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6)ALFRED JONES U-107
Photo. www.photoship.co.uk
Built 1930
Tonnage 4,022 / 5,933 tons
Cargo: RAF planes, lorries and 180 tons of steel
Route: Liverpool - Ellesmere Port - Freetown - Bathurst, Gambia
Sunk 01 JUN 41 by U-107 in position 08º 00’ N 15º 00’ W
14 Dead
60 Survivors
At 14.09 hours on 1 Jun, 1941, the Alfred Jones (Master Harold Harding), the ship of the convoy commodore from the dispersed convoy OB-320, was hit by three torpedoes from U-107 (Kpt. Gunther Hessler) and sank within 30 minutes 140 miles west-southwest of Freetown. 14 crew members were lost. The master, the commodore (Vice-Admiral G.T.C.P. Swabey CB DSO RN), six naval staff members, 38 crew members, four gunners and 12 passengers were picked up by the British corvette HMS Marguerite (K 54) (LtCdr A.N. Blundell) and landed at Freetown.
Hessler was wrong in assuming that this vessel was either a Q-ship or an armed merchant cruiser. During the winter 1939/40, a total of eight British merchants were fitted out as Q-ships, but they all had been withdrawn from service by early March 1941. A small number of such vessels were commissioned by the US Navy during 1942/43, all being withdrawn at the end of 1943. Thus at the time of Hessler´s attack there were no Allied Q-ships in service.
By: Alfred Jones (British Motor merchant) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net
