1944
JUNE
1944
For Normandy
Invasion - see
Normandy
landings,
June 1944
Air War
- On the
13th the first V-1 flying bomb landed on
London at the
start of a three-month campaign against
southeast
England. Amongst the weapons shortly
used against them
was Britain's first jet fighter, the
Gloster Meteor. By
then Germany's Me262 jet had been in
action against
Allied bombers.
Merchant
Shipping War -
Until the closing days of the war, the
schnorkel U-boats
operating in UK waters were especially
worrying. When
submerged as invariably they were,
detection from the air
was difficult even with 10cm wavelength
radar, and
location usually had to wait until after
they had
attacked. Then they suffered badly,
usually to the
surface warship escorts.
Monthly Loss
Summary
19
British, Allied and neutral ships of
75,000 tons in UK
waters.
JULY
1944
Western
Front - At
the beginning of the month, the
Americans were still
struggling to take St Lo and the British
and Canadians to
capture Caen. As they did so, other
units of US First
Army started to push slowly south out of
the Cotentin
Peninsula. Much of Caen was eventually
taken on the 9th
and St Lo on the 18th. Also on the 18th
in Operation
'Goodwood', the British and Canadians
mounted a major
offensive to the east and south of Caen.
The attack made
slow progress against fierce German
resistance, as Caen
became the pivot for the American drive
to the west. Now
the Canadian First Army under Gen Crerar
became
operational.
On the 25th,
in Operation
'Cobra', the US First Army attacked from
west of St Lo
towards Avranches. As in all the battles
great use was
made of Allied air power, and on the
30th, Avranches was
in American hands. The Allies now
prepared to close in on
the Germans in the Falaise area and
break out across
France. The heavy ships of the Royal
Navy were still
providing gunfire support off both the
British and
American sectors, and supplies and
reinforcements
continued to pour in through the British
'Mulberry'
harbour as Cherbourg started to become
operational.
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 -
Those U-boats that
did get through the Channel defences
sank and damaged a
number of ships, but six were lost to
warship patrols: 5th
- After attacking a convoy off
Normandy, "U-390"
was
sunk
by destroyer
"Wanderer" and frigate "Tavy". 6th
- In a convoy attack off Beachy
Head, "U-678"
was
lost
to Canadian destroyers
"Ottawa" and "Kootenay" and British
corvette "Statice". 18th -
Frigate
"Balfour" on patrol southeast of Start
Point
sank "U-672". 21st - Escorting
frigates
"Curzon" and Ekins" sank "U-212" off
Beachy Head.
26th - As "U-214" tried to lay
mines off Start Point,
she was sunk by frigate "Cooke" of the
3rd EG. 31st
- "U-333"
was
destroyed
to the west
of the Scilly Islands by sloop
"Starling" and
frigate "Loch Killin" of the 2nd EG
using the
new Squid. This marked the first success
with this
ahead-throwing A/S weapon firing three
large mortar
bombs. Three more U-boats were sunk in
the Bay of Biscay;
one each to RAF and RAAF aircraft and
the third mined off
Brest. Allied air raids on Germany were
also becoming
more effective and four more were
destroyed at Kiel and
Bremen.
Germany
- In the
20th July Bomb Plot, a device left by
Col von
Stauffenberg in Hitler’s East Prussia
headquarters
only injured him slightly. In revenge
many died and Field
Marshal Rommel, implicated in the
attempt on Hitler's
life was forced to commit suicide in
October 1944.
Monthly Loss
Summary
8
British, Allied and neutral ships of
19,000 tons in UK
waters.
AUGUST
1944
Western
Front
- Breakout from Normandy: On the
1st, US
General Patton's Third Army became
operational. Still
under Gen Montgomery, the Allied land
forces were
organised from west to east
as follows:
US
12th Army Group (Gen
Bradley)
|
British
21st Army Group
(Gen Montgomery)
|
US
Third Army
(Patton)
|
US
First Army
(Hodges)
|
British
Second Army
(Dempsey)
|
Canadian
First Army
(Crerar)
|
As part of
the plan to trap the Germans at Falaise
and liberate the
rest of France, US Third Army's
roles was to
overrun Brittany, wheel east from
Avranches towards Le
Mans and 0rleans and head towards the
south of Paris. In
doing so they would help close the
Falaise net from the
south. US First Army was to
attack east from
Avranches through Mortain towards
Falaise. Meanwhile the
British 21st Army Group was to move
south from Caen on
Falaise, the British Second Army
on the right and Canadian
First Army on the left.
US Third Army
had taken
most of Brittany by early month and
sealed off Brest,
Lorient and St Nazaire. Brest fell in
mid-September, but
the other two naval bases held out for
the rest of the
war, together with the Channel Islands
garrisons. US
First Army's push east was stopped on
the 7th when the
Germans strongly counter-attacked
through Mortain towards
the American bottleneck at Avranches.
The assault was
held, assisted by the aircraft of the
Tactical Air
Forces, especially the tank-busting
Typhoons. By the 11th
the danger was over. In the struggle
south by British
21st Group, the Canadians took Falaise
on the 17th, and
three days later the pocket was
completely sealed and the
remaining Germans trapped. By then the
Allied spearheads
were rushing eastward. The Americans
crossed the Seine on
the 20th and shortly after a French
armoured division was
brought forward to complete the
liberation of Paris on
the 25th.
