1943
EUROPE
- JANUARY 1943
Merchant
Shipping War - By now the attack was
being carried into the waters of German-occupied
Europe by Royal Navy coastal forces, strike
aircraft of RAF Coastal Command and minelayers
of Bomber Command. German aircraft, E-boats and
mines continued to threaten shipping around the
coasts of Britain, but few ships were now being
lost due to the combined effort of the RAF
fighters, convoy escorts and minesweepers.
MEDITERRANEAN
- JANUARY 1943
Axis Supplies to
Tunisia - Attempts by the Italian Navy to
supply the Axis armies in Tunisia led to heavy
losses, especially on mines laid between Sicily
and Tunis by fast minelayers "Abdiel" and
"Welshman", and submarine "Rorqual". 9th
- Destroyer "CORSARO" hit one of "Abdiel's"
mines
northeast of Bizerta. 31st - Torpedo
boat "PRESTINARI" and corvette "PROCELLARIA"
went down on mines laid by
"Welshman" in the Strait of Sicily.
ATLANTIC
- FEBRUARY 1943
22nd - Mines
laid by "U-118" in the Strait
of Gibraltar sank three merchantmen and on the
22nd
Canadian corvette "WEYBURN" as she escorted
North Africa/UK convoy
MKS8.
MEDITERRANEAN
- FEBRUARY 1943
1st - As
cruiser-minelayer "WELSHMAN" sailed
from Malta to Alexandria after minelaying
operations in
the Strait of Sicily, she was sunk by "U-617"
north of Bardia. 3rd - Italian destroyer
"SAETTA" and destroyer escort "URAGANO",
supplying Axis forces in Tunisia, sank on
cruiser-minelayer "Abdiel's" mines northeast of
Bizerta.
Southern Tunisia
Campaign - 9th - Corvette "ERICA"
on escort duty sank on a British
mine off Benghazi.
MEDITERRANEAN
- MARCH 1943
Royal Navy
Submarine
Operations
- The Royal Navy lost three 'T' class
submarines, including "TIGRIS"
which set out from Malta on 18th February for a
patrol off Naples. She failed to return to
Algiers on the 10th March, possibly mined off
the Gulf
of Tunis as she returned.
Tunisia - 8th
- Cruiser-minelayer "Abdiel" laid more mines in
the Axis supply routes to Tunisia.
The field north of Cape Bon sank three
destroyers in
March, starting with destroyer escort "CICIONE"
on the 8th.
24th -
"Abdiel's" field sank
two more Italian destroyers - "ASCARI" and
"MALOCELLO".
ATLANTIC
- APRIL 1943
Monthly Loss Summary:
14 German and 1
Italian U-boats including 1 by RAF-laid mine in
the Bay of
Biscay.
MEDITERRANEAN
- APRIL 1943
Submarine "REGENT"
on patrol in the
Strait of Otranto may have attacked a small
convoy near
Bari, Italy on the 18th, but there was no
response from
the convoy escorts. She failed to return to
Beirut at the
end of the month and was presumed lost on
mines in her patrol area.
MEDITERRANEAN
- MAY 1943
Merchant
Shipping War - By mid-month
minesweepers had cleared a channel through the
Strait of Sicily, and the first regular
Mediterranean convoys since 1940 were able to
sail from Gibraltar to Alexandria.
DEFENCE
OF TRADE - January 1942 to May
1943
Total
Losses = 2,029 British, Allied and
neutral ships of 9,792,000 tons ( 576,000 tons
per month)
By
Cause
|
Causes
in order of tonnage sunk
(1. 4. ... -
Order when weapon first introduced)
|
Number
of
British, Allied, neutral ships
|
Total
Gross
Registered Tonnage
|
|
1.
Submarines
|
1,474
|
8,048,000
tons
|
|
4. Aircraft
|
169
|
814,000
tons
|
|
5. Other
causes |
228
|
348,000
tons
|
| 6.
Raiders |
31
|
202,000
tons
|
|
2.
Mines |
71
|
172,000
tons
|
|
3. Warships
|
31
|
130,000
tons
|
| 7.
