Convoy ON 154 Convoy ON - 154 was the 154th of the numbered series of World War II merchant ship convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America . It lost 13 of its 50 freighters . The ships departed Liverpool on 18 December 1942 and were met by the Royal Canadian Navy Mid - Ocean Escort Force Group C - 1 , consisting of the River class destroyer with the Flower class corvette s , , , , and . ON - 154 included the convoy rescue ship " Toward " , the oiler " Scottish Heather " and the French - crewed 2456 - ton Special Service Vessel . " Fidelity " was armed with four 4 - inch ( 10 - cm ) guns , four torpedo tubes and a defensive torpedo net . She carried two landing craft ( LCV - 752 and LCV - 754 ) , two OS2U Kingfisher float planes and Motor Torpedo Boat ( MTB ) 105 . The convoy sailed in 12 columns of three or four ships each . The convoy formation was five miles wide and 1 . 5 miles long . Background . As western Atlantic coastal convoys brought an end to the second happy time , Admiral Karl Dönitz , the " Befehlshaber der U - Boote " ( " BdU " ) or 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 effectively search for convoys with the advantage of intelligence gained through " B - Dienst " decryption of British Naval Cypher Number 3 . However , only 20 percent 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 . Discovery on 26 / 27 December . ON - 154 was routed south to avoid storms and remained distant from escort support groups and out of range of Allied patrol bombers for longer than most convoys . reported the convoy on 26 December . That night torpedoed the leading ships from two of the starboard columns . " Empire Union " was hit at 0140 , " Melrose Abbey " was hit ten minutes later . Both British freighters sank at about 0230 . " Toward " rescued 63 survivors from the first ship and 47 from the second . In a second attack , " U - 356 " torpedoed the Dutch freighter " Soekaboemi " at 0410 , and the British freighter " King Edward " at 0415 . " King Edward " sank within three minutes . " U - 356 " was detected by the escorts and was sunk with no survivors following depth charge attacks by " St . Laurent " , " Chilliwack " , " Battleford " and " Napanee " . At dawn , " Toward " rescued 25 men from the " King Edward " and assisted " Napanee " , recovering all but one of " Soekaboemi " s crew . " Soekaboemi " remained afloat when abandoned at 0730 . Second attack on 27 / 28 December . began stalking " Scottish Heather " as she refuelled some of the escorts fifteen miles astern of the convoy on the afternoon of 27 December . " U - 225 " was twice driven off by " Chilliwack " before hitting the oiler with a single torpedo in a third approach at 2040 . The ship was temporarily abandoned , but the second mate re - boarded her with ten men and sailed the ship out of the danger zone . At dawn he returned and pattern - searched for lifeboats . The oiler returned to England independently after recovering all of her crew . Main attack on 28 / 29 December . began shadowing the convoy on the morning of 28 December and directed 18 U - boats to the convoy . " Fidelity " attempted to launch a Kingfisher , but the plane capsized and sank at 1915 . While " St . Laurent " rescued the Kingfisher crew , a coordinated night attack began with U - boats entering the starboard side of the convoy at 1958 . torpedoed the Norwegian freighter " Norse King " at 2000 . " U - 225 " torpedoed the British freighters " Melmore Head " at 2003 and " Ville de Rouen " at 2005 . " U - 260 " torpedoed the British freighter " Empire Wagtail " at 2045 . As " Empire Wagtail " disintegrated in an explosion that claimed all of her crew , " Fidelity " reported a main engine failure ; " Shediac " was sent to assist her two miles astern of the convoy . U - boats then entered the port side of the convoy . torpedoed the British freighters " Lynton Grange " at 2120 , " Zarian " at 2123 , and " Baron Cochrane " at 2124 . hit the damaged " Ville de Rouen " again at 2210 and " U - 225 " torpedoed the convoy commodore ' s freighter " Empire Shackleton " at 2215 and the Belgian freighter " President Francoui " at 2230 . Disabled ships were also being attacked astern of the convoy . " Baron Cochrane " was sunk at 2150 by and sank " Lynton Grange " a few minutes later . The crews had abandoned both ships when they were hit earlier . " U - 123 " and sank " Empire Shackleton " at 2255 . sank the abandoned " Zarian " just before midnight . " Shediac " was ordered to leave " Fidelity " 30 miles astern and rejoin the convoy while searching for survivors . " Shediac " rescued 35 survivors from " Melmore Head " and 71 from " Ville de Rouen " between 0310 and 0330 and 24 from " Empire Shackleton " at 0530 . " Shediac " rejoined the convoy at 1300 short of fuel and with inadequate provisions for the number of survivors aboard . Two lifeboats abandoned the damaged " President Francoui " , but the remainder of the crew attempted to sail independently to the Azores . " U - 225 " torpedoed the ship again at 0630 and it was sunk at 0930 by . The damaged " Norse King " was similarly attempting to reach the Azores when she was sunk by " U - 435 " at 1507 . There were no survivors . The convoy escort was reinforced by the M class destroyers and at 1400 on 29 December after the arriving destroyers rescued 42 survivors from " Baron Cochrane " at 0700 , 52 survivors from " Lynton Grange " at 0720 and 49 survivors from " Zarian " at 0815 . HMS Fidelity 29 / 30 December . " Fidelity " restarted main engines at 0500 and declined the offer to dispatch a tug from Gibraltar . Speed was limited to two knots while streaming anti - torpedo nets when observed by " Meteor " and " Milne " at 0530 . found " Fidelity " while her main engines were again stopped for repairs between 1015 and 1100 . " U - 615 " identified " Fidelity " as a Q - ship and shadowed her cautiously . A reconnaissance flight by " Fidelity " s remaining Kingfisher observed two shadowing submarines and two of " Empire Shackleton " s lifeboats . " Fidelity " launched LCV - 752 and LCV - 754 to tow - in the lifeboats . " Fidelity " recovered the Kingfisher and the two landing craft with " Empire Shackleton " s survivors that afternoon and launched MTB - 105 to conduct anti - submarine patrols through the night . " U - 615 " launched four torpedoes at " Fidelity " at about 2000 , but the anti - torpedo net protected the ship from damage . MTB - 105 experienced engine problems and lost contact with " Fidelity " at about 2300 . MTB - 105 heard radio calls from " Fidelity " shortly after dawn , but had inadequate battery power to respond . " U - 435 " torpedoed " Fidelity " at 1630 and was surprised by the size of the resulting explosion and by the large number of men subsequently seen floating in the water where the ship had sunk . MTB - 105 rigged a makeshift sail to try and reach land . Survivors . " Battleford " , " Shediac " , " Milne " and " Meteor " were released on 30 December to refuel in the Azores . With only four escorts remaining and as many as twelve U - boats in contact with the convoy , " St . Laurent " s captain , as commander of Escort Group C - 1 , suffered a nervous breakdown at the scale of the losses . Following the loss of the convoy commodore , he invited two fast ships with large passenger complements ( " Calgary " and " Advastun " ) , to escape if they found an opportunity . and the V class destroyer HMS " Viceroy " reinforced the convoy escort before nightfall on 30 December , the U - boats were ordered to disengage . " Shediac " and " Meteor " ran out of fuel before reaching the Azores . " Battleford " towed " Shediac " the last 40 miles and " Meteor " was towed the last five miles . All four refuelled and joined the search for survivors . HMCS " Prescott " found and rescued the eight men aboard MTB - 105 on 1 January ; but , aside from the 2 - man Kingfisher crew rescued earlier by " St . Laurent " , there were no other survivors from " Fidelity " s crew of 325 and the men rescued from " Empire Shackleton " . " Prescott " also saved 26 crewmen from " President Francoui " , but the recovery effort found no other convoy survivors . The remainder of the convoy reached New York City on 12 January 1943 .