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Seven ships (40,643 tons) were sunk by U-Boat, all in the North-Western Approaches, three of them being in the homeward bound convoy reported attacked last week. Eight ships and two small craft (31,692 tons) were sunk by aircraft and of these all except the s.s. Meriones, which was aground on the Haisboro, and the s.s. Sultan, which was attacked off Harwich, were sunk to the west and north- west of Ireland. One ship (5,723 tons) was sunk by a raider 800 miles west of Freetown.
Thirteen ships are reported damaged including ten British; of the total, seven were damaged by air attack and five by mine. The Norwegian s.s. Eikhaug which was damaged off Land's End shot down the aircraft which attacked her.
Convoys were attacked off the east coast on five days in the week, but apart from one ship sunk on the 3rd and an escorting trawler on the 5th, no damage has been reported. On the 4th three of the attacking aircraft were shot down by our fighters, and on the 5th one was shot down by fighters and one by H.M.. Trawler Lady Philomena.
Protection of Seaborne Trade.
12. During the week ending Wednesday 5th February, 649 ships, including 122 Allied and 28 Neutral, were convoyed, and of these, seven ships were lost by enemy action. Since the start of the war 221 ships have been lost in convoy or one ship in every 236.
One battleship, ten armed merchant cruisers, forty-three destroyers, thirty- nine sloops and corvettes and one submarine were employed on escort duties.
13. Owing to three convoys having been delayed by bad weather, fewer ships have arrived this week and the imports have again fallen considerably. Only 419,826 tons have been brought into the country compared with 474,190 tons last week. Oil imports, in eleven tankers, totalled 112,598 tons and showed an increase over the 97,105 tons of last week, but cereal imports amounted to no more than 29,269 tons compared with 73,321 tons in the previous week, three ships only being fully laden with wheat. Other food imports were 39,547 tons compared with 74,104 tons, but four ships brought 23,256 tons of sugar. Mineral imports totalled 148,949 tons, the corresponding figure for last week being 155,229 tons. Three ships were fully laden with phosphates. General cargoes and sundries totalled 44,377 tons and the cargoes of three ships included aircraft.
British Minelaying.
14.
The only Naval minelaying operation in the period under review was carried out by H.M.S. Teviot Bank which laid 265 mines in the East coast Barrier on the 4th February. Minelaying by aircraft has been mainly confined to the French Atlantic coast.
Enemy Minelaying and British Minesweeping.
Home Waters.
15. On the 31st January and the 3rd February daylight minelaying raids were carried out by enemy aircraft over the Thames Estuary, particularly in the Barrow Deep. On the first day twenty-four mines were seen to drop, but as visibility was bad there may have been more; on the second occasion eighteen were seen. Minelaying has also been suspected on more than one night off Milford Haven and in the upper Bristol Channel area. Raids, some of them certainly minelaying, were intense in the Humber area during the evening of the 4th February.
Eight ships have been mined in Home Waters during the past week, of which only one, an Oropesa Trawler, was sunk. Three of the casualties were in Milford Haven, two off Liverpool, one in the Thames Estuary, and one off Falmouth. One ship, the s.s. Gwynwood, 1,177 tons, was sunk by a mine which dropped on her while she lay at anchor in the convoy anchorage in the Humber during the evening of the 4th February; she had been damaged by air attack a few days previously.
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