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and sank one of them. On the 6th October the Dutch submarine 0.21 unsuccess- fully attacked U-boats off Kors Fjord (Norway). In addition, two attacks were made by surface craft in the North Sea and two by aircraft off the north of Ireland, but in none of these was there any visible result. The submarine which was sunk by H.M. Ships Havock and Hasty on the 2nd October (paragraph 10, Résumé No. 57), was the Berillo (620 tons, built 1936). Six officers and forty ratings were rescued.

Enemy Attack on Seaborne Trade.

8. During the period, thirteen ships (32,369 tons) have been reported sunk. Of these, four British (18,141 tons), one Dutch (2,202 tons), and two neutral ships (7,465 tons), were sunk by submarine. Four small ships (1,710 tons) were mined, and two British ships (2,851 tons) were sunk by aircraft. In addition, three British ships (14,418 tons), previously reported as damaged, are now known to be sunk, and three ships (25,418 tons) were destroyed by enemy raiders in the Indian Ocean in September.

The reduction in tonnage lost during this week may be partly due to bad weather.

Protection of Seaborne Trade.

9. During the week 856 ships, including 145 allied and 47 neutrals, have been convoyed, and two vessels have been sunk. One anti-aircraft cruiser, one anti-aircraft ship, twelve armed merchant cruisers, thirty-one destroyers and thirty-nine sloops and corvettes were employed on escort duty.

10. Imports into Great Britain by ships in convoy during the week ending the 5th October exceeded a million tons, the amount being 1,106,737 tons, com- pared with 799,188 tons during the previous week, and with 913,564, the average for the previous ten weeks. Eighteen tankers brought 187,711 tons of oil of various grades. Mineral imports were 416,726 tons, of which 326,580 tons were steel, scrap iron, pig iron and iron ore. The corresponding figures for the previous week were 291,646 tons, of which 212,779 tons were steel and ore, &c. Timber and wood pulp imports were 114,145 tons, and cereals were 167,799 tons, eighteen ships being fully laden with grain and flour.

Enemy Intelligence.

German.

11. There is no indication of change in the disposition of the main German surface units during the period under review. It now seems certain that the persistent stories of cruiser movements in Norwegian waters during September were not without foundation and that there was a large cruiser in those parts on the 28th September.

ports.

There has been little change in the shipping position in the enemy-occupied

For the greater part of the period under review there have been three sub- marines well out in the Atlantic in the region of 20° to 24° West.

The one submarine in the North-West Approaches has been in the neighbourhood of Rockall. Further south there has been evidence of the movement South-West of Ireland of submarines on passage to and from Lorient. A German submarine which has been at work off the Azores now seems to be homeward bound.

Italian.

12. Final reports of the ships sighted by aircraft in the Ionian Sea on the 30th September show them to have been four or five battleships, eleven cruisers. and seventeen destroyers. They were steaming northwards towards Taranto. Examination of the photographs taken over Taranto on the 2nd October show two Littorio class battleships in the harbour and three Cavour. This confirms the aircraft reports and also suggests that only one battleship was seriously damaged during the summer and not two as had been suggested in some accounts.

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