1943 — Jan 9, US freighter Birmingham City sunk by U-boat, So. Atlantic ~100M NE of Paramaribo-10

–10 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–5 crew
–5 armed guard
–10 Helgason. Ships hit by U-boats. “Birmingham City – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net.
–3 officers
–2 crewmen
–5 armed guards (most from drowning – applies to all 10)
–10 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–5 crew
–5 armed guard

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“01/09/43 Birmingham City Freighter Torpedo Sunk Caribbean* Crew 5; AGG 5.”

* We do not consider this attack, well down the South American coast, as within the Caribbean.

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter V 1943:
“9 January, Sat. ….
“Atlantic….
“German submarine U-124 continues assault on convoy TB 1, begun shortly before midnight the day before, about 100 miles northeast of Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. U-124 torpedoes freighters Collingsworth and Minotaur at 07°12’N, 55°37’W; each ship sinks four minutes after being struck. Tanker Broad Arrow sinks as the result of damage received in U-124’s initial attack. Submarine chaser PC-577 rescues survivors from all four ships sunk by the U-boat. Of the Armed Guards on the four merchantmen, only one sailor of the eight-man guard on board Broad Arrow survives; five of the 18-man Armed Guard perish in the abandonment of Birmingham City; Collingsworth’s detachment loses four of 24 men; Minotaur’s 15-man Armed Guard, however, survives intact.”

Helgason. Ships hit by U-boats. “Birmingham City – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net.
“Name Birmingham City
“Type Steam merchant
“Tonnage 6,194 tons
“Completed 1920 – Chickasaw Shipbuilding & Car Co., Chickasaw AL
“Owner Isthmian SS Co., New York
“Homeport New York
“Date of attack 9 Jan 1943
“Nationality American
“Fate Sunk by U-124 (Johann Mohr)
“Position 7° 23’N, 55° 48’W – Grid EO 5238
“Complement 56 (10 dead and 46 survivors).
“Convoy TB-1
“Route New York – Trinidad – Rio de Janeiro
“Cargo General cargo, including machinery and tinplate
“History ….
“Notes on event On 9 Jan 1943 the Birmingham City (Master Michael Francis Barry) served as the ship of convoy commodore in convoy TB-1, when the Broad Arrow off the port beam was struck by two torpedoes fired by U-124 at 04.33 hours and caught fire, lit up the entire convoy. At 04.36 hours, Mohr fired another torpedo which struck the Birmingham City on the port side amidships at the #3 hatch and the ship began to blaze. The explosion blew the port lifeboats overboard, destroyed the fireroom bulkhead and caused her to sink on an even keel in three minutes about 50 miles north of Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana.

…most of the nine officers, 29 crewmen and 18 armed guards (the ship was
armed with one 4in, one 3in and four .50cal guns) immediately abandoned
ship as she rapidly settled. The #1 motor lifeboat capsized on launching,
pitching men into the water and contributing to the drowning of several
crewmen. The remaining survivors left in #3 boat or jumped overboard and
swam to several rafts. The #1 boat was later righted and the men from the
rafts were transferred to it. Three officers, two crewmen and five armed
guards died, most from drowning. All survivors were picked up by USS PC-577 ten hours later and landed at Paramaribo.

Note: uboat.net has information on thirteen of those onboard. Accessed 5-20-2021 at:
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship2575.html

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com:
“S.S. Birmingham City…Torpedoed 1/9/43…Freighter…Crew 5, AG 5 [Number Killed].”

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged during 1943. Accessed 5-20-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk43.html#anchor406099

Clancey, Patrick (transcriber and formatter for HTML). HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II, Chapter V: 1943. Accessed 5-19-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1943.html

Helgason, Gudmundur. Ships hit by U-boats. “Birmingham City – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net. Accessed 5-20-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/2575.html

Moore, Captain Arthur R. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking: A History of the Staggering Losses Suffered By the U.S. Merchant Marine, Both in Ships and Personnel, During World War II. American Merchant Marine Museum 1983 (1st edition), 1990. Table extracted by armed-guard.com. Accessed 5-21-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html