[Admiral Von Gerlach]

My Grandfather was a USN convoy commodore for convoys between the West US Coast and Peal and other points. There were indeed escorts, DD usually with a light Cruiser sometimes for Convoy commodore or he chose the fastest merchie or a DD squadrom flagship as his flag. I have some of his war diaries and logs, but they are in San Diego and I am in Colorado buried under too much snow. Convoy protocol was similar to usual practice on other oceans, and in the Atlantic, comvoys formed up and set signals and formation practices at captains conferences on outset, convoy escorts had their own command structure but worked closely under the orders of the Convoy commodore. Much of the day to day and overall routine was top secret, and my grandfather did encounter Japanese subs which did make attacks but none were successful on his runs. All of this was kept secret even after the war and then was quickly obselete in the concerns for the Cold War new sub doctrine and so much of the actual history was lost or is buried in archives that are pre computer and becomeing more and more inacessible

Part of my problem is tho my Grandfather took copious notes and even had several articles published in popular magazines ....his writiing is so bad, such a terrible chicken scrawl that we can really not read much of what he wrote. I wish i could be of more help, but much of his logs were in code as well, his own, and shorthand for the events of the convoys.... routine but highly complex trying to get 50 or 60 ships zig zagging at high speed across the ocean coordinated with escorts and air partrols across the width of the Pacific. Not an easy job at all.