Now: (1)
Canadian First
Army headed along the coast to capture
the Channel ports
and nearby V-1 "buzz-bomb" launch sites,
(2)
British Second Army moved up on its
right towards
Brussels, (3) The Americans raced across
France for the
Belgian border, Luxembourg and eastern
France. Lack of
supplies, particularly fuel, started to
become a major
problem, and capturing Antwerp, Belgium
was a matter of
the highest priority. The assault on
Brest, which began
later in the month, was assisted by
naval gunfire
including "Warspite's" 15in guns.
British
Convoy Routes
- As the German Biscay bases become
untenable, the South
Western Approaches to the British Isles
were opened to
Allied convoys for the first time in
four years. West and
North Africa/UK convoys SL167 and MKS58
were the first to
benefit from the shortened journey.
German
Coastal Forces
Attacks - Coastal forces and small
battle units
continued to attack shipping off the
invasion beaches,
sinking and damaging a number of vessels
in return for
heavy casualties. 3rd - 'Hunt'
class escort
destroyer "QUORN" on patrol off the
British sector was sunk,
probably by a Linsen explosive motor
boat. 9th -
Old cruiser "Frobisher", acting as a
depot ship for the British
'Mulberry', was badly damaged by a
Dackel long range
torpedo fired by E-boats.
U-boat
Operations -
U-boats passing through the Bay of
Biscay and operating
in the Channel and its approaches
suffered badly at the
hands of the air and sea patrols and
escorts. However,
the Royal Canadian Navy lost two
corvettes: 4th -
Escort destroyer "Wensleydale" and
frigate
"Stayner" on patrol off Beachy Head,
sank "U-671" shortly after sailing from
Boulogne. 6th - The 2nd Escort
Group had a hand in
three sinkings (1-3)
in
the Bay of Biscay. On the 6th, to the
west of St Nazaire,
frigate "Loch Killin" and sloop
"Starling" used the new Squid A/S mortar
again
to account for "U-736" (1).
The other two attacks were carried out
off
La Rochelle. 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. 10th - In
the second sinking
by 2nd EG, "U-608" (2)
was
lost
to sloop "Wren" and
aircraft of No 53 Squadron. 11th
- 2nd EG's
"Starling" working with RAAF aircraft of
No 461
Squadron accounted for "U-385" (3).
14th - West of St Nazaire,
"U-618"
was sunk
by RAF aircraft of No 53
Squadron, this time with 3rd EG frigates
"Duckworth" and "Essington". 15th
- Attacking a convoy to the south of the
Isle of Wight, "U-741"
was
sunk by corvette
"Orchis". 18th/20th - Canadian
destroyers "Chaudiere", "Kootenay"
and "Ottawa" of the 11th EG sank "U-621"
on the 18th off La Rochelle and "U-984"
two days later to the west of
Brest. 20th - After sinking one
merchantman from a
convoy off Beachy Head, "U-413"
was
counter-attacked
and lost to
destroyers "Forester", "Vidette" and
escort destroyer "Wensleydale". 21st/22nd
- Off the Isle of Wight, "U-480" sank
Canadian
corvette "ALBERNI" on the 21st and
British fleet minesweeper "LOYALTY" next
day.
24th - As most of
the U-boats evacuated the Biscay bases
and headed for
Norway, frigate "Louis" on patrol off St
Nazaire sank "U-445". Throughout the
month a total of 21 U-boats
were lost in and around French waters.
Apart from "U-667" which sank "Regina"
on
the 8th, one more was mined in the Bay
of Biscay, three
were lost to RAF and RAAF Bay patrols,
and six more were
scuttled or paid off in their Biscay
bases.
27th -
In a tragic
mistake off Le Havre, RAF Typhoons
attacked and sank
fleet minesweepers "BRITOMART" and
"HUSSAR" and severely damage
"SALAMANDER" (constructive total loss).
Mediterranean
15th
-
South of France Landings:
Operation 'Dragoon'
Originally
code-named
'Anvil', the South of France
invasion
was planned to coincide with
the Normandy
landings. Since that decision
was made, Britain
pushed for the Allies to
concentrate on the
Italian campaign, but under US
pressure agreed to
go ahead with the now re-named
Operation
'Dragoon' using forces
withdrawn from US Fifth
Army in Italy. No major
British units were
involved and for the first
time in the
Mediterranean the Royal Navy
was in the minority
in both ships and commanders.
However, Adm Sir
John Cunningham remained Naval
C-in-C.
Landing
Areas: |
Three
Attack
Forces landing on
the southern
French
mainland between
Toulon and Cannes.
