Uncle Norman Gandy

Today, 6^th March, in 1943 Convoy OS 44 set sail from Liverpool to various destinations including Lisbon, Freetown, Walvis Bay, Cape Town and Buenos Aries.  Of 50 ships designated in the convoy, 46 sailed and 2 returned to port for reasons unknown.  OS 44 included the MV Silverbeech, with a cargo of government stores and aircraft bound for Freetown, Takoradi and Lagos. At 5311 gross registered tons, 425 ft long and capable of 12 knots on her oil engines, Silverbeech was built in 1926 by Sir John Laing and Sons.  At some stage, she was armed with one 4-inch gun for attack and defence against surface craft, one 12-pounder also for use against surface craft, 2 Oerlikons for anti-aircraft, 2 Twin Marlin machine guns, one Pillar Box and 2 PAC Rockets (Parachute and Cable Anti-Aircraft Rockets - an early type of wire guided missile which was largely ineffective).  Silverbeech was owned by Silver Line Limited, a firm of ship owners engaged in world-wide activities founded in 1925.

My uncle, Arthur Norman Gandy was the Second Engineer Officer in MV Silverbeech.  Born in September 1908, Norman was 6-feet, blue-eyed and fair-haired.  He had enlisted as an Assistant Engineer on 8 November 1930, his first ship being the MV Neptunian.

Convoy OS44 set off from Liverpool on 6 March 1943 and turned North towards the Clyde.  There the convoy was joined by other vessels from Milford Haven, Belfast and Glasgow.  Once formed-up, the whole armada turned to the North West around the coast of Northern Ireland.  The formation must have been impressive sailing 11 abreast and 5 deep (gaps left for the no-shows) spaced at 2 cables (about 400 yards). The merchant convoy was escorted by 3 Sloops and 6 Corvettes. The speed, however, would have been a very leisurely 8 knots and, despite the buzzing attention of the escorts around the periphery, the convoy would have represented a target rich opportunity if located by the enemy.   Unusually, the convoy routed directly to West Africa rather than the normal route which had been Westward to the coast of South America then turning back across the Atlantic abeam Brazil.

The convoy system had been introduced during the First World War to protect merchant ships plying the North Atlantic. In the initial stages of the Second World War, because of the limited range of anti-submarine ships and aircraft, German U-Boats roamed freely and for month after month allied shipping was attacked ruthlessly with heavy loss of life and ships.  By the Spring of 1943, with America in the war, new ships, new long-range aircraft and forward bases in the Azores, Greenland and Iceland, allied shipping losses reduced substantially whilst those of the German Kriegsmarine increased correspondingly.  At the end, the loss of ships and life had been staggering; the British merchant fleet lost over 1600 ships (8,000,000 tons) and 31,000 men whilst the Kriegsmarine suffered losses of 720 U-Boats and 32,000 men.  Despite the reversal of fortunes in the Battle of the Atlantic by March 1943, my Uncle Norman was one of the allied losses, later in the month.