Coastal
forces |
25
|
78,000
tons
|
MEDITERRANEAN
- JULY 1943
10th
- Invasion of Sicily, Operation
'Husky' - 12th
- Italian submarine "BRONZO" was captured off
Syracuse by minesweepers
"Boston", "Cromarty",
"Poole" and "Seaham";
ATLANTIC
- AUGUST 1943
Early
August - "U-647" on passage out may have
been lost on the Iceland/ Faeroes mine barrage
around the 3rd of the month. If so she was the
only casualty of this vast minefield throughout
the war.
MEDITERRANEAN
- SEPTEMBER 1943
12th
- "U-617"
was
damaged by a
RAF Wellington of No 179 Squadron and beached on
the coast of Spanish Morocco. She was destroyed
by gunfire from trawler "Haarlem", supported by
corvette "Hyacinth" and Australian minesweeper
"Wollongong".
Italy
- Surrender and Invasion
- Early on the 9th, in
conjunction with the Italian landings, the
Eighth Army's 1st
Airborne Division was carried into Taranto by
mainly
British warships (Operation 'Slapstick').
Shortly afterwards the Adriatic
ports of Brindisi and Bari were in Allied hands.
9th
- Around midnight in Taranto harbour,
cruiser-minelayer "ABDIEL",
loaded with 1st Airborne troops, detonated one
of the magnetic mines dropped by
E-boats "S-54" and "S-61" as they
escaped, and sank with heavy loss of life.
MEDITERRANEAN
- OCTOBER 1943
Early
October - Submarine "USURPER" which
left
Algiers on 24th September for the Gulf of Genoa,
failed to answer a signal on the 11th. She may
have been mined or fallen victim to German A/S
forces.
British
Aegean
Campaign - 22nd - Greek 'Hunt' "ADRIAS"
was
badly damaged
off Kos on mines
laid by the German "Drache", and as sister ship
"HURWORTH" went to her aid,
was also mined. She sank with heavy casualties.
24th -
Destroyer "ECLIPSE" fell
victim to the same minefield.
EUROPE
- NOVEMBER 1943
Merchant
Shipping War - E-boats and mines were
still
capable of taking a toll of coastal shipping. On
the
night of the 4th/5th, Channel convoy CW221 lost
three
ships off Beachy Head to E-boat attack, and
later in the month two more were mined off
Harwich.
MEDITERRANEAN
- NOVEMBER 1943
Mid-November
- Submarine "SIMOOM" sailed
from Port Said on the 2nd for the Aegean and
failed to answer a signal on the 19th. She was
presumed mined although
German records claim she was torpedoed by
"U-565" off Kos on the 15th.
1944
EUROPE
- FEBRUARY 1944
5th - Escort
carrier "Slinger"
was
mined and
damaged in the Thames Estuary
off Sheerness.
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - FEBRUARY
1944
11th - As
German
and Japanese submarines continued to attack
Allied
shipping in the Indian Ocean, two Japanese boats
were
sunk. "RO-110" attacked a Calcutta/Colombo
convoy in the Bay of Bengal and was sunk by the
escorts - Indian sloop "Jumna" and Australian
minesweepers
"Ipswich" and "Launceston".
EUROPE
- MARCH 1944
28th -
Submarine "SYRTIS" was on
Norwegian patrol. After sinking
a small ship off Bodo a few days before, she was
sunk in the minefields flanking the port.
EUROPE
- APRIL 1944
26th -
Two
surface actions took place in the English
Channel off the coast of Brittany, both
involving Canadian destroyers. On the 26th,
cruiser "Black Prince" with four destroyers -
three from the Royal Canadian Navy - was on
Western Channel patrol out of Plymouth. Early
that morning they run into German torpedo boats
"T-24", "T-27" and "T-29" on a minelaying
mission. "T-27" was
damaged and
"T-29" sunk by the Canadian 'Tribal'
class "Haida". 29th - This time
"Haida" and sister ship "Athabaskan" were
covering Allied minelaying, when they were
surprised by the surviving "T-24" and repaired
"T-27". "ATHABASKAN"
was hit
by a torpedo from
"T-24" and blew up, but "Haida"
managed to drive "T-27" ashore where she was
later destroyed. The
surviving "T-24" hit a mine but got into port.
