EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part two of a series of articles Jim shared with Hometown Focus about the Stilinovich brothers of the Iron Range and their World War II service. Look for the final part of the three-part series in a future edition.
For presumed safety, merchant ships would travel in convoys. The convoys would be designated with a two-letter prefix and numbered sequentially. The eastbound convoys in the North Atlantic were given one of two labels.
Faster ships which could travel between 10 and 15 knots were labeled "HX," named after Halifax, Nova Scotia, the original assembly port at one time for these convoys. Slower ships were labeled "SC," named after Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, the original port at one time for these convoys. A slow-moving convoy was one that could not travel faster than 10 knots.
The SS Irénée du Pont, the merchant ship Bill Stilinovich was assigned to, set sail from New York at the end of February 1943 in convoy HX-228, but due to encountering heavy seas where part of its deck cargo slid overboard, and some valuable crated aircraft might have followed, the ship's captain decided to return to the port of New York for re-stowage. Due to that mishap the SS Irénée du Pont joined the next scheduled convoy across the North Atlantic, the HX-229. As it turned out, Joe's ship, the SS Harry Luckenbach, was already scheduled to be part of convoy HX-229.
Due to the ever-increasing demands of supplies needed for the British, a large number of cargo-loaded merchant ships were causing congestion in the American and Canadian east coast ports around the time the ships Joe and Bill were assigned to were ready to ship out. Three convoys would set sail within days of each other.
A slower-moving convoy, SC-122, with approximately 60 merchant ships, set sail on March 5, 1943. Convoy HX-229 had approximately 74 merchant ships. Therefore, it was split into two convoys, HX-229 with 40 ships and HX-229A with 34 ships. HX-229A had the fastest ships and more valuable cargo -- more tankers than the other two convoys.
The ships the Stilinovich brothers were on, SS Irénée du Pont and SS Harry Luckenbach, would remain in convoy HX- 229. HX-229 and HX-229A departed the Port of New York on March 8 and 9, 1943, respectively. The first leg of the journey for the convoys from the Port of New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, was about 1,000 nautical miles, and would take about four days, well protected by escort ships and aircover.
By the time more ships joined at Halifax and Saint John's, there was a total of 141 ships ready to sail across the North Atlantic with convoys SC-122, HX-229, and HX-229A. The vast majority of the merchant ships in the three convoys were British and American but also included ships from eight other countries.
The three convoys leaving Saint John's had a total of 31 American-owned ships -- SC-122 had two freighters, one refrigerated ship, and one tanker; HX-229 had five freighters, one refrigerated ship, six Liberty cargo ships, and two tankers; and HX-229A had three freighters, one refrigerated ship, two Liberty cargo ships, and seven tankers. The dates of sailing from Saint John's for convoys SC-122, HX-229, and HX-229A, respectively, were March 11, 13, and 14, 1943.
The shortest path across the North Atlantic would be to follow the "Great Circle" route, but during World War II (WWII), the "Air Gap," the area where the ships could not be protected by Allied aircraft due to the distance from land and the lack of the availability of long-range aircraft, would be larger. It was often referred to as the "Mid-Atlantic Gap" or "Black Pit" during WWII. The west-to-east distance of the Air Gap for convoys SC-122 and HX-229 was approximately 350 to 400 nautical miles, roughly between the meridians of 35 degrees west and 25 degrees west.
From March 1 - 12, 1943, the Allies held the Atlantic Convoy Conference in Washington, D.C. An unresolved issue raised at the conference by the British was the slow pace of the U.S. allocation of Very Long Range (VLR) Liberators to cover the North Atlantic Air Gap. The VLR Liberator was a modified version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber. They were still in limited numbers by early 1943. No action was taken at the time, and not even one VLR aircraft was allocated to cover the Air Gap.
U-boat men called the Air Gap das Todesloch, which meant "the death hole" in German. To minimize the Air Gap miles, Allied convoys would sail further north of the Great Circle route, but if they sailed too far north, they would encounter icebergs. The Air Gap was fairly narrow in the far north, while it widened considerably with every mile south.
During the war the lead ships of the columns of a convoy were spaced at intervals of 1,000 yards along a line perpendicular to the convoy course. Each ship in the column followed the ship ahead at a distance of 800 yards.
Each convoy had an assortment of escort ships around its perimeter -- destroyers, frigates, and corvettes -- but only a few each since they were in very short supply in the North Atlantic during the early months of 1943 due to needs in other theaters of the war. Escort ships moved around, especially in the heat of battle, attacking U-boats or picking up survivors from the torpedoed merchant ships.
Destroyers were the largest and most heavily armed of the escort ships. Next were the frigates, which were generally faster. Both were capable of anti-submarine and anti-aircraft defense. The corvettes were the typical escorts but the smallest of the three. Corvettes were designed for coastal defense, anti-submarine warfare, and rapid response missions.
Convoy SC-122 had the most southerly route of the three convoys but still went well north of the Great Circle route to give it the shortest travel distance (2,220 nautical miles) of the three convoys, and it would take an estimated 13 days to reach Britain from Saint John's.
SC-122 consisted of 51 merchant ships, 11 across each of the first three rows, nine in the fourth row, eight in the fifth row, and one lone ship in the sixth row to perform as a rescue ship if needed. It left Saint John's with nine escort ships -- two destroyers, one frigate, five Flower-class corvettes, and one Isles-class trawler.
Convoy HX-229 would sail north of SC- 122 on a somewhat parallel path, with a route distance to Britain of 2,340 nautical miles that was expected to take approximately 11 days. HX-229 had 41 merchant ships, 11 across each of the first three rows, and eight in the fourth row, with six escort ships, but one dropped out after a couple of days. The five remaining escort ships included two Town-class destroyers, one V and W-class destroyer, and two Flower-class corvettes.
