HX convoys

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An aerial view of a convoy escorted by a battleship during the Battle of the Atlantic in April 1941. The ships stretch as far as the eye can see.

The HX convoys of World War II were a series of convoys between Halifax, Nova Scotia and the United Kingdom. Later, after the United States had entered the war the HX convoys began at New York. They were fast convoys, meaning that they should have been less vulnerable to U-boat attack than the slow convoys, but they still witnessed some of the great convoy battles of the war.

Among the best known HX convoy battles were:

• HX-79 Attacked by a U-boat wolf pack in October 1940.
• HX-84 On November 5, 1940, the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer found convoy HX84. Maiden, Trewellard, Kenbame Head, Beaverford, and Fresno were quickly sunk, and other ships were damaged. Only the sacrifice of the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Jervis Bay and failing light allowed the rest of the convoy to escape.

• HX-106 On 8 February, 1941 the two German battlecruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, appeared over the horizon. The presence of the escorting battleship HMS Ramillies was sufficient to deter the attack.

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