German Coastal
Shipping
- RAF Bomber
Command continued to lay mines in the Baltic.
DEFENCE
OF TRADE - June 1943 to May
1944
Total
Losses = 324 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 1,733,000 tons (144,000
tons per
month)
By Cause
|
Causes
in order of tonnage sunk
(1. 4. ... -
Order when weapon first introduced)
|
Number
of
British, Allied, neutral ships
|
Total
Gross
Registered Tonnage
|
|
1.
Submarines
|
216
|
1,219,000
tons
|
|
4. Aircraft
|
64
|
378,000
tons
|
|
2. Mines
|
19
|
55,000
tons
|
|
6. Raiders
|
4
|
35,000
tons
|
|
5. Other
causes |
9
|
20,000
tons
|
|
7. Coastal
forces |
11
|
18,000
tons
|
|
3. Warships
|
1
|
8,000 tons
|
EUROPE
- JUNE 1944
6th
- Normandy Invasion: Operation
'Overlord'
Other
warships, incl. minesweepers & coastal
forces - Western
Naval Task Force - 260 (135 RN, 124 US, 1
Allied); Eastern
- 248 (217 RN, 30 US, 1 Allied)
Naval
& Maritime Forces - The two
Naval Task Forces totalled
672 warships for assault convoy escort,
minesweeping,
shore bombardment, local defence, etc, and 4,126
major
and minor landing ships and craft for initial
assault and
ferry purposes: a grand total of 4,798.
Normandy Beaches
-
In spite of the vast number of warships
lying off the Normandy beaches and escorting the
follow-up convoys, losses were comparatively
few,
although mines, especially of the
pressure-operated
variety were troublesome: 6th -
Destroyer
"WRESTLER"
escorting a Canadian assault group to 'Juno',
was badly damaged by a mine and not
repaired. 12th - By now the battleship
"Warspite", the ship that ended the war with the
greatest number of Royal Navy battle honours,
had left her gunfire support duties off the
Normandy beaches to be fitted with replacement
gun barrels. On passage to Rosyth, Scotland she
was damaged by a mine of Harwich
and out of action until August. 18th -
Battleship "Nelson"
was slightly
damaged by a mine as
she fired her guns off the beaches.
21st -
Destroyer
"FURY"
was
mined and
driven ashore in the gales
that played havoc with the Mulberry harbours.
She was
refloated but not repaired. 23rd - Adm
Vian's
flagship, the AA cruiser "Scylla", was also
mined in Seine Bay.
Seriously damaged, she was out of action until
after the
war and then never fully re-commissioned. 24th
-mines claimed another victim. Destroyer
"SWIFT's"
back was broken
and she went down five miles off the British
beaches. Nine days
after carrying King George VI on a visit to
Normandy,
cruiser "Arethusa" was slightly damaged by a
mine or bomb while anchored off the beaches.
MEDITERRANEAN
- JUNE 1944
Early/Mid June
-
Submarine "SICKLE" on patrol
in the Aegean failed to
return to Malta when recalled on the 14th, and
was
presumed lost on mines.
18th -
Destroyer
"QUAIL", damaged by a mine in the
southern Adriatic seven months earlier in
November 1943,
foundered off south-eastern Italy on tow from
Bari around
to Taranto.
EUROPE
- JULY 1944
Attacks on the
beachhead
shipping by E-boats and small battle units such
as the
newly introduced "Neger" and "Marder"
human torpedoes had limited successes, but mines
still caused the most damage: 20th - Destroyer
"ISIS"
was
sunk by a
mine or possibly a Neger
off the beaches. 24th - Escort destroyer
"GOATHLAND"
was badly
damaged by a mine and
although saved, was not repaired.
