British Lost 3929 Ships During War

Northern Advocate, 6 September 1947, Page 3

British Lost 3929 Ships During War

Statements of naval and merchant shipping losses have now been issued by the Admiralty in booklets published by H.M. Stationery Office.

The statement of naval losses adds little to what had already been published, except in one or two cases where a loss was not announced because it was not already known to the enemy; the loss of HMS Codrington, flotilla leader, in Dover Harbour on .July 27, 1940, is an instance. But losses of naval auxiliaries were not announced during the war, and probably few of the general public realised that they, together with men-of-war, are classified under 86 separate headings—a figure which does not include the different classes of “landing craft,” of which there are almost as many.

The total losses are 1503 ships of the Navy, with 20 landing ships and 1308 landing craft.

On the 1503, the greatest number was lost in 1942, when the total reached 359; 1940 was not far behind with 317.

Mines were the most destructive of the enemy’s weapons, accounting for 281, closely followed by aircraftarmed with either bomb or torpedo—with 271.

Some 114 ships were wrecked, 85 were lost by collision, and 75 by accident or fire.

U-boats accounted for 172—though these were mostly in the larger categories—and enemy surface ships, including E-boats for 109 all told. ATTACK ON TIRPITZ

Some incidents are publicly mentioned for the first time in this return, notably that the attack on the Tirpitz was made by six of the X-class midget submarines instead of the three that alone were mentioned in accounts hitherto issued.

Moreover, it is revealed that there was another class of midget craftintermediate between the X-class submarine and the “chariot” or “human torpedo” known as the Welman craft, of which four were lost in attack on Bergen in November, 1943. British merchant ships (excluding fishing vessels) lost by enemy action during the war totalled 2426, with a gross tonnage oi 11,331,933. Of these, 1332 (7,595,645 gross tonnage) were destroyed by U-boats, 296 (816,255 gross tonnage) by mines, 209 (969,087 gross tonnage) by surface craft, 383 (1,575,230 gross tonnage) by aircraft, and 206 (375,716 gross tonnage) by other or unknown causes. The heaviest losses were in 1941, when 717 ships (2,824,056 gross tonnage) went down—29l sunk by Üboats, 172 by aircraft, 76 by mines, 70 by surface craft, and 108 by other or unknown causes.

TOTAL LOSSES Total. losses in other years of the war were:—l939, 96 ships, 419,015 gross tonnage; 1940, 548, 2,435,667; 1942, 6466, 3,459,923; 1943, 273, 1,514,221; 1944, 103, 489,040; 1945, 43, 190,011. In addition, 136 fishing vessels of 24,525 tons were lost, the highest total, 55, being destroyed in 1941. A further statement on allied losses shows that the principal differences in merchant ship losses caused by Üboats in the First and Second World Wars were in the rate of loss and in the average size of ships sunk. In the first war losses averaged nearly 95 merchant ships a month compared with 41 a month in the second.

The average tonnage sunk a month in both wars was approximately the same at 215,000 gross tons, the average size of ships sunk between 193945 being 5250 gross tons, as against 2300 gross tops in 1914-18. GREATER RANGE The difference in the rates of loss is all the more remarkable as in the second war U-boats had a far greater operational range, and almost from the outset were able to use bases and facilities which placed them in a favourable position. Also from June, Germany had a partner in Europe who had more than 100 U-boats and until December, 1941, Britain was practically alone in facing the onslaught. In 1914-18 Germany had the naval forces of practically the whole world against her, yet her U-boats sank merchant ships at more than double the monthly rate of 1939-45 when one of the main reasons for the lower rate was the use of the convoy system from the very beginning. In the recent war it is estimated that allied forces destroyed an average of 11£ boats a month; in 1914-18 the losses of German submarines were estimated as 2h a month.