In the 2011 book by Ed Offley, Turning the Tide: How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic, it was stated both ships Joe and Bill Stilinovich were on were in lead column positions in HX-229. Joe's ship, the SS Harry Luckenbach, carrying 8,381 tons of ammunition and general cargo, was in the far starboard column, column 11. Bill's ship, the SS Irénée du Pont, carrying 5,800 tons of general cargo and 3,200 tons of oil, along with 11 medium bombers on its main deck, was in column eight, only 3,000 yards (1.7 miles) away from Joe's ship.
Convoy HX-229A sailed the furthest north to be farther from where the U-boats were active. It had the longest travel distance from Saint John's, approximately 2,490 nautical miles, but being faster, it was expected to take approximately 10 days to reach ports in Britain. HX-229A remained undetected by German patrols throughout its journey and made safe landfall in Britain on March 26, 1943.
However, it did have two ships damaged and one sunk by icebergs. The British tanker Svend Foyn hit an iceberg on March 19 and sunk two days later, with a loss of 43 of the 195 crew and passengers aboard. At the time the ship was 70 miles south of Cape Farewell, Greenland.
Unfortunately, starting in February of 1943, German Naval Intelligence's cryptological department, known as B-Dienst, had begun reading Allied Naval Cypher No. 3, otherwise known as the convoy cipher. The Germans had learned of two convoys, never knowing about the third. Also, they thought HX-229 was the leading convoy, only to discover that the other convoy, SC-122, was actually ahead by about 150 miles.
Admiral Dönitz ordered every U-boat available in the North Atlantic to converge with the hope of trapping the detected convoys as they entered the Air Gap. Dönitz knew from past experience that he could expect only about 48 hours clear of any major Allied aircraft intervention. He ordered approximately 40 U-boats to engage the convoys by nightfall on March 16, 1943.
The term for the massive number of U-boats close together was "wolfpack." Dönitz referred to it as the hunting tactics of wolves. The Germans called this type of offensive Rudeltaktik, which translates to "pack tactic."
Surface speeds of U-boats ranged from 15 to 20 knots, so their relative speed advantage allowed them to close in on convoys after they learned their approximate position through intercepted messages. The U-boats would surface during the day to catch up to the convoys, then submerge when they closed in, waiting until nightfall to surface again.
The times during the battle are listed in convoy time, which was two hours behind Greenwich Civil Time (GCT), used by the British Royal Navy, and three hours behind Central European Time (CET) or German Legal Time (MEZ), which the German U-boat captains and central command usually operated on.
Between 04:00 and 05:00 on the morning of March 16, the bridge watch on one of the U-boats shadowing HX-229 sighted a light, visible for only two seconds, from one of the merchant ships. The U-boat bridge watch thought it perhaps was one of the crew on the merchant ship lighting a cigarette.
That morning the sea was still a little rough after the storm the previous day. At 12:37, HX-229 slowed to eight knots to allow two straggler ships to catch up. Convoy HX-229 continued to be shadowed by U-boats throughout the daylight hours.
At 18:00, HX-229 crossed the Change of Operation Control (CHOP) line, which during this time in WWII was 35 degrees west longitude. This line divided responsibility for the protection of convoys between the Canadian Northwest Atlantic Command, which was west of the line, and the British Admiralty, east of the line.
By nightfall the sky was quite clear with an almost-full moon, which allowed a visibility of about ten miles. At 19:30, SC- 122 was approximately 130 miles to the northeast.
The Germans fired their first torpedoes at 20:00 at HX-229, which was at 50.633 degrees north - 34.767 degrees west, about 727 nautical miles east-northeast of St. John's, Newfoundland; 630 nautical miles southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland; and 1,026 nautical miles west-southwest from the northernmost point of Northern Ireland. The Norwegian freighter motor ship Elin K was the first to be torpedoed and sunk. All 40 on board were rescued.
At 21:25, the Dutch refrigerated cargo ship Zaanland and the American Liberty ship SS James Oglethorpe were torpedoed and sunk. The entire crew of 53 on the Zaanland was rescued. The SS James Oglethorpe had a complement of 44 merchant mariners, 26 Naval Armed Guard (NAG), and four navy-enlisted passengers. The casualties were 31 merchant mariners, including the captain, 11 NAG, and two of the passengers.
At 22:22, the American Liberty ship SS William Eustis was torpedoed and sunk. Then for at least the next one and a half hours, the convoy was without escorts because they were busy rescuing survivors and attacking the U-boats. The SS William Eustis had a complement of 41 merchant mariners and 26 NAG. All survived.
At about five minutes after midnight, now March 17, SC-122 was also attacked. A lone U-boat unexpectedly sighted the convoy, thinking it was going to converge on HX-229. Four merchant ships were torpedoed and sunk - the British freighters Kingsbury, four dead and 44 survivors; King Gruffydd, 24 dead and 25 survivors; and Fort Cedar Lake, 50 survivors; and the Dutch freighter Alderamin, 15 dead and 49 survivors.
At 40 minutes after midnight, in HX- 229, Joe Stilinovich's ship, the American freighter SS Harry Luckenbach, with a complement of 54 merchant mariners and 26 NAG, was torpedoed.
Being the convoy's leading ship on the starboard column made it more exposed. Two torpedoes struck the ship on its starboard side, causing a big explosion with a large amount of smoke and fire. The ship went down in four minutes. It is not known how many died during the explosion and subsequent sinking, but a number of survivors were seen on three lifeboats.
It was reported that as many as four ships in the convoy did not stop to rescue them. It is not known what eventually happened to the crew members on the lifeboats, but none were ever found. It is surmised that when a storm hit the area days later, it may have caused their eventual deaths.