USS Big Horn (AO-45/IX-207) was a Q-ship of the United States Navy named for the Bighorn River of Wyoming and Montana.
USS Neches (AO–5) was laid down on 8 June 1919 by the Boston Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts; launched on 2 June 1920, sponsored by Miss Helen Griffin, daughter of Rear Admiral Robert Griffin; and commissioned on 25 October 1920, with Commander H. T. Meriwether, USNRF, in command.
USS Alameda, was a United States Navy tanker in commission from 1919 to 1922. She was built as the civilian tanker SS Alameda, but transferred to the U.S. Navy after completion in 1919. She was sold for commercial service and operated under the names SS Olean and SS Sweep before she was transferred to the Navy again in World War II as USS Silver Cloud (IX-143).
German submarine U-502 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 2 April 1940 at the Deutsche Werft yard in Hamburg with yard number 292, launched on 18 February 1941 and commissioned on 31 May under the command of Kapitänleutnant Jürgen von Rosenstiel.
German submarine U-539 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 8 May 1942 at the Deutsche Werft yard in Hamburg as yard number 360, launched on 4 December 1942, and commissioned on 24 February 1943 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Jürgen Lauterbach-Emden. After training with the 4th U-boat Flotilla in the Baltic Sea, the boat was transferred to the 10th U-boat Flotilla for front-line service on 1 July 1943. She carried out three war patrols, sinking one ship and damaged two more. Transferred to the 33rd U-boat Flotilla on 1 October 1944, she sailed on no further patrols, and surrendered to Allied forces on 9 May 1945. Transferred from Bergen, Norway, to Loch Ryan, Scotland, she foundered on 4 December 1945 while being towed to the scuttling grounds as part of "Operation Deadlight".
USS Wyffels (DE-6) was an Evarts-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy during World War II.
Vorwärts was a wolfpack of German U-boats that operated from 25 August to 26 September 1942, in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. They attacked several convoys, principally Convoy ON 127, sailing from Liverpool to New York, and sank fifteen ships for a total of 79,331 gross register tons (GRT), and damaged nine (81,141 GRT).
W. L. Steed was a steam tanker built in 1917–1918 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy for Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company, with intention of transporting oil and petroleum products between Mexican and Gulf ports and the Northeast of the United States. The ship was briefly requisitioned by the US Government during World War I but returned to commercial service in early 1919. The ship was named after William L. Steed, superintendent of the Mexican Petroleum Company of California.
Montebello was a steam oil tanker built in 1920–1921 by the Southwestern Shipbuilding Co. of San Pedro for Union Oil Company with the intention of carrying oil and petroleum products along the West Coast of the United States and Canada as well as between the United States and Chile. In December 1941 the tanker was sunk on one of her regular trips by the Japanese submarine I-21.
MV British Prudence was a tanker built by Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd. of Sunderland in 1939 and operated by the British Tanker Company. A U-boat sank her in 1942 off the coast of Newfoundland. She was a victim of the Second Happy Time: the Kriegsmarine's Operation Paukenschlag to sink Allied merchant shipping in the Western Atlantic
German submarine U-65 was a Type IXB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. Over the course of six war patrols between 9 April 1940 and 28 April 1941, she sank twelve ships and damaged three others for a total loss of 88,664 gross register tons (GRT).
The Torpedo Alley, or Torpedo Junction, off North Carolina, is one of the graveyards of the Atlantic Ocean, named for the high number of attacks on Allied shipping by German U-boats in World War II. Almost 400 ships were sunk, mostly during the Second Happy Time in 1942, and over 5,000 people were killed, many of whom were civilians and merchant marines. Torpedo Alley encompassed the area surrounding the Outer Banks, including Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras.
Empire Dryden was a 7,164 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1941 by William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland, Co Durham, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Completed in February 1942, she had a short career, being torpedoed and sunk on 20 April 1942 by U-572.
John B. Caddell, formerly YO-140, is a 712 gross register tonnage, 185-foot (56 m), previously United States-flagged water tanker. The ship was wrecked on Staten Island due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York.
MV C.O. Stillman was an oil tanker that was built by a German shipyard in 1928 for a Canadian-based shipping company. A Panamanian subsidiary of Esso bought her at the end of 1936 and she was sunk by the German submarine U-68 in the Caribbean on June 4, 1942 about 41 nautical miles (76 km) southwest of Isla de Mona, Puerto Rico.
SS Ashkhabad was a merchant ship of the Soviet Union sunk in 1942. She had been built as a British merchant ship in 1917 in Glasgow, Scotland as War Hostage. Over the next three decades she passed through a number of owners and had several different names; Milazzo (1919–1924), Aldersgate (1924–1925), Mistley Hall (1925–1934), Kutais (1934–1935), Dneprostroi (1935–1938) and finally Ashkhabad from 1938 to 1942. Originally designed as a freighter, she was at several points converted to a tanker to carry fuel oil. At the time of her loss the four hundred foot tanker was owned by the Soviet Union's Sovtorgflot organisation. She was torpedoed on 29 April 1942, and then sunk as a hazard to navigation on 3 May 1942. The wreck is now a popular dive site.
Byron D. Benson was a steam tanker built in 1920–1921 by Oscar Daniels Shipbuilding Co. of Tampa for Tide Water Oil Co., a subsidiary of Standard Oil, with intention of operating between New York and oil-producing ports of the southern United States and Mexico. The ship was named after Byron D. Benson, founder of Tide Water Pipe Co.
China Arrow was a steam tanker built in 1920 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy for Standard Oil Co., with intention of transporting oil and petroleum products between United States and the Far East. During the first part of her career the tanker was used to carry oil and gasoline between United States and Asia, later becoming a coastal tanker serving the East Coast of the United States. The ship was torpedoed and sunk in February 1942 on one of her regular trips by German submarine U-103.
India Arrow was a steam tanker built in 1921 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy for Standard Oil Co., with intention of transporting oil and petroleum products between the United States and the Far East. During the first eight years the tanker was chiefly employed in the Pacific trade, carrying cargo between Gulf ports and a variety of destinations in East Asia. In late 1920s the tanker was moved to serve intercoastal trade routes while still making occasional trips to Asia. In early 1930s she was permanently assigned to trade routes between the Gulf and the ports on the United States East Coast, where she remained for the rest of her career.
R. W. Gallagher was a steam turbine-powered tanker built in 1938 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy for Standard Oil Company of New Jersey with intention of operating between the oil-producing ports of the southern United States and Mexico and the Northeast. The tanker spent her entire career in coastwise trade and was torpedoed and sunk on one of regular journeys in July 1942 by German submarine U-67.
United States 
