Convoy SC 2 SC 2 was a North Atlantic convoy of the SC series which ran during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II . Background . SC 2 was an east - bound convoy of 54 ships which sailed from Sydney , Cape Breton in Nova Scotia on 25 August 1940 bound for Liverpool . It carried war materials and was led by Commodore EK Boddam - Whitham in SS " Harpoon " . For the Atlantic crossing SC 2 was escorted by HMS " Scarborough " , a pre - war sloop that had seen previous service as a survey vessel . At this stage of the campaign escorts against U - boat attack could only be provided in the Western Approaches ; the Ocean escort , in this case a sloop , but usually an Armed Merchant Cruiser , was provided to give some protection against surface raiders . SC 2 was opposed by a patrol line of three U - boats , positioned at the limit of endurance to intercept east - bound convoys before the Western Approaches escort had joined . U - boat Command ( BdU ) had been informed of SC 2 ’ s passage by " B - Dienst " , the German signals intelligence branch , which had cracked the Royal Navy ’ s codes . BdU had just five U - boats on station in the Atlantic , and ordered " U - 47 " to intercept and shadow while the other boats homed in on his directions . One of these , " U - 124 " , was unavailable , being on weather reporting duty ; while another , " U - 28 " was short of fuel and unable to head further west . The remaining two , " U - 65 " and " U - 101 " , moved west to join the search . " U - 47 " headed west to find SC 2 ; on the way she met convoy OB 207 , which she attacked on 3 September , sinking a freighter . On 4 September the three U - boats formed a patrol line at Longitude 20 West , on the fringe of the Western Approaches . Action . On 6 September 1940 " U - 65 " sighted the convoy and notified BdU and the others , but was unable to attack in heavy seas . " U - 101 " fell out of the chase with engine trouble , leaving only " U - 47 " to join the attack . Early hours of 7 September " U 47 " made a series of attacks , succeeded in sinking three ships , the freighters " Neptunian " , " Jose de Larrinaga " and the Norwegian , " Gro " . On the same day SC 2 was joined by its Western Approaches escort , a mixed bag of 2 destroyers , a sloop , a corvette and 2 trawlers , which arrived from other duties at various times during the day . As was common at this point in the campaign this force was an ad hoc formation , with no background of having worked or exercised together ; command was exercised by the senior officer present , and could change with each new arrival . All told the arrivals were : the destroyer " Westcott " ; the sloop " Lowestoft " and two trawlers ; and the destroyer " Skeena " and corvette " Periwinkle " . " U 47 " continued to shadow but was unable to mount a further attack until the night of 8 / 9 September when she sank the Greek freighter " Possidon " , at a point west of the Hebrides . Before dawn on 9 September " U 28 " also made contact , and attacked , sinking " Mardinian " . With this the assault on SC 2 ended ; the pack had sunk five ships without suffering loss or damage . Later that day the convoy met its local escort , and , entering the North Channel arrived without further loss in Liverpool on 10 September 1940 . Conclusion . This was one of the first occasions where the U - boat Arm had carried out a successful wolf pack attack . Previous attempts to form wolf packs , with control exercised at sea by a senior U - boat commander , had met with failure . Following the fall of France and BdU ’ s move to Kerneval on the French Atlantic coast , a new approach was being tried , with Donitz micro - managing operations from headquarters . This was a success , and set the pattern for wolf pack operations throughout the rest of the Atlantic campaign . For Britain , the loss of five ships was unpleasant , as was the failure of the escort to inflict any damage on the attackers . However the safe arrival of forty nine ships was an overall success . Tables . Allied ships sunk