Escort Group

Escort Groups for convoy protection were a British development in the war at sea during the Second World War. They were a tactical innovation by the Royal Navy in anti-submarine warfare, to combat the threat of the German Navy's "wolfpack" tactics.

Escort Groups typically consisted of mixed types of small warships that operated together as a permanent team (sometimes these groups could be formed from a single class e.g. the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 15th and 21st Escort Groups were composed entirely of Captain-class frigates ), defending shipping convoys during the Second World War, and more particularly, during the Battle of the Atlantic. The development of these 'escort groups' proved an effective means of defending shipping convoys. They were rigorously trained in anti-submarine tactics and had many successes. For example, in a ten-day period in 1941, four U-boats were sunk with the loss of three of Germany's top U-boat commanders.

Background
During the first year of the Battle of the Atlantic British convoy protection was the responsibility of the Western Approaches Command (WAC), based first in Plymouth, then, as the focus of the campaign moved after the Fall of France, in Liverpool.

Western Approaches Command controlled an array of escort vessels, mainly elderly destroyers, sloops, naval trawlers and, later, corvettes to escort merchant ships travelling to and from Britain. These were not numerous enough or sufficiently long ranged to provide a full escort service across the Atlantic, but would accompany convoys to and from meeting points at the edge of the Western Approaches, at points thought to be beyond U-boat range.

In the beginning convoy escorts were compiled on an ad hoc basis; the escorts would be dispatched as and when available, and arrive singly or in small groups. Command of the escort force fell to the senior officer present, and could change as each new ship arrived. Any tactical arrangements had to be made on the spot, and communicated by signal lamp to each ship in turn. The ships would be un-coordinated, being unused to working together, and would have no common battle plan or tactics.

These deficiencies led to a major defeat in October 1940 when Convoy HX 79 from Halifax to Liverpool was attacked by a wolfpack of five U-boats remaining after an attack on convoy SC 7. Initially unprotected, a force of 11 warships were assembled but 12 ships in the convoy were sunk from attacks during the night while none of the U-boats were damaged.

The loss of ships from both SC 7 and HX 79 gave the impetus for Admiral Percy Noble, the commander-in-chief of WAC, to form discrete groups; by the beginning of 1941 eight groups had been formed.

Service history
In 1941 WAC had 8 escort groups formed. These typically comprised four to eight ships, under the command of an RN officer, usually a Commander or Lieutenant Commander. By operating together under a single leader, groups were able to develop group tactics and practice their use; with the issue of a single short command the various ships of the group, often out of sight of each other, could be relied upon to act in a co-ordinated fashion. Later these tactics were standardized and taught to all escort group commanders at the Western Approaches Tactical Unit.

This level of teamwork was never achieved by the attacking U-Boats. Although the wolfpack was co-ordinated in that a number of boats would be concentrated on a target convoy, once gathered the boats would attack individually without any attempt at further co-operation. It was not unknown for U-boats to get in each other's way whilst attacking, or collide with each other. Time and again during the Battle of the Atlantic relatively small, well-handled escort groups were able to frustrate attacks by more numerous groups of U-boats, and ensure the "safe and timely arrival" of their charges. In one example, in November 1942, Convoy ON 144 of 33 ships from Britain to North America protected by the Mid-Ocean Escort Force B-6 of five Flower-class corvettes, was attacked by a group of ten U-boats. Over the next three days they fought off attacks by the wolfpack for the loss of five ships and one corvette; 28 ships arrived safely. Following this action the SOE (Senior Officer Escort) was "warmly congratulated" for preventing what could have been a major disaster, and the contrast with HX 79 was apparent.

Groups

 * Escort Group B2
 * Escort Group B6
 * Escort Group B7
 * 5th Escort Group
 * 36th Escort Group