Declarations
of War
3rd -
After Germany invaded Poland
on the 1st, Britain
and France demanded the withdrawal of
German forces. The
ultimatum expired and at 11.15am on the
3rd, Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcast
to announce that Britain
was at war with Germany. He formed a
War Cabinet with
Winston Churchill as First Lord of the
Admiralty. France,
Australia, New Zealand and
India
(through the Viceroy) declared war the
same day.
Atlantic
Battle
of
the Atlantic - The
six-year long Battle started on
the
3rd with the sinking of liner "Athenia"
by "U-30" (Lt Lemp)
northwest of Ireland. She was mistaken
for an armed
merchant cruiser, and her destruction
led the Admiralty
to believe unrestricted submarine
warfare had been
launched. Full convoy plans were put
into operation, but
in fact Hitler had ordered the U-boats
to adhere to
international law and after the
"Athenia"
incident, tightened controls for a
while. Liverpool-out
convoy OB4 was the first group of ships
to be attacked,
with "U-31" sinking one ship on the 16th
September. Convoys actually suffered
little harm over the
next seven months, and most of the
losses due to U-boats were among the
independently-routed and neutral
merchantmen. In the
period to March 1940 they sank 222
British, Allied and
neutral ships in the Western Approaches
to the British
Isles, the North Sea and around the
coasts of Britain. In
the same time they lost 18 of their
number, a third of
all in commission in September 1939 and
more than the
number of new boats entering service.
14th - After
an
unsuccessful attack on carrier "Ark
Royal" off
the Hebrides, NW Scotland, German "U-39"
was
depth-charged
and sunk
by screening destroyers "Faulknor",
"Firedrake" and "Foxhound".
17th - Three
days
after the sinking of "U-39", fleet
carrier "COURAGEOUS"
was sent
to the bottom to the southwest
of Ireland by "U-29" with heavy loss of
life.
Carriers were withdrawn from anti-U-boat
patrols as it
became accepted that the best chance of
sinking U-boats
was to attract them to well-defended
convoys where the
escorts could hunt them down.
20th - After
sinking
trawlers off the northern Hebrides,
German "U-27" was
located
and sunk by destroyers
"Fortune" and "Forester".
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 20
British, Allied and neutral ships of
110,000 tons in the
Atlantic from all causes; 1 fleet
carrier.
- 2
German U-boats.
Europe
German
Codes - The
British Code & Cipher School moved
to Bletchley Park,
England, the site of its magnificent
successes breaking
the German Enigma codes through the
'Ultra' programme .
The school built on the work of Polish
and later French
code-breakers. By April 1940 the first
low level
Luftwaffe codes were being deciphered.
Many months
followed before comparable progress was
made with Naval
codes.
Monthly Loss
Summary
33
British, Allied and neutral ships of
85,000 tons in UK
waters.
OCTOBER
1939
Atlantic
Americas
- The
Pan-American Conference established a
300-mile plus
security zone off the coasts of the
Americas within which
all hostile action by the belligerent
powers was
forbidden.
13th - Two
U-boats attacking convoys to the
southwest
of Ireland were sunk by escorting
destroyers. On the
13th, "U-42"
was
sent
to the bottom by
"Imogen" and "llex" sailing with
Liverpool-out convoy OB17
14th - Next
day
"Icarus", "Inglefield",
"Intrepid" and "Ivanhoe" escorting
Kingston, Jamaica/UK convoy KJ3
accounted for "U-45"
Battle
of
the Atlantic - The
first
UK/Gibraltar convoy, OG1, sailed in
October. Partly
because of the loss of "U-42" and
"U-45", only three of the intended nine
U-boats were available for the first
U-boat group attack on a convoy using an
on-board tactical commander. Three ships
out of the 27 in
unescorted convoy HG3 were sunk, but the
experiment was
repeated only a few times. The first
wolf-pack attacks
conducted personally by Adm Doenitz from
onshore did not
start for another year.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 22
British, Allied and neutral ships of
133,000 tons in the
Atlantic from all causes.
- 2
German U-boats.
Europe
German
Heavy
Warships - Battlecruiser
"Gneisenau"
and other ships of the German Navy
sortied on the 8th
off Norway to draw the Home Fleet within
U-boat and aircraft range. No contact
was
made.
8th - The
anti-U-boat mine barrage in the Strait
of
Dover was completed and accounted for
three U-boats,
starting with "U-12" on the 8th.
13th -
"U-40"
was
also mined and sunk in the Strait
of Dover.
