The convoy was attacked by a U-boat wolf pack in the central Atlantic Ocean, and most of the merchant vessels were sunk.

U-514 made contact with the convoy on 3 January and attacked and damaged the tanker MV British Vigilance, forcing her crew to abandon her though the ship remained afloat.

By now aware that a large tanker convoy was headed through the Atlantic, presumably to deliver supplies to the Allied armies in North Africa, Admiral Karl Dönitz, the German BdU (commander in chief of U-boats) ordered wolf pack "Dolphin" to attempt to intercept it.

[2] U-620 kept in contact with the convoy, and in the evening of 9 January, U-522 attacked the two tankers she had damaged earlier in the morning, Norvik and Minister Wedel, and sank both of them.

U-511 came across MV William Wilberforce, a merchant ship sailing unescorted and not part of convoy TM 1, and sank her.