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5. The following successes by H.M. Submarines have been reported :- Triumph torpedoed a merchant ship and a salvage tug in Candia Harbour (Crete) on the 24th November.
Upright attacked two large unidentified ships and a destroyer south of Taranto on the night of the 12th/13th and obtained 4 hits.
Urge reported that she attacked two Italian battleships of the Cavour class south of Messina on the morning of the 14th and that she obtained 2 hits on one of them.
(Reconnaissance on the 15th showed five Italian battleships at Taranto.) A 6,000-ton Italian merchant vessel is reported beached south of Navarino after being torpedoed by Porpoise.
On the evening of the 14th Talisman, when about 60 miles south of eastern Crete, shelled a U-boat and obtained a hit at the base of the conning tower.
Thunderbolt sank a 300-ton schooner in the Kithera Channel on the 25th November and Proteus sank a laden supply caique in the same area on the 8th December.
Our aircraft have sunk or damaged 15,000 tons of enemy shipping. Details are given under Air Situation.
During the week upward of 38,000 tons of French merchant shipping passed Gibraltar westbound and over 15,000 tons eastward.
Far East.
Philippines.
6. On the 13th it was reported that United States aircraft had hit a second battleship of the Haruna class off Luzon, and on the 14th obtained 3 hits on a battleship, probably of the same class. This latter ship was last seen on fire. Aircraft also seriously damaged a transport at Legaspi.
Malaya.
7. The Dutch Sbumarine 0.16 sank four southbound laden transports off Patani on the 12th, and K.12 sank a merchant ship and an oiler on the 12th and 13th respectively off Kota Bahru.
A convoy of about 100 ships escorted by aircraft carriers, destroyers and submarines was reported off the Indo-China coast on the night of the 12th/13th, and on the 14th a convoy, believed to be the same one, was reported in Camranh Bay.
Hong Kong.
8. H.M. Destroyer Thracian destroyed two river boats in Kowloon Bay on the 14th.
Pacific Islands.
9. Johnson Island, 750 miles W.N.W. of Hawaii, has been bombarded by two surface vessels. Wake Island was bombed on the night of the 15th/16th and en the following day. A Japanese U-boat fired several rounds at Kahulu on Mawi Island (Hawaii) on the 16th.
Anti-Submarine Operations.
10. H.M. Destroyers Croome, Foxhound and Nestor destroyed a U-boat to the southward of Cape St. Vincent on the 15th.
On the 17th the escort of a homeward-bound convoy, including aircraft from an auxiliary carrier, about 400 miles to the westward of Gibraltar located and sank U. 131 and took 55 prisoners. A Martlet aircraft was shot down in the encounter and the pilot killed.
Contacts with U-boats following this convoy continued on the 18th and at least one, and probably two, more were sunk by the escorts.
In addition to other attacks in the Gibraltar area U-boats have also been attacked by aircraft off St. Nazaire and by surface craft west of the Canaries.
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