A fourth
Force on the
offshore islands
|
Forces
landing: |
US
Seventh Army - Gen
Patch
US Sixth Corps
followed-up by
French Second
Corps
|
Departure
from: |
Italy,
Algeria
|
Naval
Attack Force
Commanders: |
Naval
Control force
Commander
Vice-Adm H K
Hewitt USN
US Rear-Adms
Davidson, Lewis,
Lowry, Rodgers
|
Naval
Control, Attack
&
Convoy Escort Forces
|
British
&
Allied
|
French
|
U.S.A.
|
Battleships
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
Cruisers
|
7
|
5
|
8
|
Destroyers
& escorts |
27
|
19
|
52
|
Other
warships |
69
|
6
|
157
|
Attack
transports & LSIs
|
9
|
-
|
23
|
Landing
craft & ships
(major
only) |
141
|
-
|
369
|
Totals
|
254
|
31
|
612
|
Grand
Total |
897
|
The warships were allocated
across the four
attack forces and, in addition,
over 1,300 mainly
assault landing craft took part
in the landings.
Air cover and support was
provided by Rear-Adm
Troubridge with seven British
and two US escort
carriers. After intensive air
and sea
bombardments, the landings took
place against
light resistance accompanied by
US airborne drops
inland. Both the US and French
Corps soon spread
out and headed north after the
retreating
Germans. Before the month was
out, Cannes, Toulon
and Marseilles had fallen into
Allied hands. |
Monthly
Loss Summary
12
British, Allied and neutral ships of
55,000 tons in UK
waters.
SEPTEMBER
1944
South of
France -
Conclusion - The Allies reached
Lyons on the 3rd and
by the 12th, French troops advancing
from the south had
met French units of Gen Patton's US
Third Army near
Dijon.
Western
Front - US
Army divisions now exceeded British and
Commonwealth
divisions in the European Theatres.
Reflecting this, on
the 1st Gen Eisenhower assumed direct
command of all
Allied ground forces and by mid-month
had taken under his
control the US and French forces
advancing from the south
of France. From north to south the
Allied Armies and
areas of operation were structured thus:
British
21st
Army Group (Gen Montgomery) |
Canadian
First Army |
Channel
coast of France and into
Belgium and southern Holland.
|
|
British
Second Army |
Through
central Belgium and into
southern Holland and the
German border opposite
the Ruhr. |
US
12th
Army Group (Gen Bradley) |
US
First Army |
Through
southern Belgium and
Luxembourg towards Germany
south of the Ruhr |
|
US
Third Army |
Through
central and eastern France
towards the German border
opposite the Saar |
US
Sixth
Army Group (Gen Devers) |
US
Seventh Army/French First Army
|
From
central France towards the
east
and the German border south of
the Saar. |
On the
Channel coast, the Canadians
captured Dieppe on
the 1st, Boulogne on the 22nd and Calais
on the 30th. By
the 12th, British units of Canadian
First Army had taken
Le Havre, but Dunkirk held out until the
end of the war.
Further east, British Second
Army crossed the
Belgian border on the 2nd, liberated
Brussels next day
and Antwerp the day after. Unfortunately
the vital port
could not be used until the Germans were
cleared from the
Scheldt approaches. The Dutch border was
reached on the
11th and shortly after Operation 'Market
Garden' -
"The Bridge Too Far" - was launched,
aimed at
getting across the Rhine in Holland and
around the
northern end of the Siegfried Line. On
the 17th, US 101st
Airborne Division landed around
Eindhoven, US 82nd
Airborne near Nijmegen to take the
bridges over the
Rivers Maas/Meuse and Waal/Rhine, and
the British 1st
Airborne at Arnhem to capture the Lower
Rhine bridge. As
the drops took place, British Second
Army thrust forward.
The entire operation almost succeeded,
but the British
paratroops in spite of great gallantry
could not capture
the bridge, and Second Army was unable
to reach them. The
survivors were evacuated across the
Lower Rhine on the
night of the 25th/26th. On the rest of
the Allied front,
the US Army Groups to the south
pushed on and by
mid-month units of First Army had
entered Luxembourg and
crossed the border of Germany
near Aachen. Allied
supplies were now passing through the
captured Channel
ports in sufficient quantities to
dispense with
over-the-beach delivery. 'Juno' was the
last to close on
the 7th. 'Mulberry' Harbour continued in
operation until
December.
U-boat Inshore Campaign - With
the
start of the British Isles Inshore
Campaign,
U-boats sunk off Norway and in the
Western Approaches as
well as the Bay of Biscay are included
in the European
theatre. The same applies to the Royal
Navy and German
surface warships lost.
1st -
On passage
into the Bristol Channel as part of the
U-boat Inshore
Campaign, "U-247" was sunk close to
Lands End by patrolling
Canadian frigates "St John" and
"Swansea" of the 9th EG. 1st -
Two
U-boats were sunk in the North Western
Approaches in
attacks on Atlantic convoys in exchange
for a corvette
and several merchantmen. On the 1st, off
the northwest
Irish coast, "U-482" attacked
Caribbean/UK
tanker convoy CU36 and sank "HURST
CASTLE" of the British B1 group with an
acoustic torpedo. Just over a week later
the two U-boats
were lost. 9th - Northwest of
Ireland, "U-743"
was
sunk
near UK/North America convoy
ONF252 by escorting frigate "Helmsdale"
and
corvette "Portchester Castle". Off the
south
Hebrides "U-484" went down to attacks by
Canadian frigate "Dunver" and corvette
"Hespeler" of C5 group. Later in the
month, RAF
aircraft sank two more in the Northern
Transit Area.
