Critical Convoy Battles of WWII by Jurgen Rohwer

Author:Jurgen Rohwer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stackpole Books

The rescue ship Zamalek (Capt. O. C. Morris) had fallen astern when the white rockets and torpedo detonations were observed and proceeded to the spot where the wrecks could be seen. Cdr. Boyle detached the corvette Saxifrage, which was nearest, to screen and support the Zamalek. When the Zamalek and Saxifrage came up, the King Gruffydd and the Alderamin had already gone down and the Kingsbury was burning fiercely. When hit, the ships had had no time to get their boats into the water in orderly fashion. Many survivors were swimming in the sea with their life jackets on and could be recognized by the flashing red lights. The Zamalek lowered her motor lifeboat and tried herself to pick up survivors by putting out rescue nets and taking them on board from rafts.

At 0300 hrs the Saxifrage sighted another drifting merchantman. It was the Fort Cedar Lake, which had received a torpedo hit on the port side at 0214 hrs but which, for the time being, remained afloat. For a long time people were puzzled from where this torpedo could have come, because there appeared to be no attack report by a U-boat to fit the case. A detailed investigation of U 338's attack has now shown that it was clearly the stern torpedo of the boat which first missed its intended target but then ran through the entire convoy and, after traveling for about six minutes, hit the Fort Cedar Lake, the ship in position 124.

In the rescue operation which lasted until about 0900 hrs in the morning the Zamalek took on board, in all, 44 survivors from the Kingsbury, 25 from the King Gruffydd, 12 from the Alderamin and, finally, 50 from the now abandoned Fort Cedar Lake. The Saxifrage rescued another 37 men from the Alderamin from several rafts about 0745 hrs. The wreck of the Kingsbury broke up about 0515 hrs and sank. The eventual fate of the Fort Cedar Lake is not known. She probably went down at 0830 hrs shortly after the Zamalek and Saxifrage left. But, conceivably, it was this ship which fell victim to the attacks reported by U 228 at 0958 hrs and U 665 (Oblt Haupt) at 1057 hrs. In these attacks it was claimed that hits were obtained on a steamer of 6,000 and 5,000 tons respectively.

The two rescue ships decided to go off on an apparently northern course so as not to lead any U-boat, which might be in the area, straight to the convoy. They only turned toward the convoy after four hours.

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