Spring of 1943
Escort Group B-5 returned to MOEF with G and H class destroyer Havelock, Flower class corvettes Pimpernel, Godetia, Saxifrage, Buttercup and Lavender and with new River class frigate Swale replacing the old destroyers. Convoy ON 168 was escorted without loss. Convoy SC 122 lost 8 ships. Convoy SC 126 was escorted without loss.
River class frigates brought two significant advantages to MOEF. Their numbers allowed the older escorts time to refit with modern sensors like 10-centimeter radar and modern anti-submarine weapons like the Hedgehog projector. Destroyers replaced by new frigates were formed into mobile support groups able to move rapidly to convoys coming under attack. Through 1943, new escort carriers became available to increase the surveillance capability of support groups. As the winter weather cleared, new long-range B-24 Liberator patrol bombers extended surveillance into the mid-Atlantic.
Read more about this topic: Mid-Ocean Escort Force
Famous quotes containing the word spring:
“Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature—if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you—know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)