Convoy HX 52 - warsailors.com (original) (raw)
CONVOY HX 52 Cruising Order & Advance Sailing Telegram
| Convoy HX 52 Cruising Order Departed Halifax on June 21-1940 and arrived Liverpool on July 6 (Arnold Hague says 29 ships). | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transcribed from A 1 form received from Roger Griffiths (his source: Public Records Office, Kew). Nationalities have been added with the help of "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939". R. W. Jordan. There are no ships listed in the 4th row. Br=British, Norw=Norwegian, Ca=Canadian, Gr=Greek s=sunk, † = dead B = Bermuda portion | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 11 Rowanbank steel Middleton (Br) | 21 Dalveen steel - lumber Liverpool (Br) | 31 Boulderpool steel Manchester (Br) | 41 Nerissa general Liverpool (Br) | 51Tower Field grain Liverpool (Br) | 61 Cairnesk general Tyne (Br) | 71Holystone* lumber - steel Tyne (Br) | 81 Parracombe grain Hull (Br) | 91Magog* lumber Blyth s - 0 † (Ca)Dolabella Falmouth (Br) |
| 12 Alaska steel - machinery Belfast(Norw) | 22 Dorelian general Avonmouth (Br) | 32 Hardanger scrap iron Swansea (Norw) | 42 New York City general Swansea (Br) | 52 Lisbeth pulp Portland (Norw) | 62 Carslogie pit props Portland (Br) | 72 Point Clear paper Avonmouth (Gr*) | 82 Bur pit props Portland(Norw) | 92 Vera Radcliffe steel - lumber Hull(Br) |
| 13 | 23 Fana see station 55 | 33 | 43 | 53 | 63 | 73 | 83 | 93 |
| 14 | 24 | 34 | 44 | 54 | 64 | 74 | 84 | 94 |
| 15 B Dalfram pig & scrap iron Swansea (Br) | 25 B British Chivalry Admiralty fuel Sheerness (Br) | 35 B Inverlee Admiralty fuel Devonport (Br) | 45 B Cumberland refrig.London (Br) | 55 B |
65 B Siris sugar - cotton Liverpool (Br) | 75 B |
85 B Sambre sugar London (Br) | 95 |
| 16 | 26 B |
36 B Luxor gas oil Liverpool (Br) | 46 B |
56 B Coryton scrap iron Ardrossan (Br) | 66 B Leeds City lumber - metal Portland (Br) | 76 | 86 | 96 |
| Dolabella joined at 16:15 on June 21, having sailed late (the convoy departed Halifax at 09:00 that morning).Valldemosa and Tahchee are not mentioned in the Advance Sailing Telegram. See also HX 51 and SC 6. It'll be noticed when comparing the above with Arnold Hague's listing for HX 52, that he has some of the ships in different stations from what is given above - see ships in all HX convoys. Stations shown for the Bermuda ships above, are the stations they had when still in the Bermuda convoy, BHX 52. They may have moved after junction with the Halifax convoy. Commodore & escort, Bermuda portion: HMS Rajputana, in station between columns 4 & 5 (to be 6 cables apart). |
| Advance Sailing Telegram Transcribed from several documents received from Tony Cooper - His source: Public Records Office, Kew. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship | Nationality | Cargo | Destination | Remarks |
| Halifax section | ||||
| Dalveen | British | lumber - steel | Liverpool | From HX 51 |
| Greek | general | Liverpool | From HX 51 (does not show up again on this site until HX 73) | |
| Holystone | British | lumber - steel | Tyne | From HX 51 |
| New York City | " | general - special | Swansea | From HX 51 |
| Greek | timber | Liverpool | From HX 51 Listed in HX 53 | |
| Norwegian | lumber | Falmouth | From HX 51 "Understood trading regularly American Coast" Follow link to Pollux | |
| " | pit props | Glasgow | From HX 51 Follow link to Ravnanger | |
| Magog | Canadian | lumber | Blyth | Torpedoed - See Notes |
| Greek | newsprint | London | – | |
| Nerissa | British | general | Liverpool | Commodore Vessel |
| Bur | Norwegian | lumber | Portland / Tyne | – |
| Dorelian | British | general | Avonmouth | – |
| Dutch | general | Liverpool | Listed in HX 54 | |
| Alaska | Norwegian | steel - machinery | Belfast f. o. | – |
| Cairnesk | British | general | Tyne | Vice Commodore |
| " | general | Liverpool | Listed in HX 53 | |
