The Jervis Bay and convoy HX84

Atlantic Convoy
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It was the 5th November 1940 at around 5:30 pm and nearing dusk when the encounter that guaranteed HX84 and the Jervis Bay's place in history occurred.

A strange ship was sighted on the horizon, approaching fast. The convoy, expecting to meet with its Atlantic escort, sent signals requesting it identify itself but received no answer. At the same time as the convoy identified it, the ship opened fire.

The Admiral Scheer was a German Pocket Battleship, designed to be able to outgun anything that could catch it, and outrun everything else. Fast, manoeverable and deadly, it carried eleven inch guns with considerable range. German Intelligence had learned the location of convoy HX84 and the Admiral Scheer, commanded by Admiral Krancke, had been ready to intercept. It was a convoy raider, and a ship of the same type had sunk eleven ships from one convoy in less than an hour.

Instantly the order was given to scatter, and the convoy split up, dropping smokefloats to cover their retreat. This strategy was the best defense convoys had, but was often futile. A ship like the Admiral Scheer could simply plow through the smoke and run down the unarmed merchant vessels, as Captain Edward Fegen of the Jervis Bay was well aware.

The Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay Fought to the Death
When a British Convoy Was Ambushed
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As the convoy fled, the Jervis Bay swung towards the Admiral Scheer hoping to buy the merchant ships time. If they could delay the raider until darkness fell, the ships would be able to hide in the Atlantic at night and the chances of the Scheer finding them were slim. Opening fire with its antiquated six inch guns, well out of range and unable to penetrate the armour of the battleship even if they were not, the Jervis Bay set course towards the Admiral Scheer.

The Admiral Scheer's first shots fell wide, as Admiral Krancke realised the armoured liner was actually trying to attack. For the same reasons the Jervis Bay sought to delay it, the Scheer needed to get past the liner quickly. The Admiral Scheer's initial volleys were an attempt to disable the escort ship efficiently, allowing them to bypass it and pursue the convoy. The Jervis Bay did not turn aside, and continued ahead at full speed.

Knowing they were losing time, the Scheer changed tactics. The pocket battleship found their range and began to pound the approaching escort with full barrages. No longer trying to conserve ammunition, intending to sink the vessel that was all that stood between it and the convoy, the Admiral Scheer opened fire with salvo after salvo of six hundred pound shells. They tore through the converted liner like paper.

The Jervis Bay's bridge was struck, and Captain Fegen's left arm torn off. The engine was destroyed, but by that time the ship had built up momentum and continued to close on the Admiral Scheer, her six inch guns still firing futily and still falling short. With the next salvo an exploding shell hit the bridge, killing the Captain, and one of the forward guns was destroyed. Her remaining gun still firing, still falling painfully short, the Jervis Bay continued from sheer momentum.

Finally, inevitably, the Scheer's salvos hit something vital within the Jervis Bay. The ship shuddered and turned over, sinking. It was still out of range for its guns. One hundred and ninety men were lost.

Some sources say the Jervis Bay survived twenty-four minutes, others nearly an hour. Twenty four minutes sounds so little time when bought with the lives of the crew of the Jervis Bay. But however long the battle lasted, all agree, it was time enough for darkness to fall and the convoy to scatter.

The Admiral Scheer pursued the fleeing convoy, but it was a far cry from the triumph they had expected when they sighted HX84. Instead of sinking eleven ships in an hour, they spent the night and next day in pursuit, expending fuel and ammunition. Thirty-one of the thirty-eight convoy vessels got through, and Captain Fegen received a posthumous VC.

The Jervis Bay succeeded in delaying the Admiral Scheer for twenty-four minutes, but those twenty four minutes may have changed the course of the war.

Over 300 shells were expended sinking the Jervis Bay, and some accounts say as much as one third of the Scheer's ammunition was used against the unarmoured liner. This hampered the Scheer's own activities in the Atlantic, and had a lasting effect. The political effects were more far reaching.

An internal struggle was raging in German headquarters. The navy wanted more battleships, but the pressure was on the build U-Boats as they were cheaper. The performance of the Admiral Scheer, a valuable pocket battleship, was being closely monitored. She sunk 17 ships in her first year of operation, while the Uboats sunk ten times that. This may have contributed to Hitler pulling the German Navy back into the Norweigan fjords and out of the Atlantic.

At the same time the British changed policy to always have large convoys guarded by battleships. While this resulted in fewer, larger convoys, with the withdrawal of convoy raiders it gave them a better chance to get through.

As well as his fiction, Alastair Maclean retold a number of the famous incidents of the War in his short story collection "The Lonely Sea" such as the tale of the Rawalpindi, another merchant escort, and the fate of the Arandora Star.

The book closes with the story of HX84 and the Jervis Bay, an unforgettable homage by an excellent author.