Raccoon was an Animal class yacht.

The ship was one of the fourteen larger American motor yachts acquired in early 1940 to provide a minimal anti-submarine protection off the Nova Scotia coast in the earliest war years, until regular warships arrived from the builder's yards. She was originally owned by Charles Thorne of Chicago as Halonia. In March 1940 she was secretly bought by Torontonian Montye MacRae from the New York jeweller Ray van Clief on behalf of the Canadian government for $ 207,100. In late August, just painted grey, unarmed and manned by ex-merchant seamen and green-as-grass volunteer reservists, she was sent on patrol off Halifax to lend the appearance of a naval presence to the merchantmen. Later in the fall she was fitted with a 3 inch gun and a simple Asdic. In the spring of 1942 she was assigned to a force of five Bangor escorts to patrol in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. She was commanded by Lt-Cdr J.N. Smith, RCNR and assigned to protect up-and-down bound convoys from Quebec to Sydney.

At 11:30 on 6 September convoy QS-33 bound for Sydney, Nova Scotia passed the reporting station at Father Point, following a south shore route. There were eight merchant ships in two columns, with an escort of the corvette Arrowhead and the Bangor escort Truro on the port and starboard bows. Fairmiles Q-083 right ahead and Q 065 right astern. Raccoon was astern and out to port in the main river channel from whence an attack might be expected. The day passed quietly although trouble was anticipated. Little more could be done than keep a careful watch with the dubious asdic. Conditions for asdic were bad, due to the mix of fresh and salt water. The night was very dark with visibility not over half a mile in haze, with a slight breeze and swell. None of these ships had radar and most even not voice radio; certainly not Raccoon.

Patrolling ahead, either just awash or maybe even submerged, was U-165. At 21:10 the Greek steamer Aeas was torpedoed with no warning contact whatsoever and sank quickly. Arrowhead at once altered back down to the seaward side of the convoy, illuminating the area with starshells to see if a U-boat could be caught on the surface. Although she saw no enemy, she did faintly see the shadowy grey profile of Raccoon in her expected station astern, also searching. Arrowhead slowed to pick up 29 survivors of Aeas from the water and from lifeboats. She returned to her station near the front of the convoy.

U-165, having torpedoed Aeas, also altered to keep up with the convoy, moving quietly, undetected and unobserved. Then, at twelve minutes after midnight, two resonant explosions in rapid succession were heard astern of the ships and to port. Q 065 was later to report that her bridge watch had vaguely seen two columns of white water out in the Gulf and heard a short blast on a siren. It was considered this was probably Raccoon carrying out a depth charge attack on a possible contact. Since she didn't ask the Fairmile for help the latter did not desert her post to find out what was happening. Again Arrowhead put about and swept after and astern, but nothing was seen or heard. She returned to her station, her CO very frustrated and only slightly puzzled at not seeing Raccoon on his sweep. He presumed she had been further out in the river than the time he had last seen her. Under the circumstances his assumptions were reasonable. By 07:27 the next morning Arrowhead's CO now became more concerned. Since he had to stay with the convoy he reported by radio that "he had not seen Raccoon and that she was not in sight". The base signalled Raccoon to report her present position but there was no response. In fact, Hoffmann had fired three torpedoes and reported an attack on a convoy comprising five ships. Three ships for a total of 19,000 GRT were seen hit by two torpedoes each. The sinking of one ship was assumed. In fact the Greek steamer Aeas was sunk while Raccoon was hit by two torpedoes, obliterating her in two closely spaced thunderous blasts. Her entire complement were evidently killed at once. No details of this attack of U-165 were available, for his boat was lost with all hands in the Bay of Biscay by a RAF aircraft on 27 September on its way home. An all out search for the missing Raccoon was prevented on the 7th for, between 03:30 and 04:00, three more merchant from the same convoy ware torpedoed near Cap des Rosiers. The corvettes HMCE Hepatica and Weyburn and the Bangors Chedabucto and Vegreville and some RCAF aircraft were sent to help and to search for the missing yacht. Nothing was seen of either U-boats or Raccoon. All that was found of Raccoon , some weeks later, was the body of SLt Russ McConnell, a corner of the wooden bridge structure, some loose signal messages and a life preserver with the word Halonia still partly visible.

Source : The Canadian Naval Chronicle 1939 - 1945, the successes and losses of the Canadian navy in World War II - Captain Robert A Darlington & Commander Fraser M McKee

Thanks to Walter Janssens for the information on this page.

Unless otherwise stated, all dates and times are from the German perspective and are given in CET.
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