| Hardanger | Norwegian | steel - scrap iron | Swansea | – |
| Point Clear | Greek | paper | Avonmouth | See * in Notes |
| Parracombe | British | grain | Hull | – |
| Tower Field | " | grain | Liverpool | – |
| Vera Radcliffe | " | steel - lumber | Hull | – |
| Norwegian | Tanker B | Milford Haven f. o. | To HX 53 - did not sail Does not show up again until HX 60 | |
| British | pit props | Hull | Listed in HX 53 | |
| " | pig iron | Glasgow | Listed in HX 53 | |
| Lisbeth | Norwegian | logs - wood pulp | Portland / London | – |
| British | general - special | Liverpool | To HX 53 - did not sail(does not show up again on this site until HX 60) | |
| Boulderpool | " | steel | Manchester | – |
| Dutch | general | Glasgow | Listed in HX 54 | |
| Finnish | lumber | Cork | To HX 53 - did not sail | |
| Rowanbank | British | steel - steel scrap | Middlesbrough | – |
| Carslogie | " | pit props | Portland / Hartlepool | – |
| Dolabella | " | Tanker B | London | – |
| Joining from Bermuda - Sailed June 20 | ||||
| Siris | British | sugar - cotton | Liverpool | From HX 51 |
| British Chivalry | " | Adm. tanker B | Sheerness | – |
| Luxor | " | Tanker B | Liverpool | – |
| " | sulphur | Hull | Listed in HX 54 | |
| Coryton | " | scrap iron | Ardrossan | – |
| Cumberland | " | refrig. | Glasgow | – |
| Inverlee | " | Adm tanker B | Devonport | – |
| Norwegian | Tanker W | Milford Haven f. o. | Listed in HX 59 | |
| Fana | " | wood pulp | Manchester | – |
| Dalfram | British | pig iron - scrap | Swansea | – |
| Sambre | " | sugar | London | – |
| Leeds City | " | lumber - metal | Portland / Leith | – |
| " | Tanker W | Milford Haven f. o. | – |
Notes: Commodore was in Nerissa (Vice Admiral G. McOran? - difficult to decipher), Vice Commodore was in Cairnesk (Captain E. A. Organ), and Rear Commodore in Cumberland (joining from Bermuda).
Average speed of convoy: 8.33 knots.
* The Advance Sailing Telegram lists Point Clear as Greek. R. W. Jordan's "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939" has her has American, while E. Gröner (for 1940) has her as Romanian. It's possible she was sold and changed owners a few times.
* The Canadian Magog (originally in station 91) became a straggler on the night of June 21, maintaining only 7 1/2 knots, and Holystone straggled on June 23 in 41 43N 54 30W, speed 8 knots (cruising speed was set at 9 knots). Magog, on a voyage from Halifax for Preston with 512 standards of timber, was torpedoed, shelled and damaged by U-99 on July 5-1940. She had a crew of 23 - there were no casualties. She eventually sank on July 8 ("Lloyd's War Losses", Vol. I, and "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two", Jürgen Rohwer).
The convoy originally had 18 ships, 27 were present on arrival at local escort rendezvous, the Bermuda section having joined at 19:15 on June 25.
Commodore's notes on station keeping:
Very poor to start with - improved during voyage. Visual and W/T Signalling: "Fair - improving".
Escorts: HMS Aurania (Ocean Escort), destroyers HMS Hurricane, HMS Wolverine, sloop HMS Scarborough, corvette HMS Gardinia.
Ocean escort parted company at 21:30 on July 2, in 49 00N 14 12W.
A. Hague names the following escorts (extracted from this list of HX convoy escorts received from D. Kindell; dates are European style, day/month/year):
Acadia - From 21/06/40 to 22/06/40
Aurania - From 21/06/40 to 02/07/40
French - From 21/06/40 to 22/06/40
Gardenia - From 02/07/40 to 06/07/40
Hurricane - From 02/07/40 to 02/07/40
Ottawa - From 21/06/40 to 22/06/40
Scarborough - From 02/07/40 to 06/07/40
Wolverine - From 02/07/40 to 06/07/40
To the next HX convoy in my list HX 53
| Aa–Al | An–Ar | As–Av | Ba | Be | Bi–Bl | Bo | Br–Bu | C | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | F | G | Ha | He | Hi–Hy | Hø | I | J | K |
| L | M | N | O | PQ | R | Sa–Sc | Se–Sj | Sk–Sn | So |
| Sp–St | Su–Sø | Ta–Te | Th–Ti | To | Tr–Tø | U | V | W | Ø |
