SPECIAL OIL AND TROOPSHIP CONVOYS FOR TORCH AND THE BRITISH ISLES
1943-1944
To supply Torch operations with oil, gasoline, and other petroleum products, in early 1943 the Allies established a special tanker-convoy system running between the Americas and North Africa. The first two of these convoys, which sailed from Trinidad in January 1943, were British: the 8.5-knot “slow” TM 1 (nine tankers), escorted by a British destroyer and three corvettes, and the twelve-knot “fast” TMF 2 (five tankers), escorted by three British destroyers. U-boats found and devastated TM 1, sinking seven of nine tankers; TMF 2 was not attacked. Thus the casualty rate in these British operations was seven of fourteen tankers, or 50 percent.
In February 1943, the U.S. Navy assumed full responsibility for these convoys, which were redesignated superfast (14.5-knot) OT (Oil for Torch). OT 1 (four tankers) and OT 2 (five tankers) sailed from Aruba on 2/5 and 2/20, respectively, each with an escort group of three American destroyers. Commencing in May 1943, when these tankers and escorts returned to Aruba, they reloaded, sailed in a “shuttle” to New York, unloaded cargoes into an “oil pool,” and returned to Aruba to reload for another transatlantic voyage to Africa. Subsequently the oil in the New York pool was transshipped to the British Isles in tankers sailing on the North Atlantic run.
The OT convoys increased in size to an average of about seven tankers and sailed about once a month. In all of 1943, seventy-six fast tankers in eleven OT convoys reached Gibraltar, made the return voyage, and the round-trip shuttle to New York, with no losses inflicted by the enemy. In June 1944, the Allies terminated this system with OT 15, and thereafter these fast tankers sailed in the Middle Atlantic UGF convoys. The four OT convoys that sailed in 1944 consisted of an aggregate of thirty-six ships. Again, there were no losses. Altogether, between February 1943 and June 1944, 112 fast tankers in fifteen U.S. Navy OT convoys sailed to Gibraltar and returned without a loss.
In response to pleas from London for a great increase in oil shipments in order to rebuild shrinking stocks, to sustain the swelling strategic bombing campaign against Germany, and to prepare for Overlord, in March 1943 the Allies established a special convoy system, CU, running between Curacao and the United Kingdom. Composed initially of twelve fast (“Greyhound”) tankers per convoy, escorted by six or seven American destroyers, these special 14.5-knot oil convoys sailed about once a month for Liverpool and returned to Curacao. Like the OT convoys, these tankers also reloaded for a shuttle run to the “oil pool” in New York and then returned to Curacao to reload for another transatlantic voyage to Liverpool.
The first convoy of the new CU UC system, designated UC 1, left the British Isles in mid-February 1943. Composed of thirty-two westbound vessels (seventeen tankers in ballast, fifteen freighters), it was commanded by a British commodore and was escorted by a mix of nine British and American destroyers. U-boats attacked UC 1 west of the Canary Islands on February 22-23, sinking three tankers and damaging two. Thereafter the U.S. Navy assumed full responsibility for CU UC convoys. CU 1 (nine tankers) departed Curacao on March 20 with an escort of American destroyers and reached the British Isles without any losses, as did CU 2, 3,4, and 6. Commencing with CU 7, the intervening round-trip New York shuttle was discontinued. CU 5, 7, 8, and 9 sailed Curacao-New York-Liverpool separately from Slow and Halifax convoys on the North Atlantic run. Altogether, nine CU UC convoys, comprised of 163 tankers, sailed from the Caribbean and New York to the British Isles in 1943 with the loss of three tankers. In 1944, forty-three CU convoys, comprised of 2,842 ships, sailed from Curacao to New York to Liverpool and the reverse. Two tankers and one destroyer escort (Leopold) were lost in that year.
Beginning on August 21, 1943, the Allies, building up for Overlord, inaugurated a new fast troopship-convoy system running between New York and the British Isles, designated UT. To April 6, 1944, eleven 15-knot UT convoys, comprised of a total of 271 troopships (an average eighteen ships and ten escorts each in 1943 and about twenty-five ships and thirteen escorts each in 1944) transported 592,041 troops across the ocean with ho losses.1
As D day for Overlord, June 6, 1944, approached, the CU (oil) and UT (troop) convoys from New York were temporarily merged: CU 23 absorbed UT 12 to become TCU 23; CU 24 absorbed UT 13 to become the two-section TCU 24A and TCU 24B; CU 28 absorbed UT 14 to become TCU 28; CU 30 absorbed UT 17 to become TCU 30; CU 33 absorbed UT 19 to become TCU 33; and CU 35 absorbed UT 21 to become TCU 35. After July 1944, the merging of these convoys was terminated and each system reacquired its independence.
From April 1944 to May 1945 (V-E Day) UT and TCU convoys delivered 945,261 troops to Europe.
To recap the numbers of loaded ships and losses in these sailings, eastbound only: