1943
|
Axis
Shipping
Losses due to Royal Navy
Submarines in
1943
European
waters in January-December
1943 - 10 ships of 27,000grt
Mediterranean
January -September 8th
1943 (Italian surrender) - 133
Italian and German
ships of 230,800grt
Mediterranean
figures
for September-December 1944 have
not been
assembled
|
JANUARY
1943
Mediterranean
17th -
Returning
from carrying Axis supplies to Tunisia, Italian
destroyer
"BOMBARDIERE"
was sunk off
western Sicily by submarine
"United".
21st -
Submarine "Sahib" on patrol off western Corsica
sank German "U-301".
FEBRUARY
1943
Europe
23rd - On or
around
the 23rd, submarine "VANDAL"
was
lost, cause
unknown as she worked up
in the Firth of Clyde area of Scotland. Next
day,
sister-boat "UREDD" of the Royal Norwegian Navy
was sunk off
Norway
MARCH
1943
Mediterranean
Royal Navy
Submarine
Operations - The Royal Navy lost three
'T' class
submarines: February/March - "TIGRIS"
set out from Malta on
18th February for a patrol off Naples. She
failed to
reach Algiers on the 10th March, possibly mined
off the
Gulf of Tunis as she returned. 12th -
"TURBULENT" (Cdr Linton) attacked an escorted
ship off Maddalena, Sardinia and was presumed
sunk in the
counter-attack by Italian MTB escorts. + Cdr
John Linton
RN was awarded the Victoria Cross for his record
as commanding officer of
"Turbulent". The award was not gazetted until
May 1943. 14th - "THUNDERBOLT"
was lost
off the north entrance to the
Strait of Messina to Italian corvette
"Cicogna".
APRIL
1943
Atlantic
7th -
Submarine
"Tuna" on Norwegian Arctic patrol sank "U-644"
northwest of Narvik..
18th -
"U-123" on patrol south of Freetown torpedoed
and sank "P-615" (ex-Turkish) on passage to the
South
Atlantic Command to provide anti-submarine
training.
Mediterranean
21st -
Numerous
Axis supply ships on the Tunisian route and
elsewhere,
and an Italian warship, fell victim to Royal
Navy
submarines. In return three were lost starting
with "SPLENDID" to German destroyer
"Hermes" (ex-Greek) south of Capri.
24th - After
sinking a transport off northeast Sicily,
"SAHIB"
was
counter-attacked
by the escorts
including a German Ju88 and finally sunk by
Italian
corvette "Gabbiano".
28th -
"Unshaken" torpedoed and sank Italian torpedo
boat "CLIMENE" off Sicily as she escorted a
convoy.
Mid/Late April
- "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.
'The Man Who Never
Was'- Submarine "Seraph" released the body
of a supposed Royal Marine officer into the sea
off
Spain. His false papers helped to persuade the
Germans
that the next Allied blows would fall on
Sardinia and
Greece as well as Sicily.
MAY 1943
Mediterranean
21st -
Submarine
"Sickle" on patrol south of Toulon, France
torpedoed "U-303".
Merchant Shipping
War -
In the first five months of 1942 Allied forces
sank over 500 Axis
merchantmen of 560,000 tons throughout the
Mediterranean.
JUNE
1943
Atlantic
4th -
Submarine
"Truculent" (accidentally lost after the war in
1950) on anti-U-boat patrol between Norway and
Iceland
sank "U-308" north of the Faeroe Islands.
JULY
1943
Mediterranean
10th
- Invasion of Sicily: Operation
'Husky' (map lbelow) - A
grand total
of 2,590 US and British warships - major and
minor were
assembled for the invasion including Force H
with
battleships "Nelson", "Rodney",
"Warspite" and "Valiant" and fleet
carriers "Formidable" and Indomitable".
