During the night of 24/25 August 1942 several U-boats attacked convoy ON-122, the attacks on Empire Breeze and Trolla in particular are of interest to me at this moment, although the convoy as a whole merits a closer look later. At the moment it is accepted that the sinking of Empire Breeze is credited to both U-176 and U-438 as they both fired at the same time and observed hits. However by examining the position of each boat at the time of the attack and using the Admiralty records for this convoy, I believe that Empire Breeze was only hit by the torpedoes from U-176.

Looking at the movements of U-176, during the night Dierksen initially deployed to the starboard side of the convoy (2345/24), before finally manoeuvred ahead of the convoy (0146/25) when the convoy completed the emergency turn to starboard. U-176 sights Empire Breeze and prepares to attack. U-176 would have been directly ahead of the convoy with Empire Breeze the lead ship. The Commodore’s ship Athelprince lagged behind after the emergency turn. At 0157 hrs U-176 fires two torpedoes, 93 seconds later Empire Breeze is hit by two torpedoes. U-176 does not make another attack as a destroyer closes with him (this was HMS Eglantine who picked up Empire Breeze on radar and was closing to pick up survivors).

Looking at the movements of U-438, at 0110 hrs Franzius manoeuvres around an escort ahead of the starboard column (this was HMS Montbretia) and was into the outer starboard column (the convoy was composed of nine columns and at night each column was 5 cables distanced from the next). Franzius continued his infiltration across the leading starboard columns until 0157 hrs he fires a single torpedo at a ship 70 degrees on his starboard bow range 800 metres. Franzius records a torpedo impact and the ship sinking after three minutes, but what ship did Fanzius target and what ship did he see the torpedo impact?

I believe that Franzius had made his way across the convoy and targeted the Commodores ship Athelprince. In his report the Commodore states that at the same time that Empire Breeze was hit, a single torpedo was seen to pass close astern of Athelprince. We know from the survivors report from Empire Breeze that she was hit by two torpedoes (U-176 2 torps). This near miss on the Commodores ship could only have come from U-438. Secondly if you look at the position of where each ship was in the convoy and the place the U-boats relative to where they would have been by using the information provided in the KTB’s and convoy cruising order (U-176 heading 140 degrees relative bearing of target zero, distance of torpedo run 1435 metres & U-438 target 70 degrees on starboard bow, range 800 metres) it is clear that if U-438 had targeted Empire Breeze she would have been too close to Athelprince so that she would have been sighted by the merchant ship.
Franzius could have easily mistook the Empire Breeze for his intended target as both ship sailed away and ahead of him their relative aspects would have closed so that they could have been mis-identified. Additionally the visibility was soon to become very poor on this night; Empire Breeze would soon be enveloped by fog and left behind by the convoy. What Franzius saw that he took to be a ship sinking after three minutes is unclear; Empire Breeze would remain afloat for another two days.

Finally the position that U-438 was in at 0157 to fire on Athelprince would agree with his next attack which was a stern tube attack on Trolla. This Norwegian would have been coming up from astern of U-438 as she was pennant number 71. So for the attacks occurring at 0157 hrs I believe the series of events unfolded like this.

24 August
2345 U-176 deploys to the starboard side of the convoy
25 August
0055 U-438 makes contact with convoy, sights 4-5 columns and two escorts (Montbretia & Eglantine)
0110 U-438 evades Montbretia and moves through the starboard columns.
0146 U-176 has moved ahead of the convoy and targets a ship directly ahead.
0157 U-176 fires two torpedoes
0157 U-438 fires one torpedo
0159 Two torpedoes hit Empire Breeze, observing from Athelprince the Commodore reports a torpedo passing close under the stern at the same time Empire Breeze is hit.
0201 U-438 fires a stern torpedo at a target 800 metres distant, she must then alter out of the way as a ship is closing on them. (ship targeted was Trolla [71] and ship coming up leading next column that closed U-438 was Fintra [61]
0204 U-438 fires another torpedo but it is not known who the target was (although I suspect the rescue ship Stockport) and there were no further losses from the convoy on this night.
U-176 is forced to dive when detected by HMS Eglantine.
I have an extract from a chart regarding this convoy progress on this day and when you see the position of the ships and plot the position of the U-boats it is a bit clearer to see what was going on. Anybody who wishes to see the chart extract please contact me

Anybody have any thoughts or comments on this?

Data taken from relavant U-boat KTB’s and Admiralty records.

Regards,

Mark