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. 6th - South
Africa
declared war. 10th - Canada declared war.
ATLANTIC
- SEPTEMBER 1939
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 later,
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withdrawn from anti-U-boat patrols as it became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".
German
Heavy Warships - Pocket battleship "Admiral
Graf Spee" sank
her first ship in the Atlantic off Brazil on the
30th September.
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
- SEPTEMBER 1939
Western
Front - Advance units of the British
Expeditionary Force were
carried by destroyers from Portsmouth to Cherbourg
on the 4th
September. A week later the main force started
landing in France. By
June 1940 half a million men had been carried in
both directions
without loss.
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.
4th
- Aircraft of RAF Bomber Command made their first
attack on German
warships in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuttel. Cruiser
"Emden" was slightly
damaged by a crashing aircraft.
10th
- Home Fleet submarines on patrol off
southwest Norway
suffered their first casualty in tragic
circumstances. OXLEY
was torpedoed in error by
"Triton" and went down off Obrestad.
Polish
Campaign - As the Germans advanced into
Poland, Russia
invaded from the east on the 17th September. Warsaw
surrendered to the
German Army on the 28th and next day the country was
partitioned in
accordance with the Soviet-German Pact.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 33 British, Allied and neutral ships
of 85,000 tons in UK
waters.
OCTOBER
1939
ATLANTIC
- OCTOBER 1939
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.
German
Heavy Warships - Pocket battleship "Graf Spee"
claimed four
more merchant ships in the South Atlantic before
heading into the
southern Indian Ocean. Seven Allied hunting groups
were formed in the
Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean to search for
her. In total the
Royal and French Navies deployed three capital
ships, four aircraft
carriers and 16 cruisers. Meanwhile sister ship
"Deutschland", after
accounting for two ships in the North Atlantic was
ordered home. She
reached Germany in November and was renamed
"Lutzow".
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
- OCTOBER 1939
Polish
Campaign, Conclusion - With Poland
partitioned between
Germany and Russian, the last of the Polish Army
surrendered on 5th
October. Poland entered its long dark years of
brutality and oppression.
Western
Front - Most of the British Expeditionary
Force was now in
France, just as Hitler ordered preparation of the
first plans for the
invasion of France and the Low Countries.
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. Capital ships Hood,
Nelson, Repulse,
Rodney and
Royal Oak
together with carrier Furious,
cruisers and destroyers sailed for various
positions, but 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 mined. 24th - The
third
U-boat was "U-16". 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.
14th
-
Returning to Scapa Flow after guarding the
Fair Isle
passage during "Gneisenau's" recent sortie, anchored
battleship ROYAL
OAK
(right - Maritime Quest) 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
German
Sea and Air Attacks - These were stepped up
against merchant
shipping and warships in British waters. In their
first attack on
British territory, Ju.88's bombed ships in the Firth
of Forth, Scotland
on the 16th October and slightly
damaged
cruisers
Southampton,
Edinburgh
and destroyer "Mohawk". Next day more Ju.88's struck
at Scapa Flow and
the old gunnery training battleship Iron
Duke
was bomb-damaged and had to be beached. German
destroyers and later
other surface vessels started laying mines off the
British East Coast.
Aircraft also attacked the East Coast convoy routes,
but initially
without success. In defence, it took some months for
RAF Fighter
Command to arrange effective sweeps, but there were
too few AA guns to
arm merchantmen.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 24 British, Allied and neutral ships
of 63,000 tons in UK
waters; 3 German U-boats
NOVEMBER
1939
ATLANTIC
- NOVEMBER 1939
United
States - The Neutrality Act was amended to
allow the supply
of arms to belligerents on a 'cash and carry' basis.
At the same time
American shipping was banned from the war zones.
German
Heavy Warships - Pocket battleship "Graf Spee"
sank a small
tanker southwest of Madagascar and headed back for
the South Atlantic.
More Allied hunting groups were formed.
23rd
- Armed merchant cruiser "RAWALPINDI" (Capt
E. C Kennedy) on
Northern Patrol was sunk by the 11in battlecruiser
"Scharnhorst" as she
and sister ship "Gneisenau" tried to break out into
the Atlantic. After
the action to the southwest of Iceland, they turned
back and returned
to Germany after avoiding searching ships of the
British Home Fleet.
