The convoy sailed with a destroyer, a minesweeper, and armed trawlers when an aircraft began marking its course with flares. Three British motor launches then approached without adequate mutual notification and were mistaken for enemy torpedo boats, causing casualties in a friendly-fire exchange. The convoy altered away from the false threat, but the shadowing aircraft maintained contact until five boats of the 5th Schnellboot Flotilla arrived. S-112 torpedoed Lord Stonehaven near the Eddystone Light, sinking her rapidly with the loss of eighteen men. The episode shows how identification failures and disrupted formation can create vulnerability before the real enemy attack begins.
Chapter · 2:10:02-2:13:36
Friendly-fire confusion preceded Lord Stonehaven's loss to an E-boat
A wartime loss narrative shows how poor movement coordination, friendly fire, aerial shadowing, and a real Schnellboot attack compounded one another.