[Hugh]

Originally Posted by Adrian Roberts

However, one question occurs - which Kapitan Mertens who torpedoed the vessel pointed out. Why was this ship allowed to sail alone and unescorted into hostile waters? Some of the rescue ships appear to have been on their own as well. Was it a simply a question of some routes being not of high enough density to make up a convoy? Or not enough escorts for all routes? Or just incompetence as Mertens alleged? Any ideas on this?

Adrian

Hello Adrian,

Thanks for your comments regarding the website. You raise a very interesting question and I think the answer is a combination of all..

In the case of “CITY OF CAIRO” there were many sinkings around the area of South Africa as “Gruppe Eisbar”, the Polar Bear group of U-boats, was operating in the area.

There were no fast escort vessels available and Naval Control Cape Town routed the ship for a lone crossing of the South Atlantic to Recife, Brazil avoiding the U-boat –infested Freetown route to the north. Eventually they would reach Halifax NS where they would enjoy the luxury of a convoy escort across the Atlantic to the UK. As we know the ship never got near the luxury of a convoy escort, being sunk 6 days into her voyage.

The responsibility for routing the ship with its complement of 297 men, women and children, as well as a valuable cargo which also included silver coins was a big decision and presumably had been considered by Naval Control Cape Town and the risk judged acceptable.

Looking at it from Merten’s perspective it was a crazy decision, bearing in mind that his “Eisbar” group had torpedoed the liner LACONIA a couple of months previously with massive loss of life - it too sailing independently.

I presume you have seen Merten’s letter also on my site: http://www.sscityofcairo.co.uk/merten_letter.php

Many ships were also sunk because they were straggelers from convoys as they couldn't keep up and had to be left behind. It would be interesting to look at the number of merchant ships that were sunk while sailing independently during WWII.

Regards
Hugh