TheCodeBreakers
three dozen, were ordered to search for the convoys.
On the morning of March 16, they sighted a convoy which turned out
to be HX 229, and in the next two days, 38 U-boats sent 13 ships to the
bottom. Meanwhile, HX 229 overtook the slow-moving sc 122, forming a
large mass of shipping in a small space of ocean. The wolf pack nipped at
its edges and sank eight more vessels, making a total of 141,000 tons
sunk in the three-day battle, at a cost of only a single U-boat. Donitz
exulted: "It was the greatest success that we had so far scored against a
convoy."
The Admiralty despaired. They considered abandoning the convoy
system as ineffective, which was tantamount to an admission of defeat,
since no alternative existed, the loss rate of single vessels being double
that of ships in convoy. "The Germans never came so near to disrupting
communications between the New World and the Old as in the first
twenty days of March, 1943," the naval staff later recorded. It marked the
annaabi.ee 
