Background
Sixty-five ships departed Sydney on 30 August 1941 under local escort, bound for Liverpool. The convoy commodore was R.Adm. WB Mackenzie in Everleigh. A week later were met just east of the Strait of Belle Isle by the Canadian 24th Escort Group consisting of the Canadian River class destroyer Skeena (Lt Cdr JC Hibbard, senior officer) with Flower class corvettes Alberni, Kenogami, and Orillia. Sisters Chambly and Moosejaw were conducting training exercises in the convoy path at the direction of CDR James D. Prentice, RCN, and were prepared to reinforce the escort as the convoy entered an area where U-boats were known to be waiting.
Ranged against them was the wolf pack Markgraf, a group of 14 U-boats in a patrol line southeast of Greenland.
Read more about this topic: Convoy SC 42
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