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Enemy Attack on Seaborne Trade.

NOTE. The following figures give the losses which have been reported during the period the 26th December, 1940, to the 1st January, 1941. 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.

14. Details of shipping losses are given in Appendix I. Fifteen ships and 4 small craft are reported lost by enemy action, totalling 81,861 tons, of which 48,488 tons was British. Only five of these ships were sunk during the week under review.

Four ships (32,638 tons) were sunk by U-boat, 2 of these west of Freetown and 2 in the North-Western Approaches; 4 ships and 4 small craft (9,564 tons) by mine; 7 ships (39,659 tons) by surface craft, one by E-boat on the East Coast and the remainder by raider in the Pacific. Sixteen British and 3 Allied ships. are reported damaged, 8 of these by enemy aircraft.

Enemy aircraft unsuccessfully attacked east coast convoys on three days during the period, and a Channel convoy on a fourth. A Channel convoy was also heavily shelled off Dover by shore batteries, the only result being slight damage to two of the escorting trawlers. A homeward-bound convoy from Sierra Leone was attacked by a single aircraft on the 29th, when 50 miles off the North coast of Ireland. The s.s. Trevarrack was hit and set on fire, but was towed into harbour.

Protection of Seaborne Trade.

15. During the week ended noon Wednesday, the 1st January, 1941, 744 ships, including 140 Allied and 11 Neutral, were convoyed, of which two were lost by enemy action. Two cruisers, 8 armed merchant cruisers, 37 destroyers, 46 sloops and corvettes were employed on escort duties.

Since the start of the war 208 ships have been lost in convoy or 1 ship in every 235, and 165 million gross tons of shipping, with a carrying capacity of 250 million tons, have been convoyed, of which 0-6 per cent. or 987,000 gross tons has been lost.

Imports into Great Britain brought by ships in convoy during the week ending the 28th December, totalled 627,000 tons, compared with 702,710 tons during the previous seven days, and an average of 772,209 during the last ten weeks. Fourteen tankers brought 138,985 tons of oil of various grades. Mineral imports were 166,551 tons, of which 112,844 tons were steel, scrap iron, pig iron, and iron ore. Timber imports were 81,706 tons, an increase of 8,543 tons. Cereal imports were 106,884 tons, eleven ships being fully laden with grain. Other food imports were 96.430 tons, of which 34,996 tons were sugar and molasses and 20,916 tons were tinned and refrigerated meat, bacon and hams. Cargoes also included large consignments of lorries, machine tools and aircraft.

British Minelaying.

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During the week H.M.S. Adventure laid 280 mines off Ushant. Mine- laying by aircraft has been rather more extensive and mines have been laid by both Bomber and Coastal Commands in the Western Baltic and the French Channel and Atlantic coasts.

Enemy Minelaying, British Minesweeping.

17. Probably owing to adverse weather conditions, very little minelaying by enemy aircraft has been carried out during the week. On only one night, the 27th December, were enemy aircraft reported off Lowestoft and over the Thames Estuary. Nevertheless, twelve ships have been mined during the week, four of which were sunk. Eight of the casualties occurred in the Liverpool area, two in the upper Thames Estuary, one off Harwich and one in Penzance Bay.

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