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Italian.
15. On the 28th September aircraft reconnaissance reported that the bulk of the Italian main units were in Taranto. Reports from submarines state that there is considerable convoy activity between Bari and Durazzo.
There have been reports of Italian submarines between Gibraltar and the Azores, otherwise there has been little sign of activity. Enquiries have been made through Bucharest about survivors of the Italian submarine Provana, said to have been sunk by a French warship in the Mediterranean on the 2nd July.
German Merchant Shipping.
16. It has been reported that instructions have been sent to fifteen specified ships, ten of them in non-European ports, to carry out running repairs and main- tain seaworthiness so that they may sail at any time. The ships referred to are in the following ports: four at Kobe, two at Yokohama, one at Shanghai, one at Tampico, one at Paita, Peru, one at Massawa, three at Venice, one at Trieste, and one at Malaga. The last of these, the Tirpitz, 7,970 tons, completed bunkering on the 27th September.
The tanker Antarjtis, 10,711 tons, which is at Vigo, embarked two 10-ton lorry loads of cases, all similar, on the 27th September. She has tested her engines fairly recently.
The Weser, 9,179 tons, sailed from Manzanillo, Mexico, at 2345 on the 25th September. Twenty minutes later she was intercepted and captured by H.M.C.Ś. Prince Robert She is being escorted to Esquimalt, B.C., where she is expected to arrive on the 3rd October. She had on board 19,000 barrels of diesel oil fuel, 600 drums of lubricating oil and 2 tons of provisions.
The Regensburg, 8,068 tons, left Yokohama in a great hurry on the evening of the 27th September. She is believed to have had fresh provisions for only five days on board.
British Minelaying.
On the 28th September H.M.S. Plover and the Dutch Van der Zaan laid 170 mines in the Straits of Dover, and on the 30th September a deep minefield of 2,103 mines was laid in the North-Western Approaches by the First Minelaying Squadron.
Mines were laid during the week by aircraft in the mouths of Jade and Weser Rivers and at Lorient.
Enemy Minelaying and British Minesweeping.
18. Enemy destroyers laid a contact minefield east of Falmouth during the night of the 28th/29th September. This has caused one casualty, an A/S Special Service Trawler; two other mines in this area have been exploded by Oropesa trawlers. Two groups of Oropesa trawlers are being sent to strengthen mine- sweeping forces in the Western Approaches.
With reference to the suggested new type of "accoustic mine" mentioned last week, though there is at present no confirmation of its existence, similar explosions have occurred near ships during the past week. It is considered probable that the sinking of a small Dutch ship in the Firth of Forth on the 29th September was due to a mine of this type. H.M.S. Halcyon was damaged aft by a mine, also presumed to be of this type, when leaving the Tees on the 27th September. Nineteen mines of this suspected type have been exploded up to date, and three more have caused the loss of ships. Six LL trawlers are being fitted with minesweeping gear, which it is hoped will be able to deal with this type of mine.
The magnetic mine total on the 2nd October was 679, of which LL sweep had accounted for 457. This total excludes those dealt with on land. The contact mine total has risen to 531, an increase of two.
It is intended, eventually, to sweep the coastal channel round Scotland ahead of Convoys. The 5th Minesweeping Flotilla has been allocated to Rosyth from the Humber, and will practice this form of sweep with convoys between Rosyth and the Pentland Firth.
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