Welshman combined minelaying with long-distance transport, disguised Malta runs, and service in Operations Harpoon and Pedestal. Her paravanes detonated two mines away from the hull during one harbour entry, showing that protective equipment mattered alongside speed. U-617 torpedoed her east of Tobruk in February 1943 while she carried stores and personnel, and she sank two hours later with the loss of 155 lives. The loss prompts a cautious question: did reliance on nearly 40-knot speed lead ships to zigzag less than they should? The point concerns working assumptions and does not accuse individual officers of negligence. Peacetime convoy exercises used armed fleet auxiliaries, so submarines had little reason to surface inside a convoy as they might among vulnerable wartime merchant ships. Training conditions could therefore conceal a tactic that became dangerous in war.
Chapter · 29:07-34:12
Welshman, Malta runs, and the limits of speed
Welshman's fast Malta supply runs and eventual torpedo loss show that speed helped but did not remove the need for sound anti-submarine practice.