U-boat Operations
against the Normandy Beachhead - 26th
- As "U-214" tried to lay mines off Start
Point, she was sunk by frigate "Cooke" of the
3rd EG. Three more U-boats were sunk in the Bay
of Biscay;
one each to RAF and RAAF aircraft and the third
mined
off Brest.
EUROPE
- AUGUST 1944
U-boat
Operations - 8th - Canadian
corvette "REGINA" was
sunk off
Trevose Head, north Cornwall
by "U-667" as she escorted Bristol Channel
convoy EBC66. The U-boat was lost on mines off
La
Pallice later in the month. 21st/22nd
- Off the Isle of Wight, "U-480" sank Canadian
corvette "ALBERNI" on the 21st and British fleet
minesweeper "LOYALTY" next day. Apart
from "U-667" which sank "Regina" on
the 8th, one more was mined in the Bay of
Biscay.
27th - In a
tragic
mistake off Le Havre, RAF Typhoons attacked and
sank
fleet minesweepers "BRITOMART" and "HUSSAR" and
severely damaged "SALAMANDER" (constructive
total loss).
ATLANTIC
- SEPTEMBER 1944
Monthly Loss Summary:
7 U-boats including 1 cause unknown and 1
mined off Iceland.
EUROPE
- SEPTEMBER 1944
27th - Ex-US
destroyer "ROCKINGHAM"
was the
last of her class to be lost while flying the
White Ensign, when she hit a mine
off Aberdeen and went down in the North Sea. At
the time
she was acting as a target ship for aircraft
training.
MEDITERRANEAN
- OCTOBER 1944
Italy - 12th
- Returning from bombarding shore
targets on the northeast coast of Italy,
destroyer "LOYAL"
was
mined in the
Adriatic and not repaired.
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - OCTOBER
1944
Leyte, Central
Philippines - Because of
faster-than-planned
progress, the Americans decided to by-pass the
southern
Philippines island of Mindanao and go straight
for
Leyte.
The one Royal Navy representative was fast
cruiser-minelayer
"Ariadne" serving as an assault troop carrier.
EUROPE
- NOVEMBER 1944
1st,
Assault on Walcheren, Operation
'Infatuate' - ..... by the time the
Germans surrendered on the 8th, Allied
casualties totalled 8,000. By then the Canadians
had crossed over to the eastern side of
Walcheren from the mainland and 10 flotillas of
minesweepers had begun the job of
clearing 80 miles of the Scheldt.
MEDITERRANEAN
- DECEMBER 1944
14th - 'Hunt'
escort destroyer "ALDENHAM"
was the
67th and last Royal Navy destroyer lost in the
Mediterranean. Returning from bombarding a
German-held island off Fiume in the northern
Adriatic, she was mined and sunk northwest of
Zara.
1945
EUROPE
- JANUARY 1945
6th
- Destroyer "WALPOLE"
was the
last of the 18 old 'V' and ' W' class vessels
lost or not repaired in the war. Mined
off the Scheldt Estuary on North Sea patrol, she
was
saved but went to the breakers.
British
Isles Inshore Campaign - One U-boat was
lost in UK waters, possibly mined off
the Moray Firth.
Merchant
Shipping War - E-boats
and small battle units continued operating out
of Holland
against Allied shipping in the North Sea and
English
Channel, and were now joined by Seehunde midget
submarines. The new craft enjoyed some success,
but mines remained the biggest problem for the
Allies at sea. Allied air and sea patrols and
minesweeping
kept all these dangers under control.
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS - JANUARY
1945
16th - The
last submarine sinking was on or around the
16th. Minelayer "PORPOISE" on
patrol in the Malacca Strait and minelaying off
Penang, was probably sunk by
Japanese aircraft. (Some sources suggest the
19th.)
ATLANTIC
- FEBRUARY 1945
22nd - In
operations against convoys south of Portugal,
"U-300", one of a small number of U-boats
scattered across the North Atlantic was sunk by
escorting minesweepers "Recruit" and
"Pincher".
