ANDREWS Sidney

HMS Veteran was a destroyer which was on loan from the Royal Navy to the Royal Canadian Navy.  On 21st September 1942 she sailed from St John’s, Newfoundland with the destroyer “Vanoc” as escort to Convoy RB. 1., a special convoy of river steamers.  The convoy came under attack from three wolf packs totalling 17 German U-boats and two of the steamers, ‘Boston’ and ‘New York’ were sunk.  HMS Veteran picked up survivors from both ships and then sailed to rejoin the convoy.  The last contact with HMS Veteran was made by Vanoc at 00.38 on 26th September, nothing further was heard from the ship and the entire crew and the survivors from Boston and New York were posted ‘missing, presumed killed’.  The Corvettes ‘Gentian’ and ‘Exe’ were directed by the Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches to make a search in the area, which was continued until dusk on 1st October.  No survivors were sighted.

After the war, German documents that came into the hands of the Allies revealed that U-404 had been responsible for the sinking of HMS Veteran. The U-boat fired two torpedoes at the ship and immediately dived to 12 metres, moving as far away as possible from the position and remaining submerged for some time.  Consequently there was no record of the actual sinking of HMS Veteran.