Any information would be most appreciated. My mothers family knew nothing about this and it will come as a shock when the finally find(s) out.
In 1942 the war was beginning to show signs of turning in favour of the Allies; Malta had just been saved by the Pedestal Convoy in August, in September PQ18 was fought through in a running battle to North Russia avenging the mistakes of PQ17. The Axis in North Africa was being slowly deprived of supplies by a reinvigorated interdiction of their convoys.
Operation Torch was being planned. As part of the plans for Torch a build up of troops was needed. The Atlantic was still a desperately dangerous place for Allied shipping so a ruse de guerre was needed. Convoy RB1 was born.
Code-named Convoy Maniac, RB1 was comprised of several old coastal and lakes pleasure steamers, ill-equipped to go to sea at all never mind the North Atlantic in September. The eight steamers were filled with empty drums and timber before having their sillouettes altered with plywood and canvas. The convoy now took on the shape, on a dark night from a distance, of well known passengers liners of a much greater size and importance.
It was despatched on 21 September 1942 into the Atlantic guarded by four old destroyers including HMS Veteran. One of those steamers was the SS President Warfield, about to sail into history. Further South on an secret track the real liners filled with troops for Torch steamed at full speed away from the lurking U-boats.
With predictable certainty four days out RB1 was spotted; U-404 torpedoed the New York and Boston. Veteran turned back and collected from the water 48 from the Boston and 30 from the New York.
Steaming at 16 knots to rejoin the convoy Veteran then found herself the target of U-404. No one knows what happened, there were no survivors from Veteran's 159 people or the 78 survivors. U-404 went on to sink another of the little steamers, Yorktown, claiming much larger targets, before vanishing into the dark.
The remaining ships arrived in the UK intact where they were laid up as being of no further use. After the war President Warfield was sold for scrap before passing through several hand and ending up being immortalised in the struggle for Israel.
Was the loss of so many lives as a decoy justified? Was the Invasion of North Africa accelerated by their sacrifice? The ship sailed into Israeli folklore but what of the lost souls in the Veteran.? Among them was the ship's doctor Surgeon Lt. Francis Mason Hayes, an American, one of the 22 Americans who volunteered for the RN before Pearl Harbour, he never came back but his name is inscribed in there floor of the Painted Hall at Greenwich; one of the two out of twenty-two who never made it home. The other was Lt. John Parker who died in the loss of the Broadwater.
Fate U-404
Sunk 28 July, 1943 in the Bay of Biscay north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 45.53N, 09.25W, by depth charges from 2 American Liberator aircraft (A/S Sqdn. 4) and from a British Liberator aircraft (Sqdn. 224). 51 dead (all hands lost).
