Convoy QP 11

Convoy QP 11 was an Arctic Convoy of World War II, made up of merchant ships returning from the Soviet Union to Britain after delivering their cargo to the Soviet Union. The convoy consisted of 13 merchant ships, escorted by 18 warships. The convoy was attacked by German destroyers and submarines, suffering the loss of one merchant ship as well as the light cruiser HMS Edinburgh. The German forces lost the destroyer Z7 Hermann Schoemann.

Convoy QP 11 naval battle
Part of World War II
HMS Edinburgh showing the damage to its stern after the attack by U-456
Date 1/2 May 1942 Location Arctic Ocean Result Indecisive (Edinburgh sunk but most of convoy saved)
Belligerents
Germany	United Kingdom Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs
Strength
3 destroyers 2 U-boats	1 cruiser 6 destroyers 4 minesweeper 1 guard-ship
Casualties and losses
1 destroyer sunk	1 cruiser sunk 3 destroyer damaged 1 Soviet freighter sunk

Ships

QP 11 consisted of 13 merchant ships, mostly British or American, including five ships that had been a part of Convoy PQ 13.[1] The convoy sailed from the Soviet port of Murmansk on 28 April 1942. The convoy was escorted by the light cruiser HMS Edinburgh, the destroyers HMS Amazon, Beagle, Beverley, Bulldog, Foresight, and Forester, the corvettes Campanula, Oxlip, Saxifrage, and Snowflake, and the armed trawler Lord Middleton.[1] Edinburgh was not only serving as an escort, but was also carrying $20 million in gold, a payment from the Soviet Union to the United States.[1]

Voyage

On 29 April, the convoy was spotted by a German Ju 88 reconnaissance plane as well as by German U-boats.[2] Two days after leaving Murmansk, the convoy was attacked by several U-boats. On 30 May U-88 and U-436 both made unsuccessful attacks on the convoy.[3] Later that day, however, U-456 fired torpedoes at Edinburgh and scored two hits. One torpedo hit the cruiser's forward boiler room while the other hit the cruiser's stern, destroying its rudder and two of its four propellers.[1] Edinburgh was badly damaged, but still afloat. Edinburgh left the convoy and headed back towards Murmansk, escorted by Foresight and Forester. Several ships were sent from Murmansk to assist Edinburgh, among them the British minesweepers Gossamer, Harrier, Hussar, and Niger, the Soviet destroyers Gremyashchy and Sokrushitelny, the Soviet guard ship Rubin, and a tug.[3]

Attack on the convoy

The German command sent the three destroyers of Zerstörergruppe "Arktis", Z7 Hermann Schoemann, Z24 and Z25 under the command of Kapitän zur See Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, to attack QP 11 and then sink HMS Edinburgh.[4] The German ships reached the convoy in the afternoon on 1 May. The weather was cold, and intermittent snow and rain limited visibility.[4] Hermann Schoemann opened fire at 14:05. The four British destroyers formed up between the German destroyers and the convoy, and engaged them at a range of about 10,000 yards.[4] Amazon was hit twice and severely damaged. At 14:30 a German torpedo salvo hit and sunk the Soviet freighter Tsiolkovski.[4] At 17:50 the German destroyers retired and turned to go after Edinburgh.[4]

Attack on Edinburgh

The German forces found Edinburgh 250 miles east of the convoy at 06:17 on 2 May. The cruiser was moving at only two knots.[2] The Edinburgh was being escorted by Foresight, Forester, the four British minesweepers, and Rubin (Gremyaschi and Sokrushitelny having returned to Murmansk due to a lack of fuel).[1] The three German destroyers engaged the British ships. Due to the damage caused by U-456, Edinburgh was unable to maneuver, and could only steam in circles.[4] A snow shower separated Herman Schoemann from the other German destroyers, so it attacked the British ships alone.[4] Edinburgh's targeting systems had been destroyed by the torpedo strikes, but Edinburgh's crew nevertheless managed to hit and cripple Hermann Schoemann.[2]

At 18:45, Z24 and Z25 arrived on the scene. Z25 hit and disabled Forester, and then badly damaged Foresight.[4] Then at 18:52 a salvo of torpedoes from one of the German destroyers missed Foresight and Forester. One of the torpedoes from this salvo kept going and struck Edinburgh in the middle of its left side, opposite the hole made by U-456's torpedo.[2] Shortly thereafter the German ships withdrew, possibly because they overestimated the strength of the British minesweepers.[4] At 08:15, Z24 rescued most of the crew of Hermann Schoemann who were still on Hermann Schoemann's deck, and then scuttled Hermann Schoemann.[4] More survivors from Hermann Schoemann who were in life rafts were later rescued by U-88.[1] Meanwhile, the minesweepers Harrier and Gossamer took survivors off of Edinburgh, which was later sunk by a torpedo from Foresight.[1]

Aftermath

The rest of QP 11's voyage saw unsuccessful attacks on the convoy by the submarines U-589 and U-251. The twelve remaining merchant ships of the convoy arrived in Iceland on 7 May.[3]

Ship List

Merchant ships in Convoy QP 11[5]

Ship	Tonnage	Flag	Notes
SS Atheltemplar	8,992
SS Ballot	6,131
SS Briarwood	4,019		Convoy Commodore's ship
SS Dan-Y-Bryn	5,117		Vice Commodore's ship
SS Dunboyne	3,515
SS El Estero	4,219
SS Eldena	6,900
SS Gallant Fox	5,473
SS Mormacmar	5,453
SS Stone Street	6,131
SS Trehata	4,817		Damaged by ice
SS Tsiolkovsky	2,847		Sunk
SS West Cheswald	5,711

References

1. Edwards, Bernard (2002). The Road to Russia: Arctic Convoys 1942. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 95–98. ISBN 1-59114-732-8.
2. Jessop, Keith; Hanson, Neil (2002). Goldfinder. Danvers, MA: John Wiley and Sons. pp. 258–266. ISBN 0-471-40733-X.
3. Rohwer, Jurgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 162. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
4. O'Hara, Vincent P. (2011). Spencer C. Tucker (ed.). World War II at Sea: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, LLC. pp. 188–190. ISBN 978-1-59884-457-3.
5. Hague, Arnold. "Convoy QP.11". Convoyweb. Retrieved 15 August 2013.