14th - Returning
to
Scapa Flow after guarding the Fair Isle
passage during
"Gneisenau's" recent sortie, anchored
battleship "ROYAL OAK"
was
torpedoed
and sunk by
"U-47" (Lt-Cdr Prien) in the early hours
of the
14th with the loss of 833 men. The Home
Fleet moved to
Loch Ewe on the W Scottish coast
24th - The
third
U-boat sunk in the Strait of Dover was
"U-16" on the 24th. No more attempts
were
made to pass through the English Channel
and U-boats were
forced to sail around the north of
Scotland to reach the
Atlantic.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 24
British, Allied and neutral ships of
63,000 tons in UK
waters.
- 3
German U-boats
NOVEMBER
1939
Atlantic
29th - On
patrol to
the north of Scotland to support the
attempted breakout
of German battlecruiser's "Scharnhorst"
and
"Gneisenau" into the Atlantic, "U-35"
was found
east of the Shetland Islands
and sunk by destroyers "Kashmir",
"Kingston" and "Icarus".
Battle of
the Atlantic
- RAF Coastal Command continued
to patrol for U-boats on passage into
the Atlantic.
Equal priority was now given to attacks,
but the crews
were not trained and lacked effective
anti-submarine
bombs. The first success was a joint
action with the
Royal Navy at the end of January 1940.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 6
British, Allied and neutral ships of
18,000 tons in the
Atlantic from all causes; 1 armed
merchant cruiser
- 1
German U-boat.
Europe
13th - As
U-boat and surface ship-laid mines
continued to inflict heavy losses on
merchant ships and
warships alike, cruiser minelayer
"Adventure"
and accompanying
destroyer "BLANCHE"
were mined
in the Thames Estuary.
"Blanche" was a total loss. More serious
casualties followed a week later.
21st - Recently
completed
light cruiser "Belfast"
was
badly
damaged in the Firth of Forth
on a magnetic mine laid by "U-21". With
her
back broken and machinery mountings
shattered she was out
of action for three years.
Magnetic
Mines -
German seaplanes also laid the first
magnetic mines off
the East Coast and dropped one on tidal
flats at
Shoeburyness in the Thames Estuary. It
was defused on the
23rd November and recovered, a vital
step in the battle
against a weapon which was causing heavy
losses and long
shipping delays. In November alone, 27
ships of 121,000
tons were sunk and for a time the Thames
Estuary was
virtually closed to shipping.
Merchant
Shipping War -
The first HN/ON convoys sailed between
the Firth of Forth
and Norway in November covered by the
Home Fleet. The
convoys were discontinued in April 1940.
Monthly Loss
Summary
43
British, Allied and neutral ships of
156,000 tons in UK
waters.
DECEMBER
1939
Atlantic
Monthly
Loss Summary
-
7 British, Allied and Neutral ships of
38,000 tons in the
Atlantic from all causes.
- 1
German pocket battleship - "Graf Spee"
following Battle of River Plate.
Europe
4th -
Returning
from the hunt for the German
battle-cruisers after the
sinking of "Rawalpindi" on the 23rd
November,
battleship "Nelson"
was
damaged
by a mine laid by
"U-31" off Loch Ewe, northwest Scotland.
4th -
On patrol off
the Heligoland Bight, submarine "Salmon"
(Lt
Cdr Bickford) sank outward bound "U-36".
28th -
Battleship "Barham" was
torpedoed
and damaged off the Hebrides
by "U-30" (Lt Cdr Lemp)
Merchant
Shipping War
- By the end of March German aircraft
had accounted for
30 vessels of 37,000 tons. Losses from
mines remained
high - 33 ships of 83,000 tons in
December.
Monthly Loss
Summary
66
British, Allied and Neutral ships of
152,000 tons in UK
waters.
1940
JANUARY
1940
Atlantic
30th -
Attacking
Thames-out convoy 0A80 to the west of
the English
Channel, “U-55”
was
destroyed
in a joint action by an RAF
Sunderland of No 228 Squadron, sloop
“Fowey“
and destroyer “Whitshed”. This was the
first
successful air/sea attack which would
not be repeated for
another five months.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 9
British, Allied and neutral ships of
36,000 tons in the
Atlantic from all causes.
- 1
German U-boat.
Europe
21st -
Searching
for a reported U-boat off the Moray
Firth, destroyer
“EXMOUTH”
was torpedoed
by
“U-22” and lost with all hands.
