Convoy SC 143

8 October 1943, North Atlantic, south-west of Iceland

Allied success; three U-boats sunk for the loss of a destroyer and a freighter

In the autumn of 1943 the U-boats came back to the North Atlantic with a new weapon, the acoustic homing torpedo, meant to kill the escorts first. Convoy SC 143, 39 ships from Halifax, was reinforced by a support group of four destroyers, one of them the Polish Orkan, and allowed to run on towards the waiting wolfpack. At dawn on 8 October U-378 hit Orkan with an acoustic torpedo; she sank within minutes, and Musketeer picked up 44 survivors from a crew of more than 220. U-645 sank the freighter Yorkmar. But Liberators flying from Iceland and Northern Ireland and a Canadian Sunderland sank U-419, U-643 and U-610 around the convoy that day, and the wolfpack was called off.

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