HMS Duke of Edinburgh: A Royal Navy armoured Cruiser. by A.J South

Author:A.J South [South, A.J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-04T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE NORTH ATLANTIC

Having served her time in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, the North Sea and formed part of the Grand Fleet, the Duke of Edinburgh was ordered to depart the Shetland islands for the warmer East Coast of the Americas, pausing briefly on route in Liverpool.

The introduction of mercantile convoys are generally (and erroneously) associated with latter parts of World War One. We have already seen how convoys were reintroduced by the Royal Navy in 1914 to escort troopships from India, Australia and New Zealand, through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. A campaign the Duke and Prince had both experienced.

On the 26th July 1917 in order to cover the shipping trade with the neutral Netherlands, the British introduced their first regular convoy, sailing from the Hook of Holland to Harwich, a route frequently targeted by the German U-boats operating out of their Flanders bases. The Holland convoys were sometimes referred to as the "Beef Trip" due to the large percentage of food transported within its holds. They were escorted by destroyers of the Harwich Force and, later in the war, by Flying Boats based out of Felixstowe.

Then on the 1st February 1917 the German Government announced their campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, and the first convoys to sail after that date were requested by the French Navy, to defend the British coal shipments, the first coal convoy crossing the Channel on 10th February. During the reminder of the war, only 53 ships were to be lost from the total of 39,352 ships that made the Channel crossing.

In 1916 ship owners from Norway (the "neutral ally") requested convoys following a year of heavy losses, but on their refusal to accept the routes ordered by the Admiralty, they were declined. But following Germany's proclamation, the Norwegians finally accepted British demands and informal convoying was to begin in late January or February 1917, but regular convoys did not begin until 29 April.

With the deteriorating situation within the Atlantic trade as its independtly sailing ships were ravaged by the U-boats, the British War Cabinet proposed convoys in March 1917, but the Admiralty refused. It was not until 860,334 long tons (874,140 tonnes) of shipping bringing supplies to Europe, were lost to U-boats in April, that the Admiralty finally conceded to the convoying of all shipments coming through the North and South Atlantic, (by this stage the grain reserves within the UK were down to a six-week reserve). Rear Admiral Alexander Duff, head of the Anti-submarine Division, proposed their use on the 26th April, and the First Sea Lord, Admiral John Jellicoe, approved the proposal the next day. The escorts were to be formed of obsolete cruisers, armed merchant cruisers and pre-dreadnoughts for the oceanic portion of the routes, while in the more dangerous waters around Britain they would be supplemented by destroyers.

The first transatlantic convoy sailed from Hampton Roads on the 24th May escorted by the armored cruiser HMS Roxburgh, and rendezvousing with eight destroyers from Devonport on the

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