From August 1940 to June 1941, the German Luftwaffe (air force) unit III./KG 40, which was based at Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport in southern France and equipped with Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors, attacked Allied shipping travelling in the Atlantic.

The unit made a number of successful attacks on convoys and individual ships traveling in the Western Approaches as well as on the route between Britain and Gibraltar.

A small number of attacks were made on ships travelling between Britain and Gibraltar from May onwards, but these cost the unit eight Condors destroyed in action and seven in accidents for no sinkings.

As a result of the Condor's vulnerability to Allied defences, the commander of the Luftwaffe's Atlantic anti-shipping force (Fliegerführer Atlantik) recommended in December that the aircraft be withdrawn from service.

The WS convoys typically comprised several large ocean liners which had been converted to troopships protected by a strong force of warships.

As the Mediterranean Sea was a war zone, the convoys normally traveled from the Clyde in Scotland to the Middle East or South Asia via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

This sight reduced the Condors' vulnerability to anti-aircraft fire by allowing them to bomb targets from medium altitudes; previously they had only been able to attack accurately from low levels.

[5] In early 1943 it was decided to use these aircraft to renew attacks on convoys travelling to Gibraltar in an attempt to disrupt the Allied buildup in the Mediterranean during the Tunisian campaign.

These attacks began in early March and were conducted off Portugal between Lisbon and Cape St Vincent; this area was beyond the range of Allied fighter aircraft based in Gibraltar, and few escort carriers were available to protect convoys.

The liners Britannic, Largs Bay and Tamaroa were available in Freetown to carry 8,528 of these men, and it was decided to sail the troopship SS California directly from the Clyde to provide the remaining berths.

She was to be accompanied on this voyage by SS Duchess of York, which had been tasked with carrying 600 Royal Air Force personnel and civilians to West Africa, but had missed an earlier convoy owing to electrical problems.

They spent the night at anchor in the Clyde; shortly after getting underway early the next day they were joined by the storeship MV Port Fairy, bound for Australia and New Zealand via West Africa and the Panama Canal.

While the strength of the escort force was much smaller than that assigned to the regular convoys, it was believed that submarines posed the main threat and that three warships would provide adequate protection.

[15] Both troopships were subsequently torpedoed and sunk by their escorts, Duchess of York by Douglas, for fear their blazing hulks would attract German submarines to the area.

At 6:45 pm the following day, Swale rescued eight survivors from a PBY Catalina, but within an hour the two ships were again attacked by Condors returning from a reconnaissance mission.

Despite the intervention of two United States Navy Catalinas sent to their aid, a bomb hit Port Fairy on her starboard quarter, starting a fire next to the magazine and disabling her steering.

The blaze was eventually extinguished at 00:41 am, and both ships continued the remaining 500 nautical miles (930 km) to Casablanca without further incident, Port Fairy steering by her engines.

[19][20] The losses suffered by Convoy Faith shocked the British military, as it had been believed that the Condor force no longer posed a significant threat.

The liner was left behind at Durban owing to a mechanical fault, but eventually disembarked its soldiers at Bombay in late September after sailing there as part of Convoy CM 45.

The West African personnel which were to be transported to the Middle East on board California were embarked on Convoy WS 33 in September and arrived at their destination in early November.