Air War
- Although
Allied bombers continued to bomb V-1
installations along
the Channel coast of France, it was only
when Canadian
First Army overran the sites that London
and the
southeast of England saw the last one
land. By then
nearly 10,000 launchings of the
sub-sonic pilotless
"cruise missile" had inflicted 25,000
dead and
wounded civilian casualties. Then on the
8th the first
supersonic V-2 rocket hit London in a
deadly campaign
that lasted for over six months, and
against which there
was no defence. In October, with the
Allied capture of
Antwerp, the Germans started an equally
heavy series of
attacks with both V-1s and V-2s against
the port, right
through until April 1945.
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.
Monthly Loss
Summary
3
British, Allied and neutral ships of
21,000 tons in UK
waters.
OCTOBER
1944
Western
Front - Canadian
First Army attacked north into
Holland and British
Second Army east from the Nijmegen
area towards the
German border. Along the rest of the
front, the US
Army Groups also headed for the
border. At this time
US Ninth Army became operational and
positioned between
British Second and US First Armies. In
all sectors the
Germans fought stubbornly, but by the
21st had lost their
first city with US First Army's capture
of Aachen and
breaching of the Siegfried Line. At this
time the
Canadians' task was the most crucial -
to capture the
banks of the Scheldt and allow vitally
needed supplies to
reach Allied forces through Antwerp. By
the end of the
month they had almost cleared the north
and south sides
of the estuary ready for the final
assault on Walcheren
Island.
16th -
Outward
bound from Norway, "U-1006"
was
located
by the patrolling 6th EG south
of the Faeroes and sunk by Canadian
frigate
"Annan".
27th -
During Home
Fleet operations against German shipping
off Norway,
aircraft of 1771 Squadron from fleet
carrier
"Implacable" drove "U-1060" ashore near
Namsos. She was
finished off two days later by aircraft
of Nos 311
(Czech) and 502 Squadrons RAF. Earlier
in the month four
more U-boats were lost in RAF raids on
Bergen and another
three by accident in Norwegian waters.
Monthly Loss
Summary
2
British, Allied and neutral ships of
1,700 tons in UK
waters
NOVEMBER
1944
Western
Front -
Throughout the month Allied forces
fought their way
slowly towards the German border and the
Siegfried Line.
On the 28th the first deep-sea merchant
ships sailed up
the Scheldt and into Antwerp, and from
then on the Allied
supply position was totally changed for
the better.
Before this happened, the assault and
battle for
Walcheren (following) had to be fought.
1st
- Assault on Walcheren: Operation
'Infatuate' - The
island of Walcheren was heavily defended
and largely
flooded when the battle took place. On
the 1st,
Army units were carried across the
Scheldt to land on the
south side, while Royal Marines
were
put
ashore to the west (at Westkapelle)
against tough resistance. Under the
command of Brig B. W.
Leicester, the 4th Royal Marine Special
Service Brigade
consisting of Nos 41, 47 and 48
Commandos was carried
from Ostend in 180 landing craft. Capt
A. F. Pugsley
commanded the naval forces and heavy
gunfire support was
provided by "Warspite" in her last
action of
the war and the two monitors "Erebus"
and
"Roberts". Many landing craft were lost
in the
assault and 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.
11th -
On Arctic
patrol off the Lofoten Islands,
submarine
"Venturer" sank "U-771" heading home for
Narvik from
operations in northern waters.
11th -
South of
Ireland "U-1200"
was
sunk
by patrolling corvettes
"Kenilworth Castle", "Launceston
Castle", "Pevensey Castle" and
"Portchester Castle", then supporting
Halifax/UK convoy HX317.
12th -
The damaged "TIRPITZ"
was
finally
destroyed as
she lay at anchor off Tromso, Norway.
Lancasters of Nos 9
and 617 (Dambuster) Squadrons, RAF
Bomber Command using
12,000lb bombs put paid to the ship that
had tied down
the Home Fleet for so long. After
several hits and near
misses by these over 5 ton bombs, she
turned turtle
trapping nearly 1,000 men inside.
21st -
Escort
destroyer "WENSLEYDALE"
was
badly
damaged in collision with an LST
in the Thames Estuary and placed in
reserve.
25th -
On passage
out to the North Atlantic, "U-322"
was
sunk
west of the Shetlands by a
Norwegian Sunderland of No 330 Squadron
and patrolling
frigate "Ascension".
Monthly Loss
Summary
3
British, Allied and neutral ships of
9,000 tons in UK
waters.
DECEMBER
1944
Western
Front - As
the Allies pushed forward towards the
Siegfried Line, the
Battle of the Bulge started in
the Ardennes. Three
German armies made a last desperate
attempt to drive a
wedge through the junction of US First
and Third Armies,
cross the Meuse and head for Antwerp.
Starting on the
16th along a 60-mile front, the
attackers soon surrounded
American units at Bastogne where they
held out through
the battle. By Christmas the Germans had
been stopped
short of the Meuse. Now US First Army
from the north and
US Third from the south aided by part of
the British
Second Army pushing from the west began
to squeeze them
back.
British
Isles Inshore Campaign - The
inshore campaign by U-boats gains
some successes including two frigates,
but four were
lost: 6th - Frigate "BULLEN" of
the 19th EG was sunk off the
north coast of Scotland by an acoustic
torpedo from
"U-775". On the same day in the same
area
frigates "Goodall" and "Loch lnsh"
also with 19th EG, accounted for
"U-297". 17th - Attacking a
convoy
off the south coast of Ireland, "U-400"
was
sunk
by escorting frigate
"Nyasaland". 18th - "U-1209" ran
aground near Lands End at the
far tip of SW England and was wrecked. 26th
-
Frigate "CAPEL" of the 1st EG on patrol
off Cherbourg was
lost to "U-486". 30th - Allied
aircraft
now had few successes against the
schnorkel-equipped
U-boats. An exception was "U-772", lost
off Portland Bill to a RCAF
Leigh Light Wellington of No 407
Squadron. In Norwegian
waters one U-boat was lost in a RAF raid
and another by
collision off the Lofoten Islands.
Monthly Loss
Summary
18
British, Allied and neutral ships of
86,000 tons in UK
waters.
1945
JANUARY
1945
Royal Navy
- Adm
Sir Bertram Ramsey, Allied Naval
Commander, Expeditionary
Force, architect of the Dunkirk
evacuation and with major
responsibility for the North African and
Sicily landings
as well as command of Operation
'Neptune', was killed in
an air crash in France on the 2nd.
Vice-Adm Sir Harold
Burrough succeeded him.
Western
Front - As
fighting continued all along the borders
of Germany, the
Battle of the Bulge ended. By month's
end the Germans
were back to their start positions.
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 - As the
campaign continued, there were
losses on both sides: 15th/16th
- Off the Clyde,
Scotland on the 15th, "U-482"
torpedoed a merchantman and badly
damaged escort carrier "THANE" (not
repaired and laid up)
ferrying aircraft from Northern Ireland.
After a long
hunt the U-boat was sunk next day by
frigate "Loch
Craggie" and sloops "Amethyst",
"Hart", "Peacock" and
"Starling" of the 22nd EG. 21st
- After
torpedoing a merchant ship from a
Thames/ Bristol Channel
convoy, "U-1199"
was
sunk
close to Lands End by
escorting destroyer "lcarus" and
corvette
"Mignonette". 26th - "U-1172"
severely damaged frigate "MANNERS"
(constructive total
loss) off the Isle of Man and was sunk
in the
counter-attack by sister ships "Aylmer",
"Bentinck" and "Calder" of the 4th
and 5th EGs. 27th - Further
south in St George's
Channel, and after attacking Halifax/UK
convoy HX322, "U-1051" was
sunk by frigates "Bligh",
"Keats" and "Tyler" of the 5th EG.
One more U-boat was lost in UK waters,
possibly mined off
the Moray Firth, and others were
destroyed and damaged in
air-raids on Germany.
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.
Monthly Loss
Summary
12
British, Allied and neutral ships of
47,000 tons in UK
waters.
FEBRUARY
1945
Yalta
Conference -
For a week early in the month, Prime
Minister Churchill,
President Roosevelt and Generalissimo
Stalin met at Yalta
in the Crimea. With the Russians
advancing through
Eastern Europe and agreement on the
future frontiers of
Poland and the division of Germany into
four occupation
zones, the shape of much of post-war
Europe was
determined. Stalin agreed to declare war
on Japan once
the war in the west was over.
Western
Front -
Starting from the north, the Allies
began a series of
offensives aimed at breaking through the
Siegfried Line
and destroying the German armies west of
the Rhine.
British 21st Army Group, which in
addition to the British
and Canadian Armies had the US Ninth
temporarily
attached, began its moves on the 8th.
The attacks towards
the Rhine went in from south of Nijmegen
along the River
Maass to Aachen. The US 12th Army Group
was the next to
go on the 23rd, with US First and Third
Armies aiming for
the Rhine between Cologne and Koblenz.
British
Isles Inshore Campaign - U-boats
still took a steady toll of
shipping in the inshore campaign and
sank two corvettes,
but a number were lost, mainly to the
Royal Navy: 3rd -
Frigates "Bayntun", "Braithwaite",
"Loch Dunvegan" and "Loch Eck" of the
10th Escort Group patrolling north of
the Shetland
Islands shared in the sinking of three
U-boats (1-3)
in the next two weeks. The first
was "U-1279"
(1)
on the 3rd. 4th
- Off the north coast of Ireland
"U-1014"
was accounted
for by 23rd EG frigates
"Loch Scavaig", "Loch Shin",
"Nyasaland" and "Papua". 9th -
Submarine "Venturer" on patrol off
Bergen,
Norway sank another U-boat when she
torpedoed "U-864". The first was "U-771"
in November 1944. 14th - The
same four frigates of
10th EG sank "U-989"
(2) north of the
Shetlands. 16th -
Attacking Scottish coastal convoy WN74
off the Moray
Firth,
"U-309"
was
lost
to Canadian frigate "St John" of 9th EG.