Merchant
Shipping War -
U-boats
were
particularly
active in the Moray
Firth area off the Scottish coast and in
the rest of the
North Sea through until March 1940. In
January alone they
sank 14 ships - all neutrals.
Monthly Loss
Summary
64
British, Allied and neutral ships of
179,000 tons in UK
waters.
FEBRUARY
1940
Atlantic
5th -
“U-41”
sank
one ship
from Liverpool-out convoy OB84
south of Ireland, but was then sent to
the bottom by the
lone escort, destroyer “Antelope”.
23rd -
Destroyer
“Gurkha” on passage south of the Faeroe
Islands
encountered “U-53” returning from patrol
in the Western
Approaches. The U-boat was sunk.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 17
British, Allied and neutral ships of
75,000 tons from all
causes
- 2 German U-boats.
Europe
12th -
“U-33” on a minelaying operation in the
Firth of Clyde, eastern Scotland was
sunk by minesweeper
“Gleaner”.
18th -
In an attack
on Norway/UK convoy HN12, destroyer
“DARING”
was sunk
by “U-23” in the
northern North Sea, east of the Pentland
Firth.
22nd -
Royal Navy
destroyers laid mines in the North Sea,
northwest of the
German Frisian Islands. “U-54”
was
presumed
lost in the field.
25th -
A week after
"Daring's" loss, Norway/UK convoy HN14
was
attacked. German “U-63”
was
sighted
by escorting submarine
“Narwhal” and sent to the bottom by
destroyers
“Escort”, “lmogen” and
“lnglefield”.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 46
British, Allied and neutral ships of
152,000 tons in UK
waters.
- 3
German U-boats
MARCH
1940
Atlantic
20th -
British Home
Fleet battlecruisers to the north of the
Shetlands
covered a cruiser sweep into the
Skagerrak. German U-boat
“U-44”
was
sighted
and sunk by escorting
destroyer “Fortune” .
Battle
of
the Atlantic - U-boats
started withdrawing from the Western
Approaches in preparation for the German
invasion of
Norway.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 2
British, Allied and neutral ships of
11,000 tons from all
causes
- 1
U-boat.
Europe
11th -
“U-31”
was
bombed
and sunk by a RAF Blenheim of
Bomber Command in the Heligoland Bight .
She was salvaged
and recommissioned, but finally lost
eight months later.
Merchant
Shipping War -
Since September 1939, 430,000 tons of
shipping had been
sent to the bottom by mines around the
coasts of Britain
- a loss rate only second to U-boats.
Now the Royal Navy slowly countered
magnetic mines with the introduction of
ship-degaussing
and 'LL' minesweeping gear.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 43
British, Allied and neutral ships of
96,000 tons in UK
waters
- 1
German U-boat
DEFENCE
OF TRADE - FIRST SEVEN MONTHS
In the period
September
1939 to the end of March 1940, much of
the Royal Navy's
efforts had been directed to organising
the protection of
trade both to and from Britain as well
as around the
British Isles. The small number of
U-boats operating out in the Atlantic in
the South Western Approaches as well as
in the North Sea
had had their successes, but mainly
against
independently-routed shipping. Losses in
UK waters were
high from both U-boats
and mines, but from now on enemy
submarines would
disappear from UK coastal areas for more
than four years
until mid-1944. The struggle to keep
Britain in the war
would move further and further out into
the Atlantic and
even further afield over the years to
come.
Total
Losses = 402 British, Allied and
neutral ships of 1,303,000 tons
(186,000 tons per month)
By
Location
|
Location
|
Number
of
British, Allied, neutral
ships
|
Total
Gross
Registered Tonnage
|
|
North
Atlantic |
75
|
371,000
tons
|
|
South
Atlantic |
8
|
49,000
tons
|
|
UK
waters |
319
|
883,000
tons
|
By
Cause
|
Causes*
in
order of tonnage sunk |
Number
of
British, Allied, neutral
ships
|
Total
Gross
Registered Tonnage
|
|
1.
Submarines |
222
|
765,000
tons
|
2.
Mines
3. Warships
4. Aircraft
5. Other causes |
129
16
30
5
|
430,000
tons
63,000 tons
37,000 tons
8,000 tons
|
*
The identifying numbers for each cause
e.g. "1.
Submarines" would be
retained for all Trade War summaries,
and added to as new
weapon types appear e.g. "6. Raiders".
