Convoys HX 229/SC 122 - Convoy SC 122

Convoy SC 122

SC 122 was a slow eastbound convoy of 60 ships, routed from New York to Liverpool. (This was during the period when SC convoys were switched from Sydney, Cape Breton, to New York; this was reversed later due to congestion problems there.) It sailed on 5 March 1943, protected at first by one destroyer and five corvettes of the Western Local Escort Force. On 6 March, off Cape Cod, two ships put back to New York, due to heavy weather, and on the 8th, another six abandoned the crossing, and put in to Halifax. The convoy pressed on, changing escorts on the 13th off Cape Race; the western local group left, after the Mid-Ocean Escort Force B5 Escort Group, joined from St John's. B5 Escort group consisted of 8 warships, led by Cdr RC Boyle in the destroyer HMS Havelock. It also comprised the destroyer USS Upshur, the frigate Swale, the Flower class corvettes Buttercup, Godetia, Lavender, Saxifrage and Pimpernel, and a trawler as rescue vessel.