Seven Royal Navy submarines acted as navigation
markers
off the invasion beaches. Twelve Axis submarines
were
sunk in and around Sicily, including three to
Royal Navy
submarines: 13th - North of the Strait
of Messina
Italian submarine "ACCIAIO"
was torpedoed
by patrolling submarine
"Unruly". 15th - Transport submarine
"REMO" on passage through the Gulf of
Taranto during the invasion was lost to
submarine
"United". 29th - "PIETRO
MICCA" was
torpedoed
by submarine "Trooper" at the entrance to the
Adriatic in the Strait of Otranto.
AUGUST 1943
Mediterranean
Royal
Navy
Submarine Operations - Patrols in the
Mediterranean
led to the sinking of numerous Axis ships
including two
Italian warships, but two boats were lost in
August, the
first for over three months: 9th -
"Simoom" sank destroyer GIOBERTI" off Spezia,
northwest Italy.
11th
- "PARTHIAN"
was overdue
on this date. She left Malta
on 22nd July for the southern Adriatic and
failed to
return to Beirut. (“Parthian” sank Italian
submarine “DIAMANTE” off Tobruk, Libya on 20th
June
1940 and torpedoed Vichy French submarine
"SOUFFLEUR" on 25th June 1941 during the
British-Free French campaign to occupy Lebanon
and
Syria). 14th - "SARACEN" on
patrol off Bastia, Corsica was
lost to Italian corvettes "Minerva" and
"Euterpe". 28th - "Ultor"
torpedoed torpedo boat "LINCE" in the Gulf of
Taranto.
HM
Submarine Parthian
SEPTEMBER
1943
Atlantic
22nd
-
Midget Submarine Attack on Tirpitz: Operation
'Source'
- Battleship
"Tirpitz" posed such a threat to Russian
convoys and held down so much of Home Fleet's
strength
that almost any measures to immobilise her were
justified. One gallant attempt was made in
October 1942
when a small Norwegian fishing vessel "Arthur",
penetrated to within a few miles of the
battleship in
Trondheimfiord with Chariot human torpedoes
slung underneath. Just short of the
target they broke away and all the effort was in
vain.
Now it was the turn of midget submarines - the
X-craft each with two 2-ton saddle
charges. Six left for northern Norway towed by
'S' or 'T'
class submarines. Two were lost on passage, but
on the 20th
off Altenfiord, "X-5", "X-6" and
"X-7" set out to attack "Tirpitz" and
"X-10" for the Scharnhorst. "X-5"
was lost
and "X-10" was unable
to attack, but "X-6" (Lt Cameron) and "X-7" (Lt
Place) penetrated all the
defences to reach "Tirpitz" laying in Kaafiord
at the far end of Altenfiord. Both dropped their
charges
under or near the battleship before they sank
and some of
their crews escaped. "Tirpitz" managed to shift
her position slightly, but
not enough to avoid damage when the charges went
up. She
was out of action for six months. Lt Donald
Cameron RNR
and Lt Basil Place RN were awarded the Victoria
Cross.
Mediterranean
7th
-
Submarine "Shakespeare" on patrol off the Gulf
of Salerno sank Italian submarine "VELELLA".
OCTOBER
1943
Mediterranean
Early
October - Two RN submarines failed to
return from
patrol in the month. The first was "USURPER"
which left Algiers on 24th
September for the Gulf of Genoa, and did not
answer a
signal on the 11th. She may had been mined or
fallen
victim to German A/S forces.
Mid-October
- The second was "TROOPER". She set out from
Beirut in the
Lebanon on 26th September for Dodecanese patrol
and did
not get back on the 17th. German records claim
she was
sunk by a Q-ship off Kos on the 14th
NOVEMBER
1943
Mediterranean
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.
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
12th
-
Royal Navy submarines were now operating from
Ceylon to
the west of Thailand (Siam), Malaya and around
Sumatra
mainly to interrupt Japanese seaborne supplies
to Burma.
On patrol off Penang, Malaya in the Malacca
Strait,
submarine "Taurus" sank the Japanese "I-34"
sailing on a supply trip to
Europe.