29th
- On patrol to the north of Scotland to
support the German
battlecruiser's attempted breakout, "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
- NOVEMBER 1939
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. 21st - Destroyer
GIPSY
was also lost on mines laid by
destroyers off the British east coast port of
Harwich.
20th
- British Home Fleet submarines gained their
first success
in the Heligoland Bight when "Sturgeon" sank German
patrol ship "V-209".
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
by Lt-Cdr Ouvry, 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.
Russo-Finnish
War - Negotiations on border changes and
control of islands
in the Gulf of Finland broke down and Russia invaded
on the 30th.
Fiercely resisted by the small Finnish army, the war
dragged on to
March 1940
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
- DECEMBER
1939
Canada
- The first Canadian troop convoy TC1,
sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia for Britain,
heavily escorted and
accompanied part of the way by Canadian destroyers.
13th,
Battle of River Plate
(see
map above) - Now
back
in the South Atlantic, “Graf Spee” (right -
Maritime Quest)claimed
three more victims to bring the total to nine ships
of 50,000 tons,
before heading for the South American shipping lanes
off the River
Plate. Cdre Harwood with Hunting Group G -
8in-gunned cruisers Exeter
and Cumberland
and 6in light cruisers Ajax
and New Zealand Achilles
- correctly anticipated her destination.
Unfortunately “Cumberland” was
by now in the Falklands. At 06.14 on the 13th,
150
miles east of the Plate Estuary, “Graf Spee” (Capt
Langsdorff) was
reported to the northwest of the three cruisers [1 -
see map]. Faced
with “Graf Spee's" heavier armament, Cdre Harwood
decided to split his
force in two and try to divide her main guns.
“Exeter” closed to the
south [2] while the two light cruisers worked around
to the north [3],
all firing as they manoeuvred.
“Graf
Spee” concentrated her two 11in turrets on “Exeter”
which was badly hit
[4]. By 06.50 all ships were heading west [5],
"Exeter” with only one
turret in action and on fire. “Ajax” and “Achilles”
continued to harry
the pocket battleship from the north [6], but at
07.25 "Ajax" lost her
two after turrets to an 11in hit [7] and “Achilles”
already had
splinter damage. HMS Exeter was forced to break off
and head south for
the Falklands [8], but "Graf Spee" failed to press
home her advantage.
By 08.00, still with only superficial damage, she
headed for the
neutral Uruguayan port of Montevideo, the cruisers
shadowing [9]. “GRAF
SPEE” entered port at midnight. As other Allied
hunting groups headed
for the area, much diplomatic manoeuvring took place
to hold her there.
Finally, on the 17th, Capt Langsdorff edged
his ship
out into the estuary where she was scuttled and
blown up. Only
“Cumberland” had arrived by this time. Langsdorff
then committed
suicide.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 7 British, Allied and Neutral
ships
of 38,000 tons in the Atlantic from all causes; 1
German pocket
battleship.
EUROPE
- DECEMBER 1939
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". She was
successful again nine days
later. 13th - "Salmon" torpedoed and damaged
German
cruisers "Leipzig" and "Nurnberg" in the North Sea
as they covered a
destroyer mine laying operation off the Tyne
Estuary, north east
England.
12th
- Battleship Barham
was involved in two incidents. On the 12th in the
North Channel
separating Northern Ireland and Scotland, she
collided with and sank
one of the screening destroyers DUCHESS.
28th - Two
weeks later, "Barham" was torpedoed and damaged off
the Hebrides by
"U-30" (Lt Cdr Lemp)
Merchant
Shipping War - Trawlers were the main victims
of the first
successful attacks by German aircraft off the East
Coast. By the end of
March they 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
- JANUARY 1940
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, not to 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
- JANUARY 1940
Western
Europe - German plans for a Western offensive
(Operation
'Gelb') were postponed. Planning went ahead for the
invasion of Norway
under codename 'Weserubung'.
1st
- AA cruiser Coventry
was
damaged in an air raid on the Shetland Islands,
north of Scotland.
7th
- Home Fleet submarines suffered heavy losses in the
Heligoland area at
the hands of minesweeper patrols, starting with
SEAHORSE.
On the same day
UNDINE
was sunk. 9th
- Two days later STARFISH
was also lost. British
submarine operations in the Heligoland Bight were
abandoned.
19th
- As destroyer GRENVILLE
returned from contraband
control off the Dutch coast she was lost on a
destroyer-laid mine off
the Thames Estuary.
