank the abandoned Zarian just before midnight.

Shediac was ordered to leave Fidelity 30 miles astern and rejoin the convoy while searching for survivors. Shediac rescued 35 survivors from Melmore Head and 71 from Ville de Rouen between 0310 and 0330 and 24 from Empire Shackleton at 0530. Shediac rejoined the convoy at 1300 short of fuel and with inadequate provisions for the number of survivors aboard.

Two lifeboats abandoned the damaged President Francoui, but the remainder of the crew attempted to sail independently to the Azores. U-225 torpedoed the ship again at 0630 and it was sunk at 0930 by GS U-336. The damaged Norse King was similarly attempting to reach the Azores when she was sunk by U-435 at 1507. There were no survivors.

The convoy escort was reinforced by the M class destroyers HMS Milne (G14) and HMS Meteor (G73) at 1400 on 29 December after the arriving destroyers rescued 42 survivors from Baron Cochrane at 0700, 52 survivors from Lynton Grange at 0720 and 49 survivors from Zarian at 0815.

HMS Fidelity 29/30 December
Fidelity restarted main engines at 0500 and declined the offer to dispatch a tug from Gibraltar. Speed was limited to two knots while streaming anti-torpedo nets when observed by Meteor and Milne at 0530. GS U-615 found Fidelity while her main engines were again stopped for repairs between 1015 and 1100. U-615 identified Fidelity as a Q-ship and shadowed her cautiously. A reconnaissance flight by Fidelitys remaining Kingfisher observed two shadowing submarines and two of Empire Shackletons lifeboats. Fidelity launched LCV-752 and LCV-754 to tow-in the lifeboats. Fidelity recovered the Kingfisher and the two landing craft with Empire Shackleton's survivors that afternoon and launched MTB-105 to conduct anti-submarine patrols through the night. U-615 launched four torpedoes at Fidelity at about 2000, but the anti-torpedo net protected the ship from damage. MTB-105 experienced engine problems and lost contact with Fidelity at about 2300. MTB-105 heard radio calls from Fidelity shortly after dawn, but had inadequate battery power to respond. U-435 torpedoed Fidelity at 1630 and was surprised by the size of the resulting explosion and by the large number of men subsequently seen floating in the water where the ship had sunk. MTB-105 rigged a makeshift sail to try and reach land.

Survivors
Battleford, Shediac, Milne and Meteor were released on 30 December to refuel in the Azores. With only four escorts remaining and as many as twelve U-boats in contact with the convoy, St. Laurent's captain, as commander of Escort Group C-1, suffered a nervous breakdown at the scale of the losses. Following the loss of the convoy commodore, he invited two fast ships with large passenger complements (Calgary and Advastun), to escape if they found an opportunity. HMCS St. Francis (I93) and the V class destroyer HMS Viceroy reinforced the convoy escort before nightfall on 30 December, the U-boats were ordered to disengage.

Shediac and Meteor ran out of fuel before reaching the Azores. Battleford towed Shediac the last 40 miles and Meteor was towed the last five miles. All four refuelled and joined the search for survivors. HMCS Prescott found and rescued the eight men aboard MTB-105 on 1 January; but, aside from the 2-man Kingfisher crew rescued earlier by St. Laurent, there were no other survivors from Fidelity's crew of 325 and the men rescued from Empire Shackleton. Prescott also saved 26 crewmen from President Francoui, but the recovery effort found no other convoy survivors. The remainder of the convoy reached New York City on 12 January 1943.