1944
|
Axis
Shipping
Losses due to Royal Navy
Submarines in
1944
European
waters in 1944 - 25 ships
of 66,000grt
Mediterranean
and Indian Ocean
figures for 1944 had not been
assembled
|
JANUARY
1944
Mediterranean
Anzio
Landings,
Italy, Operation 'Shingle' - A total of
369
British, Allied and US warships took part
including two
Royal Navy submarines which provide
the usual
navigational markers.
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
Indian Ocean
Operations
- Late in the month the British Eastern
Fleet was
considerably strengthened by the arrival of
capital ships
"Queen Elizabeth", "Valiant",
"Renown" and carriers "Illustrious"
and "Unicorn", cruisers and destroyers. To date
only the Ceylon-based submarines had been
available to
carry out offensive operations in the Indian
Ocean, and
in January they had two successes against
Japanese light
cruisers of the 'Kuma' class, both off Penang in
the
Malacca Strait. On the 11th "Tally Ho"
(Lt-Cdr L. W. A. Bennington) sank the "KUMA".
Two weeks later
"Templar" damaged "Kitakami".
FEBRUARY
1944
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
14th - On
patrol in
the Malacca Strait, submarine "Tally Ho" had
another success (the other was cruiser "Kuma"
the month before) sinking German ex-Italian
submarine "UIt-23" bound for Europe with cargo
from
the Far East.
MARCH
1944
Europe
20th - Two
Royal
Navy submarines, one of them ex-German, were
lost. On the
20th "GRAPH"
(the captured
"U-570") broke her tow and ran aground on Islay
Island off the west coast of Scotland.
28th - The
second
loss was "SYRTIS" on Norwegian patrol. After
sinking a small
ship off Bodo a few days before, she was sunk in
the
minefields flanking the port.
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
March -
Submarine "STONEHENGE"
sailed from Ceylon
for patrol in the area
between Sumatra and the Nicobar Islands. She was
overdue
on the 20th, cause of loss unknown.
APRIL
1944
Atlantic
19th -
Norwegian
submarine "Ula" working with the Home Fleet
flotillas and on patrol off Stavanger, SW Norway
sank "U-974".
JUNE
1944
Atlantic
15th -
Submarine
"Satyr" on Arctic patrol torpedoed and sank
"U-987" to the west of Narvik.
Europe
Normandy
Invasion: Operation 'Overlord' -
The Naval Task Forces total 672
warships for assault convoy escort,
minesweeping, shore
bombardment, local defence and 4,126 major and
minor
landing ships and craft for initial assault and
ferry
purposes, a grand total of 4,798. By the 5th
two
midget submarines were already on
station off
the British sector, ready to guide in the
landing craft
on the 6th. They had already been used in the
build-up to
D-day, transporting frogmen to reconnoitre the
beach
defenses and take seabed samples.
Mediterranean
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.
JULY
1944
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
17th - As the
Ceylon-based submarines continued to cut
Japanese supply
lines to their armies in Burma, "Telemachus" on
patrol in the Malacca Strait sank Japanese
submarine "I-166" outward bound for Indian Ocean
operations.
SEPTEMBER
1944
Mediterranean
Royal Navy
Submarine
Operations - These drew to a close. With
so few
German targets left, the famous 10th Submarine
Flotilla
was disbanded although some of the boats
continued to
work out of Malta in the Aegean. The last
British
submarine sunk was "Sickle" three months
earlier in June, the 45th Royal Navy loss in the
Mediterranean. From June 1940 to the end of 1944
the
flotillas had accounted for: one million tons of
Axis shipping ,
three Italian cruisers, over 30 destroyers,
torpedo boats
and German and Italian submarines in the
Mediterranean
theatre. To these can
be added the uncompleted light cruiser "Ulpio
Traiano" sunk at
Palermo in January 1943 by submarine-launched
Chariot
human torpedoes.
Although one million
tons
of Axis shipping in the Mediterranean can not
compare to
the nearly 15 million tons of British, Allied
and neutral
shipping lost to all Axis submarines in all
theatres, it was still a major accomplishment in
the
confined and clear waters of the Mediterranean.
