Convoy TM 1

Convoy TM 1 was the code name for an Allied convoy during the Second World War. Nine tankers, escorted by Royal Navy warships, attempted to reach Gibraltar from Trinidad. The convoy was attacked by a U-boat wolf pack in the central Atlantic Ocean, and most of the merchant vessels were sunk. This was one of the most successful attacks on Allied supply convoys throughout the entire war. The convoy was defended by the destroyer HMS Havelock (H88), and three Flower-class corvettes, HMS Godetia (K226), HMS Pimpernel (K71) and HMS Saxifrage (K04). Seven tankers were sunk during the attacks, two surviving to reach Gibraltar. Two U-boats were damaged during the attacks.

Battle
GS U-124 (1940) located HMS Godetia on 29 December 1942, escorting two tankers to join up with the main convoy. GS U-514 made contact with the convoy on 3 January and attacked and damaged the tanker MV British Vigilance, forcing her crew to abandon her though the ship remained afloat. By now aware that a large tanker convoy was headed through the Atlantic, presumably to deliver supplies to the Allied armies in North Africa, Admiral Karl Dönitz, the German BdU (commander in chief of U-boats) ordered wolf pack "Dolphin" to attempt to intercept it.

GS U-381 made contact with the convoy on 8 January, and the wolf pack launched their first attacks that evening. GS U-436 attacked and sank SS Oltenia II and damaged MV Albert L. Ellsworth. HMS Havelock launched a counter-attack, damaging and driving off U-381, while Pimpernel and Godetia drove off GS U-571 and GS U-575 respectively. GS U-522 returned the following morning and attacked the convoy, damaging two tankers, MV Norvik, and MV Minister Wedel, while GS U-442 damaged Empire Lytton. GS U-181 and GS U-134 (1941) attacked, but failed to hit any targets. Godetia damaged U-134 with depth charges.

GS U-620 kept in contact with the convoy, and in the evening of 9 January, U-522 attacked the two tankers she had damaged earlier in the morning, Norvik and Minister Wedel, and sank both of them. Meanwhile, U-442 returned to the damaged and abandoned Empire Lytton and finished her off with two torpedoes, while U-436 returned to the abandoned Albert L. Ellsworth and sank her with shells from her deck gun. GS U-511 came across MV William Wilberforce, a merchant ship sailing unescorted and not part of convoy TM 1, and sank her.

The attacks resumed on the night of 10/11 January, with U-522 torpedoing MV British Dominion. Her crew abandoned her, but the ship was only damaged and did not sink until U-620 arrived and sank her with a torpedo and gunfire. Other attacks that evening and over the next two days, by U-571 and U-511, fail to score any successes. By now the convoy was approaching Gibraltar, and the destroyer HMS Quentin (G78) and the corvettes HMS Samphire (K128) and HMS Pentstemon (K61) were sent out to reinforce the escorts. Supported by Allied air cover, the convoy reached Gibraltar without further loss on 14 January. Two tankers, Cliona and Vanja, survived from the original nine. The final action came on 24 January, when the abandoned hulk of British Vigilance, torpedoed by U-514 on 3 January, was discovered by GS U-105 (1940), and promptly sunk.