EUROPE
- MARCH 1945
British
Isles Inshore Campaign - The campaign
continued: 10th/12th - Deep minefields
laid by the Royal Navy to protect UK
inshore waters from the U-boats claimed two
victims. On
the 12th, the deep minefields
damaged "U-260" off Fastnet Rock, southern
Ireland, and she
had to be scuttled.
Merchant
Shipping War - E-boat laid mines continued
to cause a high proportion of
merchantmen sinkings. Monthly Loss Summary: 23
British, Allied
and neutral ships of 84,000 tons in UK waters.
MEDITERRANEAN
- MARCH 1945
18th - Two
ex-Italian torpedo boats and a destroyer
minelaying
off the Gulf of Genoa were engaged by destroyers
"Meteor" and "Lookout". In the last
Royal Navy destroyer action of the
Mediterranean, torpedo
boats "TA-24" and "TA-29"
were
sunk.
EUROPE
- APRIL 1945
U-boat
Campaign -
Throughout
the month over 40 U-boats were lost in and
around the
waters of northwest Europe. The Royal Navy was
directly
involved in 12 of
the sinkings: 5th - "U-1169" went down
off the southeast coast of Ireland in a
deep-laid minefield in St George's
Channel.
DEFENCE
OF TRADE - June 1944 to May
1945
Total
Losses = 210 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 942,000 tons ( 78,000
tons per
month)
|
Causes
in order of tonnage sunk
(1. 4. ... -
Order when weapon first introduced)
|
Number
of
British, Allied, neutral ships
|
Total
Gross
Registered Tonnage
|
|
1.
Submarines
|
120
|
629,000
tons
|
|
2. Mines
|
50
|
162,000
tons
|
|
4. Aircraft
|
14
|
96,000
tons
|
|
5. Other
causes |
15
|
28,000
tons
|
|
7. Coastal
forces |
11
|
27,000
tons
|
|
3. Warships
|
-
|
-
|
|
6. Raiders
|
-
|
-
|
INDIAN
& PACIFIC OCEANS -
JULY 1945
24th/26th,
Last Major Warship Casualties of the RN in the
War - In East lndies Fleet operations
against the Phuket Island area off the west
coast of southern Thailand, including mine
clearance, fleet minesweeper "SQUIRREL"
was
mined and sunk on the 24th. Two
days later on the 26th, kamikaze
aircraft attacked for the first and last time in
the Indian Ocean theatre. Fleet minesweeper
"VESTAL" was
hit and
scuttled. Heavy cruiser "Sussex" was
very slightly
damaged by a near
miss.
TOTAL
MERCHANT SHIP LOSSES
SEPTEMBER
1939 to
AUGUST
1945
Summarised here in
all its
immensity are the losses in ships suffered by
Britain,
its Allies and neutral countries throughout the
war. Of
the grand totals that follow, Britain's losses
amounted
to around 50% of tonnage, with a similar
percentage
applying to sinkings in the North and South
Atlantic.
Both figures point to the critical importance of
the
Battle of the Atlantic and the price Britain
paid for
keeping open the sea-lanes. In concentrating on
losses,
it should not be overlooked that taking the war
as a
whole, well over 99 percent of merchantmen
reached their
destination safely. On the other side of the
balance
sheet, more than 30,000 officers and men of the
British
Merchant Navy did not come home plus the many
men of
Allied and Neutral nations. Axis losses were
also
considerable.
Total
Losses = 5,150 British, Allied
and neutral ships of 21,570,000 tons
(300,000 tons
per month)
By
Cause
|
Causes
in order of tonnage sunk
(1. 4. ... -
Order when weapon first introduced)
|
Number
of
British, Allied, neutral ships
|
Total
Gross
Registered Tonnage
|
|
1.
Submarines
|
2,828
|
14,686,000
tons
|
|
4. Aircraft
|
820
|
2,890,000
tons
|
|
2. Mines
|
534
|
1,406,000
tons
|
|
5. Other
causes |
632
|
1,030,000
tons
|
|
6. Raiders
|
133
|
830,000
tons
|
|
3. Warships
|
104
|
498,000
tons
|
|
7. Coastal
forces |
99
|
230,000
tons
|
