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25th September and H.M. Submarine Pandora sank a ship of about 800 tons off Benghazi on the 28th September.
West Africa.
11. The French cruiser Primauguet was reported to have left Casablanca on the 10th October escorting a merchant vessel with ammunition for naval units at Dakar. Strong forces were ordered to locate and shadow her, but she was not sighted.
Anti-Submarine Operations.
12. During the period seven attacks were carried out on U-boats, four by H.M. Ships Chelsea, Leith, Folkestone and Scarborough and three by aircraft. Leith's attack was by gunfire and later by depth charges. Scarborough and an aircraft attacked the same U-boat approximately 180 miles North-West of Rockall on the 17th October. None of these attacks have, as yet, been assessed as definitely successful. Four of them took place in the North-West Approaches, and three in the Channel Approaches. In addition, H.M.S. Trident attacked a 500-ton U-boat off Lorient on the 8th October and believed that she damaged and possibly sunk it.
In the Mediterranean an aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a submarine 250 miles north of Benghazi on the 10th October, and later on the same day aircraft co-operating with H.M.A.S. Vampire almost certainly damaged a submarine 50 miles south of this position.
Enemy Attack on Seaborne Trade.
13. During the period seven ships (33,855 tons) have been reported sunk. Of these four British (24,861 tons), one Norwegian (4,624 tons), and one Greek (3,687 tons) were sunk by submarine. One Trinity House vessel was mined. In addition, news has been received of the loss of one Greek ship (5,867 tons) by raider in September, and three ships, one British (840 tons), one Norwegian (5,811 tons) and a Greek (3,816 tons), previously reported damaged, are now known to be sunk.
Damage either by aircraft, mine or submarine, to eight British ships (44,194 tons) has been reported.
Details are given in Appendix I.
Protection of Seaborne Trade.
14. During the week 888 ships, including 164 allied and 40 neutral, have been convoyed and 5 of them have been sunk. These figures do not include certain convoys in the Mediterranean, the figures for which are not available. Two cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, one anti-aircraft ship, ten armed merchant cruisers, 36 destroyers and 44 sloops and corvettes were employed on escort duty.
Imports into Great Britain by ships in convoy for the second week in succession exceeded a million tons, the amount being 1,006,288 tons, compared with 1,106,737 tons for the previous seven days, and 950,082 tons, the average for the previous ten weeks. Fifteen tankers brought 162,539 tons of oil of various grades. Mineral imports were 338,955 tons, of which 260,301 tons were steel, scrap iron, pig iron and iron ore. Timber and wood pulp imports were 105,888 tons, and cereals were 176,567 tons, fifteen ships being fully laden with grain and flour. Other food imports totalled 78,984 tons, of which 35,935 tons were sugar.
Enemy Intelligence.
German.
15. Air reconnaissance at Kiel on the 15th October showed the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Lützow still in dock. The 6-inch cruisers Köln and Leipzig were lying at buoys in the stream. One minelaying cruiser was fitting out and another was complete. Earlier reconnaissance of Wilhelmshaven showed that the new battleship Tirpitz had been moved from the floating dock, and it is thought that this may possibly be a result of the air attacks on the 8th and the 9th October.
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