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Battle of the Atlantic
Part Two

It was made up of 25 ships, sailing in 7 columns, our position as Commodore Ship being No 51 — the leading ship in column 5.

On board we carried a total of 164 people made up of crew, passengers, survivors from AGUILA, Rear Admiral Creighton, his staff of 6 and 6 Royal Navy gunners. The convoy had been provided with an unusually powerful anti-submarine escort of 10 Corvettes and Destroyers and also one of the newly introduced Fighter Catapult Ships, a converted merchantman, HMS SPRINGBANK, carrying a Fulmar fighter aircraft. She also had a heavy armament of anti-aircraft guns and was commanded and manned by Royal Navy Officers and Ratings. It was her first voyage as a convoy escort.

One of the first indications we had of potential trouble ahead was off Tangier, when our convoy passed through a fleet of Spanish fishing trawlers who would, we were sure, pass on details of our course, speed and escorts etc. to the enemy for a suitable fee. Meanwhile German U-boats U201 and U124, which had lost contact with convoy OG74, now rendezvoused with U371 and Italian submarines TORELLI and MOROSINI west of Gibraltar on 18th September. During the evening of 20th Sept. the TORELLI made contact with our convoy, HG73.

On the night of the 21/22 Sept. while still shadowing us, TORELLI was friven off by a depth charge attack by one of our escorting destroyers, HMS VIMY. We now knew full well that we would be shadowed until a Wolf Pack assembled before attacking us and I decided from then on to sleep fully clothed out on deck at night when off watch rather than go to my cabin.

On the 23rd Sept. another Italian submarine, DA VINCI, made and maintained contact with our convoy. Also on the 23rd, a Focke Wulf 200 (Kondor) long-range reconnaissance
bomber plane found us and circled the convoy at a discreet distance before being driven off by the Fulmar fighter launched from SPRINGBANK. The Fulmar failed in the attempt to destroy the Kondor and, as he could not land back on SPRINGBANK the pilot was very lucky to be still able to get back to Gibraltar. Admiral Creighton, meanwhile, was moving the convoy further westward into the Atlantic in the hope that by zig-zagging and various course changes we would escape the attentions of the shadowing enemy planes and submarines. Needless to say, a Focke Wulf Kondor found us each day from then on.

The attacks began in earnest on the night of 24/25 Sept. when first the German U-boat U214, commanded by the notorious Kap/Lt. Johan Mohr sank the British steamer EMPIRE STREAM (2992 tons) owned by the Ministry of Transport (J.S.Stranahan, Managers). Then U203, Kap/Lt. Rolf Mutzelburg, joined the others and on the night of 25/26 Sept. he sank three ships — VARENBURG (2842) Norwegian, CORTES (1374) and our ship, AVOCETA (3442) owned by Yeoward Bros. Liverpool.
When the torpedo struck us astern at 2336BST on the 25th. I was off watch and, as I had previously decided, was sleeping out on deck. AB Les Swinbourne was making his way up to the bridge where he was due to take over the wheel at midnight. My immediate reaction was to rush up to the boat deck where a shipmate and I tried unsuccessfully to lower a lifeboat slung out on its davits on the starboard side.

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