17th
- The third sinking of the month by 10th
EG north of the
Shetlands was "U-1278" (3).
20th - "U-208" attacked convoy
HX337 in St
George's Channel between SE Ireland and
Wales, and sank
escorting corvette "VERVAIN". The U-boat
was then hunted down and
destroyed by sloop "Amethyst" of 22nd
EG. 22nd
- Off Falmouth, Bristol Channel/Thames
convoy BTC76 was
attacked by "U-1004" and Canadian
corvette "TRENTONIAN"
was
sent
to the bottom of the English
Channel. 24th - "U-927"
was
lost
in the western Channel area to a
RAF Wellington of No 179 Squadron. 24th
- During
the inshore campaign, 10 U-boats were
sunk in the Lands
End area, three in February. On the 24th
"U-480"
sank
a
merchant ship from coastal convoy
BTC78 and was then hunted down and
finished off by
frigates "Duckworth" and "Rowley" of
the 3rd EG. Three days later "U-1018"
attacked BTC81 to be sunk by
frigate "Loch Fada" of the 2nd EG. On
the same
day "U-327"
was
detected
by a USN liberator and
sunk by "Loch Fada" again, working with
"Labuan" and "Wild Goose". Two more
U-boats were lost off Norway, one by
accident and the
other mined.
Air War
- As the
Allied strategic bombing campaign
against Germany reached
a peak, the RAF by day and the USAAF by
night struck at
Dresden in mid-month. The controversial
attacks caused
massive firestorms that killed in the
region of 100,000
people, although even now there is
little agreement on
the casualty figures.
Monthly Loss
Summary
19
British, Allied and neutral ships of
49,000 tons in UK
waters.
MARCH
1945
Western
Front - In
March the Allies not only reached the
River Rhine all
along its length, but by the end were
across in strength.
At the beginning of the month, the
British 21st and US
12th Army Groups were still trying to
reach the west bank
and by the 10th stand along most of its
length from
Nijmegen down to Koblenz. By a stroke of
good fortune,
the bridge at Remagen was found intact
on the 7th and
units of US First Army rushed over.
Further south still
the rest of US Third Army on the 14th,
followed by the US
Seventh, started to clear the west side
of the river
further down from Koblenz south to
Karlsruhe, surrounding
and taking the Saar region in the
process. This was
achieved in less than two weeks.
Between the
22nd and 31st,
from north to south the Allied armies
crossed the Rhine
and moved further into the Reich.
British
21st Army
Group aided by paratroop drops went
over around
Wesel;
US First Army pushed out from the
Remagen salient,
US Third Army crossed around Mainz;
US Seventh Army near Mannheim;
French First Army north of Karlsruhe.
The Germans
were also
about to lose the Ruhr industrial
centre as US Ninth
Army circled to the north and US First
to the south.
British
Isles Inshore Campaign - The
inshore campaign continued: 7th
-
"U-1302" successfully attacks Halifax/UK
convoy SC167 in St George's Channel, but
after a long
search off the coast of western Wales
was sunk by
Canadian frigates "La Hulloise",
"Strathadam" and "Thetford Mines" of
the 25th EG. 10th - Deep
minefields laid by the
Royal Navy to protect UK inshore waters
from the U-boats
claimed two victims. On the 10th,
"U-275"
was lost
in the English Channel off
Beachy Head. 12th - Two days
later, the deep
minefields damaged "U-260" off Fastnet
Rock, southern Ireland, and she
had to be scuttled. 12th -
Between now and the
29th, three more U-boats went down close
to Lands End,
starting with "U-683" to frigate "Loch
Ruthven" and
sloop "Wild Goose" of the 2nd EG. 14th
-
South African frigate "Natal" on passage
off
the Firth of Forth, Scotland in the
North Sea sank "U-714". 21st -
Two U-boats were lost
off the north coast of Ireland. The
first was "U-1003" damaged by Canadian
frigate
"New Glasgow" of the 26th EG and later
scuttled. 22nd - "U-296"
was
also sunk off the north coast of
Ireland - by RAF aircraft of No 120
Squadron. 26th
- The second loss off Lands End was
"U-399", sunk by frigate
"Duckworth" and other ships of 3rd EG.
The same
Group accounted for the third U-boat off
Lands End on the
29th. 27th - The frigates of
21st EG were split
into two divisions, and sank three
U-boats in the
Hebrides area. On the 27th, "U-965"
was
sunk
by Hedgehog off the northern end
of the islands by the 'first' division -
"Conn", accompanied by "Deane" and
"Rupert". The same day further south,
"U-722"
went
down
to the 'second' division -
"Byron", "Fitzroy" and
"Redmill". 29th - "U-246"
torpedods and badly damaged
Canadian frigate "TEME" (constructive
total loss), but was then
hunted down and sunk by "Duckworth" and
the 3rd
EG off Lands End. 30th -
Frigates
"Conn", "Deane" and
"Rupert", the 'first' division of 21st
EG and
still off the northern end of the
Hebrides, sank "U-1021".
One more U-boat was
lost to US aircraft in southern UK
waters and two to the
RAF on Northern Transit Area patrols,
but now the Allied
air-raids were really starting to bite.
