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Enemy Intelligence.
6. The Battleship Tirpitz was last reported in the Baltic on the 9th November.
There is some evidence of a concentration of destroyers in the Baltic, and none are now lying at Brest. Some, however, have been reported on the Norwegian Coast.
U-Boats.
Between twenty and thirty U-boats have been operating during the week. The main concentration has been reported well out in the North Atlantic. No recent information has been received of U-boats south of 30° North. In the early part of the week three or four were operating to the east of Gibraltar.
The number of German submarines in the Mediterranean has increased and may now be as high as ten. It is believed that they are based at Salonika and
Piræus.
Enemy Attack on Trade.
7. A Norwegian ship, homeward bound from Chittagong, was sunk after an explosion, off East London (S. Africa). No casualties from U-boats have been reported during the week under review. Enemy aircraft have again been active A trawler was on the East Coast, sinking two ships and damaging another. bombed and sunk off the Faroe Islands. One small ship was mined and sunk in Falmouth harbour. Three ships in a south-bound convoy off Cromer were sunk by E-boats during the night of 19th/20th.
Reports have been received that a ship was sunk by a U-boat about 900 miles west of Walfish Bay on the 28th October and another 400 miles south of Freetown on the 12th November.
Protection of Seaborne Trade.
8. During the week ending the 19th November 849 ships, including 180 allied and 25 neutral, were convoyed. Four cruisers, five anti-aircraft ships, one hundred destroyers (including thirty-one United States destroyers), and ninety-four sloops and corvettes were employed on escort duties.
Imports into United Kingdom by ships in convoy during the week ending the 15th November totalled 606,354 tons, compared with 1,295,823 tons during the preceding week, and an average of 990,557 tons during the past 10 weeks. Of this figure 247,867 tons were oil imports and 358,487 tons were non-tanker imports.
British Minelaying.
9. Mines have been laid off the French Channel Coast and in Northern Waters.
Enemy Minelaying, British Minesweeping.
10. Mines were laid in the Thames Estuary, off Harwich, and in the Bristol Channel. The Thames Estuary was the most heavily raided, as many as 35 air- craft operating on one night.
Sixteen magnetic and nine acoustic mines have been destroyed during the week. The mine totals are: 1,517 magnetic, 1,161 acoustic and 1,063 moored mines.
Enemy Merchant Shipping.
11. The Swedish s.s. Vollrath Tham, 5,787 tons, was lost owing to war risks off the entrance to the River Ems on the 10th November while carrying ore to Germany, and the German s.s. Schwaneck, 2,194 tons, was mined off Stettin.
There is evidence that the Corinth Canal is now open to ships of the largest tonnage which previously used it.
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