It was
also vital in the battle for Malta and North
Africa.
Whereas British forces, including submarines did
break
Axis supply routes to North Africa, Germany and
Italy
were not able to stop the supply and
reinforcement of
Malta. Also in the broader war, Britain's
survival
depended on the Atlantic and other trade routes;
Germany
and Italy's did not. In contrast, Japan did
depend on
sea-borne links, and these the US submarines did
break.
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
23rd -
Submarine
"Trenchant" on patrol off Penang in the Malacca
Strait sank "U-859" arriving from operations in
the
Indian Ocean. One flotilla of Ceylon-based
submarines
moved to Western Australia to work in East
lndies waters
under American Seventh Fleet command.
NOVEMBER
1944
Europe
11th - On
Arctic
patrol off the Lofoten Islands, submarine
"Venturer" sank "U-771" heading home for Narvik
from
operations in northern waters.
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
22nd - Three
days
after sinking a ship in the shallow Malacca
Strait off
the west coast of Malaya, submarine "STRATAGEM"
was
located and
sunk by a Japanese
destroyer on the 22nd.
1945
|
Axis
Shipping
Losses due to Royal Navy
Submarines in
1945
European
waters January-May 1945 - 3
ships of 3,000grt
Mediterranean
January-May 1945 and
Indian Ocean/SE Asia January-August
1945 figures
had not been assembled
|
JANUARY
1945
Indian &
Pacific Oceans
3rd - On
patrol to
the north of Sumatra, "SHAKESPEARE" surfaced to
engage a merchant
ship. Hit by return gunfire and later aircraft
attack,
she reached Ceylon, but was not fully repaired.
16th - The
last
British 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.)
FEBRUARY
1945
Atlantic
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.
APRIL
1945
Atlantic
12th - Home
Fleet
submarines gained another success when "Tapir"
sank outward-bound "U-486" off Bergen, Norway.
MAY
1945
Germany
- Final Defeat and Surrender
Mediterranean
Mediterranean -
Final
Victory - The entire Mediterranean basin,
the Middle
East, and North and East Africa were now
completely free
from threat of German and Italian military
domination.
The Royal Navy's cost had been high - over 40%
of total
major warship losses of the Royal Navy
world-wide: one battleship, two
fleet carriers, 20 cruisers and
cruiser-minelayers, 67
destroyers and escort destroyers, 45
submarines,
escorts, minesweepers, landing craft, coastal
forces and thousands of officers and men.
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
19th - On
patrol in
the Java Sea, submarine "TERRAPIN"
attacked
an
escorted Japanese
tanker and was
badly damaged by depth charges in the
counter-attack. She
was not repaired, the last Royal Navy submarine
casualty
of the war.
JUNE
1945
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
8th - As
Japanese
heavy cruiser "ASHIGARA" (sister-ship to
"Haguro" sunk by
British destroyers) carried troops from Batavia.
Java to
Singapore, she was torpedoed five times by
submarine
"Trenchant" and sank in the Banka Strait off
southeast Sumatra.
JULY
1945
Indian
& Pacific Oceans
31st
-
Sinking of the "Takao" - Japanese
heavy cruiser
"Takao", previously damaged by US submarines on
passage to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, was now
laying off
Singapore in the Johore Straits. On the night of
the
30th/31st, midget submarines "XE-1" (Lt Smart)
and "XE-3" (Lt Fraser) were released by towing
submarines "Spark" and "Stygian" and
managed to reach the cruiser to drop their
charges.
"XE-3" was almost trapped beneath the hull of
"Takao" on a falling tide. "TAKAO"
was badly
damaged in the resulting
explosions and sank to the bottom. Other XE
craft cut or
damage the undersea telephone cables off Saigon,
Indo-China and Hong Kong at this time. Lt Ian
Fraser RNR
and his diver, Leading Seaman James Magennis of
"XE-3" were awarded the Victoria Cross.
AUGUST
1945
Japan
- Final Defeat and Surrender