In Germany around
12 boats, completed or in service, were
destroyed in the
month mainly by the USAAF on the night
of the 30th.
German
Heavy Warships
- The end of the remaining German big
ships was in sight.
Battlecruiser "GNEISENAU", out of
service since 1942 and now hulked,
was sunk as a blockship in Gdynia
(Gotenhafen) on the 27th.
Light cruiser "KOLN"
was
sunk
at Wilhelmshaven by Allied
bombing. Only two pocket battleships,
two heavy and three
light cruisers remained, and most of
these survived only
a few more weeks.
Air War
- As the
V-weapon attack on Antwerp continued,
the last V-2 landed
on London on the 27th, by which time
1,000 rockets had
killed and wounded nearly 10,000 people
in southeast
England.
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.
APRIL
1945
Western
Front -
American forces met at Lippstadt on the
1st and completed
the encirclement of the Ruhr, trapping a
third of a
million troops. The vital industrial
area was slowly
reduced and on the 18th the Germans
surrendered.
Meanwhile the Allies broke out through
Germany,
eventually to meet up with the Russians:
British
21st Army
Group headed into northern Holland
and Germany,
the Canadians taking Arnhem on the
15th and moving on
Emden. The British captured Bremen on
the 26th and
made for Hamburg and the Baltic coast
at Lubeck.
US 12th
Army Group
pushed into central Germany.
Ninth Army passed
north of the Ruhr and reached the
River Elbe opposite
Berlin by the 12th where it stopped.
First Army got
to the Elbe at Torgau south of Berlin
on the 25th and
was the first to meet the advancing
Russians. Germany
was now cut in half. General Patton's
Third Army
swung south and raced on to western Czechoslovakia
and northern Austria.
US Sixth
Army Group,
including the French First Army,
occupied southern Germany
and headed for the north Swiss border
and western tip
of Austria.
In their
advance, the
Allies over-ran Belsen, Buchenwald and
Dachau
revealing to the world the full horror
of the Nazi
regime. The Russians had also captured
similar camps
in the east.
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. 6th
- Two U-boats were sunk in Channel
operations. The first,
"U-1195"
sank
a
ship
from a convoy off
the Isle of Wight, and was lost to old
escorting
destroyer "Watchman". 8th - Four
more went down to the south
and southwest of Ireland, two
of them on the 8th. Frigates "Byron" and
"Fitzroy" of 21st EG sank "U-1001", and
"Bentinck" and
"Calder" of 4th EG account for "U-774".
10th - Two
days later "U-873" sailing from still
uncaptured St Nazaire
attacked a UK-out convoy and fell victim
to escorting
destroyer "Vanquisher" and corvette
"Tintagel Castle". 12th - Home
Fleet
submarines gained another success when
"Tapir"
sank outward-bound "U-486" off Bergen,
Norway. 12th - Two more
were lost in the Irish Sea northwest of
Anglesey, Wales. "U-1024" was
disabled
by the Squid of frigate
"Loch Glendhu" of 8th EG. Boarded by
"Loch
More", she was taken in tow but
foundered. 15th
- The second U-boat sunk in Channel
operations was "U-1063".
Attacking a convoy off
Start Point, she was sent to the bottom
off Land's End by
frigate "Loch Killin" of 17th EG. 15th
-
The last U-boat loss off Ireland was
"U-285" sunk by frigates
"Grindall" and "Keats" of the 5th EG.
16th - "U-1274" attacked
Forth/Thames convoy FS1784
off St Abbs Head, SE Scotland, sinking
one ship, but was
then lost to destroyer "Viceroy" of the
escort.
21st - Frigates of the 4th EG,
"Bazely",
"Bentinck" and "Drury" sank "U-636"
northwest of Ireland. 30th
- The second loss in the Irish Sea was
"U-242" detected by a RAF Sunderland of
No
201 Squadron and sunk by destroyers
"Havelock"
and "Hesperus" of the 14th EG. Other
U-boats
lost were: 6 to RAF and US aircraft in
and around the
British Isles; 1 by accident and 2 more
missing, cause of
loss unknown, during the inshore
campaign; 5 in the
Skagerrak and Kattegat, 3 by
rocket-firing Mosquitoes of
RAF Coastal Command; around 17 completed
boats in
air-raids on Germany.
End of the
German
Surface Fleet - April saw the end
of the German
Navy's remaining big ships. In RAF raids
on Kiel early in
the month, pocket battleship "ADMIRAL
SCHEER" capsized and heavy cruiser
"ADMIRAL
HIPPER" and light
cruiser
"EMDEN"
were
badly
damaged. A few days later pocket
battleship "LUTZOW" was also put out of
action at
Swinemunde. All three damaged ships were
scuttled in the
first week of May. When Germany
surrendered, three
cruisers survived. "Prinz Eugen" was
used
in A-bomb trials in the Pacific; "Leipzig"
scuttled in the North Sea in 1946 loaded
with poison gas
munitions; and "Nurnberg" ceded
to
Russia. A dozen or so big destroyers
also stayed afloat.
