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Convoy OG 71 was a trade convoy of merchant ships during the second World War. It was the 71st of the numbered OG convoys Outbound from the British Isles to Gibraltar. The convoy departed Liverpool on 13 August 1941 and was found on 17 August by a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor of Kampfgeschwader 40. The convoy was attacked by eight U-boats from 1st U-boat Flotilla, operating out of Brest. Ten ships comprising a total tonnage of 15,185 tons were sunk before the U-boats lost contact on 23 August.
Legacy
This convoy was known as "Nightmare Convoy". Eight merchant ships, two naval escorts and over 400 lives were lost, including 152 from the commodore ship Aguila. They included the 22 "lost wrens" who were en route to Gibraltar. After this, Wrens (Women's Royal Naval Service) were never sent again on passenger liners in convoys, but transported on HM ships. Five of the convoy's surviving merchant ships reached Gibraltar; 10 retreated to neutral Portugal. This was described as "a bitter act of surrender could ever come our way". After this experience, Irish ship-owners, on the advice of their masters, decided not to sail their vessels in British convoys and by the early months of 1942 the practice had ceased. (Both Irish ships were carrying, a British export: coal.)