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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT

TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY.

It is requested that special care may be taken to ensure the secrecy of this document.

SECRE T.

C.0.S.(40)458.

12TH JUNE, 1940.

WAR CABINET.

CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE.

?

COPY NO.

PROPOSED INSTRUCTIONS FOR AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINES WITH REGARD TO SHIPPING IN HOME WATERS.

Memorandum by the First Lord of the Admiralty.

37

During the last two months a number of orders have been issued to His Majesty's ships and aircraft to sink merchant ships at sight in the North Sea and the Skagerrak and off the Norwegian, Danish and German coasts. I propose to issue

and in view of the instructions consolidating these orders;

danger of invasion and the habitual use by the enemy of disguise, I suggest that the new instructions should extend the area within which sinking at sight is permitted.

The proposed instructions to submarines and aircraft are attached as Annex I. They go beyond the previous instructions in that they allow submarines to attack any ship whether at sea or in port in the North Sea between the latitude approximately of Bodo and the Straits of Dover and east of our East Coast mined area. All the ports in the area are either enemy or enemy-occupied, except Swedish ports,

The instructions for and these are expressly excluded.

attack by aircraft cover an area of much the same length from north to south, but its western limit is about 150 miles east of the Western limit of the submarine area.

No neutral vessel is likely to attempt to enter or leave the Baltic, but provision is made to ensure the safety of those neutral ships of whose voyage we have been informed in advance. A communication to the Governments concerned will be found in Annex II.

The foregoing proposals have already received the concurrence of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and I now seek the authority of the War Cabinet to put them into force. They are urgently required in order that the units concerned may have a sufficiently free hand to deal with any attempt at invasion.

458

ADMIRALTY, S.W.1.

(Intld) A.V.A.

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