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
- FEBRUARY 1940
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 and sank
“U-53” returning from
patrol in the Western Approaches.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 17 British, Allied and neutral ships
of 75,000 tons from
all causes; 2 German U-boats.
EUROPE
- FEBRUARY 1940
12th
- “U-33” on a minelaying operation in the Firth of
Clyde, western
Scotland was sunk by minesweeper “Gleaner”.
16th, The
“Altmark” Incident - "Altmark"
was “Graf Spee's” supply ship with Merchant Navy
prisoners onboard. She
was located off Norway and took refuge in
Jossingfiord, within
territorial waters. That evening destroyer “Cossack”
(Capt Vian) went
alongside with a boarding party and after a short
struggle released the
prisoners with the cry 'The Navy's here!'
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. 25th
- A week later, 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”.
22nd
- German destroyers were attacked in error by their
own aircraft in the
North Sea and ran into a minefield laid by Royal
Navy destroyers.
“LEBERECHT MAASS” and “MAX SCHULTZ” were lost
northwest of the German
Frisian Islands. “U-54” was presumed lost in the
same field.
Russo-Finnish
War - Britain and France planned to send aid
to Finland, and
thus allow them to occupy Narvik in northern Norway
to cut back Swedish
iron ore supplies to Germany.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 46 British, Allied and neutral ships
of 152,000 tons in
UK waters; 3 German U-boats
MARCH
1940
ATLANTIC
- MARCH 1940
Canada
- William MacKenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada
was re-elected by a
massive majority in support of the government's war
policies.
German
Raiders - Converted from a merchantman and
heavily armed,
auxiliary cruiser “Atlantis” sailed for the Indian
Ocean round the Cape
of Good Hope. In 1941 she moved into the South
Atlantic, and operations
lasted for a total of 20 months until her loss in
November 1941. She
was the first of nine active raiders, seven of which
went out in 1940.
Only one ever broke out for a second cruise. Their
success was not so
much due to their sinkings and captures - a
creditable average of 15
ships of 90,000 tons for each raider, but the
disruption they caused in
every ocean. At a time when the Royal Navy was short
of ships, convoys
had to be organised and patrols instituted in many
areas. In 1940
raiders accounted for 54 ships of 370,000 tons. The
first German raider
was not caught until May 1941 - 14 months on.
20th
- 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 to prepare for the German
invasion of Norway. In
preparation for the vital transport role she, sister
"Queen Mary" and
other fast liners played in the Allies strategic
moves, the nearly
completed "Queen Elizabeth" sailed independently on
her maiden voyage
from Scotland to New York for conversion to a
troopship.
Monthly
Loss Summary: 2 British, Allied and neutral
ships
of 11,000 tons from all causes; 1 U-boat.
EUROPE
- MARCH 1940
Russo-Finnish
War, Conclusion - A peace treaty on the 13th
brought the war
to a close, with Finland ceding the disputed
territory to the Soviet
Union.
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.
16th
- Home Fleet was bombed in Scapa Flow and heavy
cruiser Norfolk
damaged.
Norway
- Later in the month, and in spite of
abandoning plans to help Finland, Britain and France
decided to disrupt
Swedish iron ore traffic to Germany by mining
Norwegian waters
(Operation 'Wilfred'). Plans were also made to land
troops - from south
to north, at Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik
to forestall any
German retaliation (Operation 'R4). The entire
operation was timed for
8th April.
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. Although mines - contact,
magnetic and later
acoustic remained a threat throughout the war, they
never again
represented the danger of the first few months.
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 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
disappeared from UK coastal areas for more than four
years until
mid-1944. The struggle to keep Britain in the war
moved 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 |
129
|
430,000
tons
|
|
3.
Warships |
16
|
63,000
tons
|
|
4.
Aircraft |
30
|
37,000
tons
|
|
5.
Other causes |
5
|
8,000
tons
|
* The
identifying numbers for each cause e.g. "1.
Submarines" is 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 can thus be followed
Western
Europe was about to erupt. There was 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 emerged from bases in France and Norway.
Around the British
Isles, aircraft and mines continued 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. (Enemy or E-boat was the English term for
German motor torpedo
boats or S-boats, not to be confused with the
heavily armed torpedo
boats or small destroyers with their 'T'
designation.) The
comparatively low monthly average of 186,000 tons of
merchant shipping
lost in the first seven months was not seen for any
more than a month
or two for three long and deadly dangerous years -
until mid 1943.
