Convoy SC122 & HX229

Convoys SC122 and HX229 sailed from New York harbour for England early in March 1943. Admiral Doenitz deployed 42 U-boats to trap those two convoys. 21 merchant ships were sunk in the ensuing battle. The Germans called it “the greatest convoy battle of all time.” It was a major turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic. In Convoy, every manoeuvre of the merchant ships, their escort vessels, the long range aircraft cover, and the attacking U-boats is documented in a powerful narrative that will recall for many readers Nicholas Monsarrat’s best-selling novel The Cruel Sea. In many ways, this book could be the story of any of the hundreds of convoys that sailed the ocean during the war. One important chapter throws new light on three controversial aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic: why there was an “Air Gap” long after full air cover could have been provided, why the convoys had to sail with dangerously weak naval escorts; and how the Allied outwitted the Germans in the radio decoding war.