If the Gods Are Good: The Epic Sacrifice of HMS Jervis Bay

MILITARY NAVAL GENERAL Royal Navy WWII

The authors deliver a stirring account of one of the greatest David-and-Goliath stories in the annals of sea fights: the sacrificial defence of a British convoy by its escort Jervis Bay against Admiral Scheer, one of Germany’s most feared warships. The extraordinary engagement received front-page treatment when it occurred in November 1940, but tales like this are often lost in the great kaleidoscope of World War II, where watershed events tend to overshadow smaller encounters. This is a story of such courage and resourcefulness, however, that it deserves to be remembered by today’s history buffs.

pp. 304 Charts First Edition AS NEW COPY #231223

She became the sole escort for the 37 merchant ships of Convoy HX 84 from Bermuda and Halifax to Britain (Jervis Bay escorted a convoy from Bermuda which merged at sea with a convoy from Halifax, since larger convoys suffered fewer losses than smaller ones due to the relatively smaller defensive perimeter of the larger surface area).^[3]

When the convoy encountered the German warship Admiral Scheer about 755 nautical miles (1,398 km) south-southwest of Reykjavík, the captain of Jervis Bay, Edward Fegen, ordered the convoy to scatter, and set his own ship on a course towards the German warship to draw its fire. Jervis Bay was hopelessly outgunned and outranged by the 28 cm (11inch) guns of the German ship, but it attacked the larger ship with its guns, firing more to distract the German ship from the merchantmen than with hopes of doing any damage.^[4] Although the German’s shells ravaged Jervis Bay, and Fegen was wounded and many crewmen killed, Fegen and the surviving crew fought on until their ship was sunk. Captain Fegen and many of the crew went down with the ship.

Jervis Bay‘s sacrifice bought enough time for the convoy to begin to scatter.

Captain Fegen was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross as a result of this action. The citation for his award reads:

For valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect. On the 5th of November, 1940, in heavy seas, Captain Fegen, in His Majesty’s Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay, was escorting thirty-eight Merchantmen. Sighting a powerful German warship he at once drew clear of the Convoy, made straight for the Enemy, and brought his ship between the Raider and her prey, so that they might scatter and escape. Crippled, in flames, unable to reply, for nearly an hour the Jervis Bay held the German’s fire. So she went down: but of the Merchantmen all but four or five were saved.