Germany -
The End of
Adolf Hitler: As the month drew to
a close and the
Allies completed the destruction of the
German Reich,
Heinrich Himmler tried to surrender to
Britain and the
United States through Swedish
intermediaries, but
anything short of unconditional
surrender was refused. On
the 29th in his Berlin bunker, Hitler
married Eva Braun
and nominated Grand-Adm Doenitz as his
successor. Next
day Hitler and his wife committed
suicide and Doenitz
became Fuehrer on 1st May.
Monthly Loss
Summary
14
British, Allied and neutral ships of
50,000 tons in UK
waters.
MAY
1945
End of
the U-boats - Right
to the end of the war there was no
let-up in the struggle
against the U-boats, especially faced
with the threat
from the new and dangerous Types XXI and
XXIII. Between
the 2nd and 6th, 23 U-boats of all types
were destroyed
by the Typhoons, Beaufighters,
Mosquitoes and Liberators
of the RAF and Allied Tactical Air
Forces. As the German
fighter defences crumbled, the Allied
aircraft roamed the
Kattegat and nearby waters catching many
of the U-boats
in the Baltic or sailing for Norway. One
more was lost by
unknown causes off Scotland. Two others
respectively
represent the last U-boat destroyed
by the Royal Navy
and the final
U-boat sinking of
the European war. While much of
this was happening,
steps were taken to arrange for the
surrender of
Germany's still formidable submarine
fleet.
4th -
A Royal Navy
task force consisting of escort carriers
"Queen", "Searcher" and
"Trumpeter" with cruisers and destroyers
and
under the command of Vice-Adm R. R.
McGrigor returning
from Murmansk, launched strikes against
shipping off
Norway, and "U-711"
was
sunk
near Narvik. The same day Adm
Doenitz ordered his U-boats to stop
operations and return
to base. Many crews preferred to scuttle
their boats.
7th -
U-boats
gained their last success when Type
XXIII coastal boat
"U-2336" sank merchantmen "Avondale
Park" and "Sneland" off the Firth of
Forth. Further north, to the west of
Bergen, a RAF
Catalina of No 210 Squadron on Northern
Transit Area
patrol destroyed "U-320", the very last
U-boat casualty.
8th -
Operational
U-boats were ordered to surface and
sailed for Allied
ports flying a black flag of surrender.
Most made for the
UK, although a few reached the US.
9th -
The first of
over 150 surrendered boats started to
arrive, but more
than 200 were scuttled. Of those
surrendering, a quarter
were taken over by the Allied powers and
in Operation
'Deadlight', the rest sunk by the Royal
Navy in the
Atlantic off Northern Ireland through to
January 1946.
Germany
- Final Defeat and Surrender
-
Western
Front - In
the last week of the war in Europe, US
First and Ninth
Armies stood along the west bank of the
River Elbe. To
their north, British Second Army reached
the Baltic on
the 2nd and next day took Hamburg. In
the south, US Third
Army pushed into Czechoslovakia as far
as Pilsen and
Austria around Linz, and Seventh Army
into Austria and
through Innsbruck before crossing the
Brenner Pass into
Italy. There the Western Allies stopped.
On the 4th
outside Hamburg, German envoys
surrendered their forces
in Holland, Denmark and northwest
Germany to Field
Marshal Montgomery.
Eastern
Front -
Berlin fell to the Russian Army on the
2nd. Fighting
continued in Czechoslovakia and Austria
and, on the 5th,
resistance forces rose to take over
Prague. A few days
later the last major German units
surrendered to the
Russians to the east of the Czech
capital.
Surrender
and
Occupation - At Gen Eisenhower's
HQ at Rheims in
France on the 7th, the unconditional
surrender of Germany
was signed to take effect from midnight
on the 8th - VE
day. On the 9th it was ratified in
Berlin and signed for
the Allies by Air Chief Marshall Tedder
(as Gen
Eisenhower's Deputy) and Russian Marshal
Zhukov.
As the last
remaining
German forces surrendered in France,
Germany, Norway and
elsewhere, and the Allies completed the
liberation of all
Europe from their hold, the four major
powers moved into
their zones of occupation in Germany and
Austria. The war
in Europe was over.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 2
merchant ships of 5,000 tons in UK
waters.
JUNE
1945
Potsdam
Conference -
In the second half of the month, the
heads of the three
great powers met at Potsdam outside
Berlin to continue
discussing the future of Europe and
final defeat of
Japan. By the end of the conference only
Stalin remained
of the original three major Allied
leaders who had met in
the past. Accompanied by President
Truman of the United
States for the first time, Winston
Churchill was only
there at the start. On the 26th the
Potsdam Declaration
was broadcast, demanding the
unconditional surrender of
Japan.
Britain
-
Winston Churchill's Conservative Party
was swept from
power and the Labour Party under Clement
Attlee took over
the reins of the wartime Coalition
Government. The new
Prime Minister travelled to Potsdam for
the rest of the
conference.
AUGUST
1945
15th
- VJ-Day: Emperor Hirohito broadcast
Japan's unconditional surrender
SEPTEMBER
1945
2nd
- Japanese Surrender Ceremony on USS
Missouri in Tokyo Bay