Italian submarine fates

Ships hit by Italian submarines

Type	Cargo ship
Country	British
Built	1922	GRT	6,573

Date of attack	14 Feb 1941	Time	0436
Fate	Sunk by submarine Michele Bianchi (C.C. Adalberto Giovannini)
Position of attack	55° 16'N, 19° 07'W
Complement	40 (40 dead, no survivors)
Convoy
Notes	At 0145 hours, Bianchi had just entered zone C, when a dark vessel was sighted steering on a NE course. At 0322 hours, a single torpedo (450mm) was fired from a bow tube at a distance of 600 metres. It appeared to miss closely ahead or perhaps to have passed under. The submarine maneuvered to gain a more favourable position ahead. This was the British *Alnmoor* (6,573 GRT, built 1922). She had sailed from Halifax on 31st January 1941 for Glasgow. She disappeared during that period, she was last heard of on 10th February in 51°26' N, 29°03' W. At 0436 hours, a pair of torpedoes (533mm) were fired from bow tubes at a distance of 700 metres. The vessel was hit and sank, stern first, in 65 seconds. Forty were killed, there were no survivors. It has been suggested that it was the British *Belcrest* (4,517 GRT, built 1939), a straggler of convoy S.C.21, which sailed from Halifax on 31st January for Newport (UK) and would have likely passed south of Ireland. *Belcrest* was probably sunk by U-101 on 15th February 1941 and *Holystone* (5,462 GRT, 1927) by U-123. The latter had sailed from Oban for Halifax. (Special thanks to David Sibley for solving this case)