[2] The ships departed New York City on 24 January 1943[3] and were met by Mid-Ocean Escort Force Group B-2 consisting of V-class destroyers Vanessa and Vimy, the Treasury-class cutter Bibb, the Town-class destroyer Beverley, Flower-class corvettes Campanula, Mignonette, Abelia and Lobelia, and the convoy rescue ship Toward.

[4] As western Atlantic coastal convoys brought an end to the "second happy time", Admiral Karl Dönitz, the Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU) or commander in chief of U-boats, shifted focus to the mid-Atlantic to avoid aircraft patrols.

[7] A careless merchant seaman of convoy SC 118 fired a pyrotechnic snowflake projector aboard the Norwegian freighter SS Vannik in the pre-dawn darkness of 4 February.

[9] In the pre-dawn hours of 7 February, Kapitänleutnant Siegfried von Forstner's U-402 torpedoed the British freighter Afrika, Norwegian tanker Daghild, Greek freighter Kalliopi, American tanker Robert E. Hopkins, American cargo liner Henry R. Mallory, and convoy rescue ship Toward.

[10] Henry R. Mallory was capable of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) but had been straggling well astern of the convoy for several days and was not zig-zagging in that exposed position.