Convoy SC 118 was the 118th of the numbered series of World War II slow convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island, to Liverpool. The ships departed New York City on 24 January 1943 and were met by the Mid-Ocean Escort Force Group B-2 consisting of the Treasury-class cutter Bibb, the Town-class destroyer Beverley, the V-class destroyers Vanessa and Vimy and four Flower-class corvettes, Abelia, Campanula, Lobelia and Mignonette, with the convoy rescue ship Toward.
Background
As western Atlantic coastal convoys brought an end to the "second happy time" off the US coast, Admiral Karl Dönitz, the Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU, commander in chief of U-boats) shifted focus to the mid-Atlantic to avoid aircraft patrols. Although convoy routing was less predictable in the mid-ocean, Dönitz anticipated that the increased numbers of U-boats being produced would be able to find convoys with the advantage of intelligence gained through B-Dienst decryption of the British Naval Cypher Number 3. Only 20 per cent of the 180 trans-Atlantic convoys sailing from the end of July 1942 until the end of April 1943 lost ships to U-boat attack.
Prelude
On 2 February U-456 sank three ships from Convoy HX 224. A survivor of one of the sunken ships was picked up by U-632 and told his rescuers a slower convoy was following.
Battle
4 February
A careless merchant seaman of Convoy SC 118 fired a pyrotechnic snowflake projector aboard the Norwegian cargo ship Vannik in the pre-dawn darkness of 4 February. U-187 observed the snowflake display, reported the convoy and was promptly sunk by Beverley and Vimy after Bibb and Toward triangulated the submarine's location from the sighting report, using high-frequency radio direction-finding (HF/DF or Huff-Duff). The destroyers rescued 44 of the submarine's crew. The Polish merchant ship Zagloba was torpedoed on the unprotected side of the convoy by U-262 and U-413 torpedoed the straggling US merchantman West Portal.
5 February
The convoy escort was reinforced by the US Coast Guard Treasury class cutter Ingham and the Wickes-class destroyers USS Babbitt and USS Schenck from Iceland. The reinforced escort damaged U-262 and U-267.
7−9 February
In the pre-dawn hours, U-402 (Kapitänleutnant Siegfried von Forstner) torpedoed the British freighter Afrika, the Norwegian tanker Daghild, the Greek merchant ship Kalliopi, the US tanker Robert E. Hopkins, the cargo liner Henry R. Mallory, and the convoy rescue ship Toward.
Henry R. Mallory was capable of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) but had been straggling well astern of the convoy for several days and was not zig-zagging, despite its exposed position. Mallory would normally have been assigned to one of the faster HX convoys but there had been no Iceland section of the preceding Convoy HX 224. No commands came from the bridge after Mallory was torpedoed, no flares were sent up, no radio distress message was sent out and no orders were given to abandon ship. There were 272 casualties from Mallory's crew of 77, 34 Navy gunners, and the 136 American soldiers, 172 American sailors and 72 US Marines she was transporting to Iceland.
U-614 sank the British straggler Harmala and Lobelia sank U-609. The B-17 J of 220 Squadron sank U-614 on 7 February. U-402 sank the British merchantman Newton Ash that night. On 9 February, Forstner was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for ships sunk by U-402 from this convoy and from Convoy SC 107 on the previous patrol. Convoy SC 118 reached Liverpool without further loss on 12 February.