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SEAMAN FIRST CLASS HARRY EDELMAYER was born in 1921 to Philip and Elizabeth Edelmayer. Philip Edelmayer worked as a butcher. The Edelmayers had come from Hungary shortly before America's entrance into World War I. The family, which beside Harry include lived at 2717 Cleveland Avenue, in the Cramer Hill section of Camden NJ. The Edelmayers belonged to the St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church. His mother had emigrated to America from Hungary shortly before America entered World War I. A fine baseball player, Harry Edelmayer played for the Pierce Athletic Association, a neighborhood team. After enlisting in the United States Navy, Harry Edelmayer served aboard merchant ships as part of the Naval Armed Guard. On February 5, 1943 Harry Edelamayer was serving aboard the SS West Portal, part of convoy SC-118. Of the 69 ships sailing in convoy SC-118, 11 were sunk when 20 U-boats attacked. The West Portal was torpedoed and sunk by U-413 in the North Atlantic, 600 miles SSW of Iceland (55.18 N/26.29 W), taking 40 of the crew and 12 of the Armed Guard, including Harry Edelmayer, to their doom. Harry Edelmayer was survived by his parents, sister Helen and brothers John, Philip, and Mathew. |
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Camden July 9, 1942 Click on Image to Enlarge |
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Philadelphia
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RETURN TO CAMDEN NJ INTERNET WWII WAR MEMORIAL
Convoy battlesSC-118Sydney - UK
4 Feb, 1943 - 8 Feb, 1943
Also 5 boats of the wolfpack Haudegen : U-438
(Kptlt. Franzius), U-613
(Kptlt. Köppe), U-624
(Kptlt. Graf von Soden-Fraunhofen), U-704
(Kptlt. Kessler), U-752
(Kptlt. Schroeter)
Coming from the HX-224 operations : U-456
(Kptlt. Teichert), U-614
(Kptlt. Sträter) *
* U-boats that fired torpedo or used the deck gun Taking in account the B-Dienst report, the U-632
rapport and the fact that the convoy will probably avoid the
HX-224 battle grounds, Dönitz
forms the patrol line Pfeil. Indeed the convoys steams right on
to the centre of the patrol line but it passes the line
unnoticed on the 3rd Feb.
Unfortunately a merchant ship fires accidentally a snow flake
and gives the position of the convoy away to U-187.
The sighting report of the boat is detected by the HF/DF
of the Toward. She sends immediately the Beverly and Vimy out on
the bearing and they manage to sink U-187.
On the sighting report, Dönitz
orders also 5 boats from the Haudegen gruppe and U-456
and U-614
to the scene. The boats concentrate around the convoy and attack
during the night of the 4th. But the boats continually transmit
contact and sighting reports, giving excellent occasion to the
escort to charge on the HF/DF
bearings. The escort manages to keep the situation under control
and drives off U-267,
U-402,
U-608
(twice) and U-609.
But the convoy is again short on good luck: when it changes
course in an effort to shake of the U-boats, the 3 left columns
do not follow and romp from the convoy. Most of the U-boats in
contact follow the smaller section, but are unable to exploit
the confusing situation. U-609
gets a thorough plastering from the Lobelia but continues the
operation and remains the contact keeper.
In the morning of the 5th the two sections of the convoy
join. The U-boats have lost contact due to the offensive actions
of the escort and the increasingly bad weather. U-413
sinks a straggler. Three American escorts (the destroyers
Babbitt and Schenk and the cutter Ingham) coming from Iceland
reinforce the escort in the night.
During the next day, the U-boats manage to concentrate again
around the convoy, lead by U-609.
U-465
is heavily damaged by a liberator guided by the signals of its
contact report. U-266
sinks a straggler which has had machine trouble, and picks up
the captain and chief engineer. U-262
and U-456
come up and U-454,
U-438,
U-135
and U-267
make attacks in the evening but are driven off. U-267
is severly damaged by the Vimy and must return to port.
Finally U-262
gets through the escort screen on the port side of the convoy,
while all escorts on this side are busy dealing with other
U-boats. She moves in between two columns in the convoy, fires
all 5 torpedo tubes but misses all her targets around her. But
the 2 torpedoes of her second spread who have missed a large
ship, continue to run and they blaze a small ship out of the
water. This ship perishes with all hands, so quickly no one, not
even U-262
has noticed it. U-262
is then detected by Bibb, and the Lobelia damages her with depth
charges. U-262
must also return to port.
Until this point the escort is well in control of the
situation, but things change when U-402
enters the battle scene. When the starboard side of the convoy
is left uncovered shortly after midnight, U-402
moves in quickly and sinks 2 ships. U-402
retires to reload the tubes.
The loss of one of these 2 ships is to have big consequences,
for it was the rescue ship. A dangerous situation is developing,
in which the escorts have now the responsibility to rescue
survivors. In doing so, they have to leave their position in the
screen and weaken the defence of the convoy, making it easier
for the U-boats to sink other ships, for which again escorts
must provide help.
U-614
sinks a straggler on the other side of the convoy. The escorts
loose control of the situation and leave wide gaps in the
screen, through which U-402
attacks again and damages a large tanker, who is later finished
off by U-608.
The Lobelia who is searching for survivors astern, runs into
the U-609
and damages her with canon fire. U-609
dives and is finished off with depth charges. U-402
attacks again and sinks a freighter. She falls astern of the
convoy and sinks 2 stragglers, one of them a troop ship that
perishes with heavy loss of live.
When dawn comes, most U-boats have lost contact and air
patrols prevent any boat to come up. U-624
is sunk by a B-17 of 220 Sqdn. Only U-402
and U-456
make contact. U-456
is driven off by the Beverley but U-402
sinks its seventh victim with its last torpedo in the night of
the 7th and is lucky to escape from a counterattack from the
Bibb and Ingham. U-608
makes also an attack on the escort and a straggler but has no
success. The other boats cannot approach the convoy. Both U-135
and U-614
are damaged by aircraft trying so. Still the convoy loses again
one of its number in a collision.
The battle around SC-118 was by no means the biggest convoy
battle, but 'it was perhaps the hardest convoy battle of the
war' as Dönitz
wrote after the war. Indeed the Pfeil gruppe has been thoroughly
worked over by the escorts, sending many to the dockyard for
extensive repairs. Three boats have been destroyed. The escorts
did not get away unharmed too: the Lobelia arrives back in port
on the end of a towing line after her machines had broken down
and all ships have suffered a lot from the heavy weather
conditions. Still, the U-boats were lucky that the experienced
commander of the escort group, McIntyre was left behind in port
where his ship, the Harvester was undergoing repairs after
ramming an U-boat in the previous convoy escort trip.
With 12 ships against 3 U-boats, the balance wasn't quite in
favour of the Germans and even more alarming was that 4 of them
were stragglers and only 2 U-boats managed to penetrate the
escort screen. The correct, offensive use of the HF/DF
and radar made attacks on the surface difficult and this would
soon lead to a change in tactics: instead of making night
attacks on the surface and submerged attacks during day as has
been done in the past three years, they are ordered to keep as
far as possible away from the convoy perimeter during day,
making their way to the front for a submerged attack at night. Article compiled by Tom Linclau
12 ships sunk for a total of 59.908 tons from convoy
SC-118
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