The
trends in losses due to the different
causes could thus
be followed
Western
Europe was about
to erupt. There would be a lull in the
Battle of the
Atlantic as U-boats
were withdrawn
for
the Norwegian campaign, and before
surface raiders
started operations and long-range
aircraft and U-boats emerge from bases
in France and
Norway. Around the British Isles,
aircraft and mines
would continue to account for merchant
ships of all
sizes, especially during the confused
months of May, June
and July 1940. During this time German
E-boats commenced
attacks in coastal waters. The
comparatively low monthly
average of 186,000 tons of merchant
shipping lost in the
first seven months would not be seen for
any more than a
month or two for three long and deadly
dangerous years -
until mid 1943.
APRIL
1940
Atlantic
10th -
“U-50” on patrol off the Shetlands in
support of the Norwegian invasion, was
sunk by destroyer
“Hero”.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 4
British, Allied and neutral ships of
25,000 tons from all
causes
- 1
German U-boat.
Europe
German
Codes - The
Bletchley Park Ultra programme was now
decoding some
Luftwaffe low-level Enigma codes, partly
because of poor
German security procedures. There was
little evidence the
hard-won information influenced the war
over the next two
violent months.
|
Norwegian
Campaign
9th
-
Germany invaded Denmark
and Norway (Operation
'Weserubung'):
Copenhagen was soon occupied
and
DENMARK surrendered. In
Norway, troops landed at
Oslo, Kristiansand and
Bergen in the south,
Trondheim in the centre and
Narvik in the north.
German Navy forces included
a pocket battleship,
six cruisers and 14
destroyers for landings at
the five Norwegian ports,
with battlecruisers
“Scharnhorst” and
“Gneisenau”
covering the two most
northerly landings. Thirty
U-boats
patrolled off Norway and
British bases, but
throughout the campaign they
suffered from major
torpedo defects.
10th
- First Battle of Narvik -
The
British 2nd Destroyer
Flotilla entered Ofotfiord
to attack the German ships
assigned
to the occupation of
Narvik. Several transports
were sunk together
with two German destroyers,
for the loss of two
British. On the same day
submarine “THISTLE” on
patrol off Utsira
failed in an attack on
“U-4”. Shortly
after she was sunk by the
same U-boat.
13th
- Second Battle of Narvik
- Battleship
“Warspite” and nine
destroyers were
sent into the Narvik fiords
to finish
off
the remaining German
ships. Submarine “U-64”
was
surprised
and sunk by
“Warspite's” Swordfish
catapult
aircraft as it scouted
ahead. The eight surviving
German destroyers were all
destroyed or scuttled.
14th-16th
-
The first Allied landings
took place between the
14th and 16th. In the north,
British troops
occupied Harstad in
preparation for an attack on
Narvik.
15th
- As
the Harstad-bound troopships
approached their
destination, escorting
destroyers
“Brazen” and “Fearless”
located and sank “U-49”.
Southwest of Stavanger,
“U-1”
went
to
the bottom after striking a
mine.
27th
-
Allied plans to attack
towards Trondheim and hold
central Norway proved
impossible. The decision
was taken to pull out of
central Norway and the
evacuation of Andalsnes and
Namsos got under way.
|
Air War -
The first mines were laid by RAF Bomber
Command off the
German and Danish coasts.
Monthly Loss
Summary
54
British, Allied and neutral ships of
134,000 tons from
all causes.
MAY
1940
Atlantic
Iceland -
On the
10th as Germany attacked France and the
Low Countries,
British Royal Marines landed from two
cruisers at
Reykjavik, Iceland then part of the
Danish Crown. More
troops followed to set up air and sea
bases that became
vital to Britain's defence of the
Atlantic supply routes
and eventual defeat of the U-boat.
Battle of
the Atlantic -
U-boats
started returning to
the Western Approaches and as they did,
one of the first
‘Flower’ class corvettes “Arabis”
made a depth-charge attack in defence of
a Gibraltar/UK
convoy. With the closure of the
Mediterranean to Allied
shipping, the trade routes around Africa
and the ports en
route took on a new importance.
Particularly vital was
the West African base at Freetown,
Sierra Leone.
Monthly Loss
Summary
10
British, Allied and neutral ships of
55,000 tons from all
causes.
Europe
Britain -
Following
a 10th May House of Commons debate on
the Norwegian
campaign, Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain resigned and
Winston Churchill assumed leadership.
His only real fear
throughout the war was the U-boat threat
|
Western
Front
10th
-
Germany invaded Holland,
Belgium, Luxembourg
13th
- The
Germans entered France at
Sedan. After breaking
through, German armour
headed west for the
Channel to trap the Allied
armies now in Belgium
and northern France.
