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to have been sunk by a mine south-west of Portland Bill on the 14th October. H.M. River Patrol Vessel Mistletoe was sunk in the Humber on the 15th October. There were two survivors of a crew of six. On the 16th October Motor Torpedo Boat 106 was sunk in the Thames Estuary, one rating was injured.

H.M. Armed Merchant Cruiser Cheshire was torpedoed by a submarine about 160 miles west of the Bloody Foreland on the evening of the 14th October, she was towed to Belfast, where she arrived on the 17th October.

Norway.

6. Four destroyers operating against enemy shipping off the Norwegian Coast on the night of the 13th-14th October sank a small convoy of 3 merchant ships and 2 escorting vessels. One of the merchant ships was estimated to be 7,000 tons and the other two about 2,500 tons. The escorts were a motor torpedo boat and a trawler.

Mediterranean.

A

7. The Fleet, which had sailed from Alexandria on the 8th October, encountered little air activity during its passage to the westward. There was apparently a concentration of submarines about 200 miles north of Benghazi and it is possible that a submarine attacked H.M.S. Malaya south-east of Crete on the 9th October. A convoy of 4 ships, for which the Fleet was providing cover, entered Malta on the 11th October, and several units of the Fleet went in and refuelled.

H.M. Destroyer Imperial struck a mine and has been docked at Malta. One rating was killed and one seriously wounded. Weather was bad whilst ships were refuelling, and no enemy air attacks were made.

8. A small convoy for Alexandria left Malta on the evening of the 11th October, and to cover them cruisers searched to the north and east. H.M.S. Ajax encountered three destroyers early on the 12th October and sank two of the Arione class (679 tons, built 1937-38). Later she sighted a large cruiser and four destroyers, one of which she damaged before the ships escaped in the darkness.

At dawn air reconnaissance located the damaged destroyer in tow of another one, but no other ships were seen. The towing destroyer, on the approach of our forces, at once slipped her tow and escaped under cover of smoke, and the crew of the damaged destroyer, the Artigliere (1,620 tons, completed 1937), abandoned ship.

H.M.S. York dropped Carley floats in the vicinity for the use of survivors and sank the Artigliere by torpedo. In view of the fact that the ships were in submarine waters about 90 miles south-east of Sicily, and the previous experience of H.M. Ships being bombed whilst picking up the survivors of the Bartolomeo Colleoni, it was not considered advisable to stop and pick up the survivors. A few survivors were, however, rescued some distance away by H.M. Ships Nubian and Vampire. Casualties in H.M.S. Ajax were 2 officers and 10 ratings killed, and 1 officer and 2 ratings seriously wounded. She suffered slight damage.

9. The Fleet was unsuccessfully attacked by about 50 aircraft during the afternoon of the 12th October. Three enemy aircraft were destroyed by fighters and one by A.A. fire and two others were damaged.

On the night of the 13th-14th October aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm attacked Port Lago in the Dodecanese. Barracks, workshops, hangars and a petrol tank were hit and set on fire. All our aircraft returned safely.

On the afternoon of the 14th October the Battle Fleet was again unsuccess- fully bombed. In the evening torpedo aircraft attacked without result, and one of them was believed to have been shot down. At this time torpedo aircraft also attacked the 3rd Cruiser Squadron and hit H.M.S. Liverpool, killing 3 officers and 10 ratings and wounding 40. Liverpool was taken in tow and arrived at Alexandria on the 16th October.

Three enemy

cruisers and three destroyers were sighted by aircraft to the north-east of Malta on the 16th October, but the aircraft lost contact and nothing further was seen of them.

10. Belated reports now show that H.M. Submarine Osiris sank a transport of some 3,000 tons in the Straits of Oranto on the 15th August. H.M. Submarine Truant sank a merchant ship of approximately the same size off Naples on the

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