Convoys Won the Battle of the Atlantic
A convoy is a group travelling together for protection. The tactic is ancient, and it decided a modern war.
A convoy is a group of vehicles or ships travelling together for mutual protection. The mathematics favour it strongly: a submarine searching empty ocean is far more likely to find one ship travelling alone than to find a group, and when it does find the group it can only attack a few. Britain's adoption of convoys in both world wars sharply cut shipping losses.
- A protected group of ships or vehicles. *An Atlantic convoy.*
- To escort. *Convoyed by two frigates.*
- Convoy as a modifier. *Convoy duty.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | convoy | A relief convoy. |
| Plural | convoys | Supply convoys. |
| Verb | convoy | Convoy the tankers. |
| Related | escort | A naval escort. |
| Related | caravan | A camel caravan. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The convoy sailed at night.Naval.
- An aid convoy reached the town.Humanitarian.
- They travelled in convoy.Together, one behind another.
Why convoys work
- Harder to find — one group presents fewer targets to locate than many single ships
- Concentrated defence — escorts protect many ships at once
- Limited attack window — a submarine can strike only a few before losing contact
- Slowest ship sets the pace — the main cost of the system
- Adopted reluctantly — the Royal Navy resisted convoys in 1917 before the evidence forced the change
From French *convoyer*, to escort, from Latin *conviare*, to travel with — the same root as *convey* and *voyage*.
Are convoy and convey the same word?
They come from the same French verb, arriving in English separately. Convey kept the sense of carrying, convoy the sense of escorting.
Why did navies resist convoys?
They believed grouping ships created a bigger target. The statistics showed the opposite, since finding the group at all was much harder.