This is what I have been able to find.
According to the excellent ConvoyWeb website (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/en/index.html), convoy EN-320 departed Methil 17 December 1943 and arrived Loch Ewe 19 December 1943. (Methil is on the southeast coast of Scotland, Loch Ewe is on the northwest coast.) The sailing date and departure and arrival points match those that Mr. Villars mentions in his message.
There were ten merchant ships in the convoy:
ALDEBARAN (Panamanian flag)
BRITISH HARMONY (British)
EMPIRE MOORHEN (British)
GRANT WOOD (American)
HMS HELP (British),
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (American)
JOSEPH H MARTIN (American)
MARY LYON (American)
THE BARON (British)
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH (American)
GRANT WOOD is the ship Mr. Villars reported he was aboard as a radioman.
There were no escort vessels.
The convoys that Fran and Mike mention, JW-55B and JW-56A, traveled from Lock Ewe to Russia, not between Methil and Loch Ewe. JW-55B was en route 20 December – 30 December 1943 but did not include GRANT WOOD. SCHARNHORST put to sea from northern Norway on 25 December and was sunk the next day by British warships. (There were only 36 survivors from a crew of 1,968.) So convoy JW-55B was certainly the target of SCHARNHORST but I don't know whether the convoy could have been considered a decoy, since its 19 merchant ships continued on and all reached Russia safely. The convoy had 33 escorting warships, including the ships that sunk SCHARNHORST. The fact that the convoy had so many escorts, including one battleship and several cruisers, suggests the convoy was deliberately set up to ambush SCHARNHORST.
But again, GRANT WOOD was not in convoy JW-55B so if JW-55B was a decoy convoy, Mr. Villar's ship was not a part of it. Indeed, none of the ships listed above in convoy EN-320 were in convoy JW-55B.
It also seems to me that convoy EN-320, sailing for two days along the Scottish coast that would have offered nearby shelter and safety, even without escorts, would not have been much of a decoy for a German warship stationed many hundreds of miles to the northeast in Norway.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
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