CAB80-25 — Page 532

Page 532

Page 532

5

There have been only three casualties in Home Waters this week, one being the M.L. mentioned above. No ships were sunk.

During the week L.L. Sweeps have detonated 1 mine in the Firth of Forth, 19 in the Humber, 1 in the Thames Estuary, 2 off Plymouth, 1 in the Bristol Channel, and 3 off Campbelltown. S.A. Gear Type A have detonated 12 acoustic mines in the Humber, 2 in the Thames Estuary, 7 in the Bristol Channel, 8 off Liverpool, and 3 off Workington; S.A. Gear Type C have detonated 6 acoustic mines in the Humber, and 5 off Milford Haven.

It has been decided to revise the total number of mines and to count only those ground mines (magnetic and acoustic) which have actually been detonated by sweeping craft. Up to now mines dropped on the foreshores, exploded by passing H.M. Ships, &c., have been counted, but these are now being excluded. The revised figures, including this week's sweepings, are, therefore acoustic 168, magnetic 900, contact 798.

The searched channels at Liverpool for inward- and outward-bound vessels have been extended about 8 miles to the westward so as to cover more of the water liable to be acoustically mined.

Foreign Waters.

15. Mines were dropped in the Suez Canal again on the 3rd, 4th and 5th February. After the Ranee, 5,060 tons, was mined on the 5th February traffic was again stopped except for tugs and small craft. The next day a Minesweeping Hopper and a Canal Hopper were mined and a skid detonated one mine, whereupon traffic was stopped again until the 9th February, when tugs and small craft were allowed to proceed freely throughout the Canal. Southbound ships, including one of 15,000 tons, were allowed to proceed to Suez on the 11th February, and northbound traffic was to start on the 12th February. Sixteen mines have been accounted for in the Canal and six were dropped along the shores.

German aircraft are reported to have laid mines off Tobruk and Sollum.

Enemy Merchant Shipping.

German.

16. The s.s. Tannenfels, 7,840 tons, is reported to have left Kismayu in Italian Somaliland between the 30th January and the 5th February, and the s.s. Uckermark, 7,021 tons, and the s.s. Askari, 590 tons, have also left. The s.s. Uckermark was intercepted at sea on the 12th February. She attempted to scuttle herself and is unlikely to remain afloat. Thirty-seven prisoners have been taken. The only other German ship known to have been at Kismayu recently was the s.s. Kionga, 192 tons. The s.s. Tannenfels may be masquerading as a Dutch freighter under charter to the P. & O. S.N. Company.

A document taken from the Captain of the Rhein when she was captured recently proved that she was under direct orders from the German Admiralty.

German-Controlled Danish Shipping.

17. Two Danish tankers, the Christian Holm, 9,919 tons, and the Scandia, 8,571 tons, which had been at St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands since last May, were intercepted by H.N.M.S. Van Kinsbergen at daybreak on the 5th February eleven miles out. They were taken in prize to Trinidad.

Italian.

18. The Italian merchant vessels Adria (3,809 tons), Erminia Mazzela (5,742 tons), Savoia (5,490 tons), and Manon (5,597 tons) were captured off the south coast of Italian Somaliland on the 11th February by H.M.S. Hawkins and the Leonardo da Vinci (7,515 tons) on the 12th, the latter being sent into Mombasa with thirty-seven prisoners from the German Uckermark.

Four auxiliary schooners were captured during the Libyan operations. An examination of the port of Mogadishu on the 7th showed a complete absence of shipping, but four ships were reported to be still in Kismayu on the 12th.

Page 532

445

Page 532

Page 532