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blown into the air and a large oil patch appeared. Two other attacks were made by aircraft, one off the Bloody Foreland and one in the Bay of Biscay, but in neither case was there any visible result.

A promising attack on a U-boat was made by H.M. Corvette Anemone and the Free French Corvette La Malouine in the Western Approaches on the 7th January.

Reports have also been received of a promising attack carried out by the A/S trawler Jade off Malta on the 29th December.

Enemy Intelligence.

German.

7. There has been little evidence of the positions of German surface units, except for the location of a Hipper Class cruiser in dry dock at Brest on the 3rd January. It is believed that this is the cruiser which was engaged by H.M. Ships Berwick and Bonaventure on the 25th December. Several air attacks have been made on this ship, and she is thought to have been hit at least once; details of the attacks will be found in the Air Section of this résumé. During these attacks two destroyers were also reported to have been damaged.

It is believed that the Germans have fifteen destroyers now available, of which up to the 4th January the following have been located. Four at Kiel, 1 at Hamburg, 2 at Wilhelmshaven, 6 at Bremen (4 apparently fitting out) and 1 at Brest.

Italian.

8. Air reconnaissances covered most of the Italian ports in the course of the week. At Naples (on 6th January) there were two battleships, one cruiser in dry dock, and three destroyers; at Cagliari (on 8th January) two destroyers and eight seaplanes; at Trapani (on 8th January) four destroyers; at Messina (on 8th January) three cruisers and three destroyers; at Taranto (on 8th January) four cruisers and two destroyers; and at Tripoli (on 6th January) five or six destroyers. In the Red Sea an air reconnaissance over Massawa showed three submarines and four destroyers. The remaining Italian battleships, which are believed to be at Spezia and Taranto, were not observed in the period except for one damaged Cavour in the outer harbour of Taranto.

U-Boats.

9. Throughout the week there have been three to four German U-boats in the North-West Approaches, and the same number of Italians. The Germans seem to have been concentrated in the northern part of the area rather further to the eastward than hitherto. One German U-boat has been maintained in the Freetown Cape Verde area, and one Italian in the Azores-Madeira-Canaries area. At the latter end of the period evidence was extremely scarce, but it is possible that reliefs may be on their way north-about from Germany to the North- Western Approaches.

Enemy Attack on Seaborne Trade.

NOTE. The following figures give the losses which have been reported during the period the 2nd to the 8th January. They should not be confused with the figures shown for the last week in the diagrams of shipping losses attached at the back of the Résumé, which show the actual losses for each complete week since the outbreak of war, and are only made up to midnight of Sunday-Monday of the week immediately preceding that covered by this Résumé. Later figures are not included in the diagrams, as they are likely to be unreliable, owing to delayed notifications and uncertainty regarding the result of recent attacks.

10. Eight ships and two small craft, a total of 41,908 tons, are reported lost by enemy action; of these, all but two ships (12,564 tons) were British. Only four of these ships were sunk during the period under review.

Two ships (10,994 tons) were sunk by Italian U-boats, one off the Cape Verde Islands and one in the North-Western Approaches. The former, the British S.S. Shakespear, appears to have fought a gallant action with the U-boat for two hours until her gun was put out of action. Three ships and two small craft

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