20th
- German tanks reached the
English Channel near
Abbeville, shortly turning
right and advancing
north on the ports of
Boulogne, Calais and
Dunkirk.
26th
May-4th June - Dunkirk
Evacuation - Initial
plans were to lift off
45,000
men of the British
Expeditionary Force over a
two-day period. In the next
five days, a total of
195,000, both British and
French were saved.
Every phase of the operation
was subject to heavy
air, sea and land attack.
29th
-
Apart from those damaged,
three Royal Navy
destroyers were sunk in the
English Channel off
the Dunkirk beaches that day
including
“GRAFTON” torpedoed by
submarine
“U-62”
|
31st -
German “U-13”
was
believed
sunk by sloop
“Weston” off the English East Coast
fishing
port of Lowestoft.
Air War -
Minelaying
continued along the south and east
coasts of Britain as
well as the waters of Holland, Belgium
and northern
France during the German Blitzkrieg.
Monthly Loss
Summary
90
British, Allied and neutral ships of
231,000 tons from
all causes.
JUNE
1940
Atlantic
6th -
Three armed
merchant cruisers on Northern Patrol
were lost to U-boats in the waters
between Ireland (R)
and Iceland (C) over the next nine days,
starting with “CARINTHIA” on the 6th/7th
to “U-46”
13th -
“SCOTSTOUN”
was torpedoed
three times by
“U-25” and sank north west of the
Hebrides
15th -
“ANDANIA”
was
sunk
by German “U-A”, a
Turkish submarine building in Germany
and taken over
Battle
of
the Atlantic - The
Allied loss of Norway brought German
warships and U-boats
many hundreds of miles closer to the
Atlantic convoy
routes and in time within close range of
the Russian
convoys that followed the June 1941
German invasion.
Britain's blockade line from the Orkneys
to southern
Norway was simply outflanked and a new
one had to be
established between the Shetlands and
Iceland. The Royal
Navy started the massive task of laying
a mine barrage
along this line. Within a matter of days
the first U-boats were sailing from the
Norwegian
port of Bergen, while others were sent
to patrol as far
south as the Canary and Cape Verde
Islands off northwest
Africa. Italian submarines joined them
in this area, but
without any early successes. Towards the
end of the
month, “U-122”
and “U-102”
were
lost
off the North Channel
separating Northern Ireland from
Scotland, possibly on
mines according to German sources. It
was in this area
and throughout the North Western
Approaches to the
British Isles that such U-boat
commanders as Endras, Kretschmer, Prien
and
Schepke enjoyed the ‘Happy Time' until
early 1941. U-boat strength was no
greater than at
the beginning of the war, and there were
never more than
15 boats on patrol out of the 25
operational; the rest
were training or on trials. Yet from now
until the end of
December 1940 they accounted for most of
the 315 ships of
1,659,000 tons lost in the Atlantic.
Many of these were
stragglers, independents or in
unescorted convoys, yet it
was among the escorted convoys that
U-boat tactics were particularly
threatening. Instead of attacking
submerged where they
could be detected by ASDIC, they were
operating on the
surface at night as 18kt torpedo boats,
faster than most
of the escorts. And there were few
enough of these as
many were held back in British waters on
anti-invasion
duties.
Monthly Loss
Summary
- 53
British, Allied and neutral ships of
297,000 tons from
all causes; 3 armed merchant cruisers
- 2
German U-boats, dates and causes of loss
uncertain.
Europe
German
Codes - 'Ultra'
was now breaking the Luftwaffe Enigma
codes with some
regularity, and early in the month had
its first major
breakthrough when supporting evidence
for the Knickebein
navigation aid for bombers was obtained.
Army codes were
more secure because of the greater use
of land lines for
communications, and the Naval ones would
not be penetrated until mid-1941.
4th
- end of Dunkirk Evacuation
8th
- end of Norwegian Campaign
10th
- Italy declared war on Britain and
France
22nd
- France capitulated
Britain
- By early
June 1940 the Royal Navy was taking
steps to meet the
threat of German invasion. Four
destroyer flotillas with
cruiser support moved south, and escort
and other vessels
were on patrol offshore. The removal of
these escorts
from Atlantic convoy duties contributed
to the sinking of
many merchant ships by U-boats, and
eventually they returned to these
duties.
Monthly Loss
Summary
77
British, Allied and neutral ships of
209,000 tons from
all causes.
