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Convoy Faith was a small, fast Allied convoy of July 1943, during World War II; it suffered heavy casualties when attacked by German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor long-range bombers while en route from Britain to West Africa. The convoy comprised two large troopships and a freighter, later joined by two destroyers and two frigates as escorts at various dates after it sailed on 7 July 1943. The two troopships, SS ''California'' and SS ''Duchess of York'', both former liners, were carrying military personnel to West Africa, where locally recruited troops were to be embarked as reinforcements for the Allied forces in Burma and the Middle East. The freighter MV ''Port Fairy'', carrying ammunition, was ultimately bound for Australia and New Zealand via the Panama canal. On the evening of 11 July, four days after sailing, Convoy Faith was attacked by three Condors. Both troopships were severely damaged and subsequently sunk by torpedoes from the escorts; over 100 of the personnel aboard the two ships were killed. The freighter escaped unscathed, but was damaged in a second air attack on 12 July en route to Casablanca. The loss of the two troopships inevitably delayed the movement of a division of West African soldiers to India until four replacements arrived. The British military was surprised by the attack on Convoy Faith, as it had been believed that the Condors no longer posed a serious threat. In response, the convoy route between Britain and Africa was moved to the west. The German Condor force attempted to repeat its success against Convoy Faith by carrying out similar attacks on other convoys, but sustained heavy losses from Allied anti-aircraft guns and aircraft. ==Background== From August 1940 to June 1941, the German Luftwaffe (air force) unit III./KG 40, which was based at Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport in southern France and equipped with Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors, attacked Allied shipping travelling in the Atlantic. The unit made a number of successful attacks on convoys and individual ships traveling in the Western Approaches as well as on the route between Britain and Gibraltar. In response, the Allies increased the anti-aircraft armament carried by many merchant ships, and began to deploy CAM ships and escort carriers to provide fighter protection for convoys. During the last six months of 1941 these improved defences inflicted heavy losses on the Condor force, and it ceased attacking shipping in early 1942.〔Forczyk (2010), pp. 44–59〕 In 1942, III./KG 40 mainly operated in the reconnaissance role and reported targets for U-boats to attack. A small number of attacks were made on ships travelling between Britain and Gibraltar from May onwards, but these cost the unit eight Condors destroyed in action and seven in accidents for no sinkings. As a result of the Condor's vulnerability to Allied defences, the commander of the Luftwaffe's Atlantic anti-shipping force (Fliegerführer Atlantik) recommended in December that the aircraft be withdrawn from service.〔Forczyk (2010), pp. 60–61〕 The British military conducted regular convoys to transfer personnel from the United Kingdom to the Middle East and India from mid-1940 until late 1943. This convoy route was assigned the code "WS", which was widely believed to be an abbreviation for "Winston Special" in honor of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The WS convoys typically comprised several large ocean liners which had been converted to troopships protected by a strong force of warships. As the Mediterranean Sea was a war zone, the convoys normally traveled from the Clyde in Scotland to the Middle East or South Asia via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. En route, the ships typically stopped at Freetown in West Africa to refuel and embark water, and again at either Cape Town or Durban in South Africa.〔Hague (2000), p. 35〕 German aircraft, submarines and surface ships attacked the WS convoys on occasion.〔Munro (2006), pp. xii–xiii〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Convoy Faith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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