Officers on the bridge of a destroyer, escorting a large convoy of ships keep a sharp look out for attacking enemy submarines during the Battle of the Atlantic. October 1941
German submarine U-30 sinks theSS Athenia. This attack is interpreted by the United Kingdom as the start ofunrestricted submarine warfare. However, in Germany it leads to stricter controls being issued by theKriegsmarine. Germany at this point had 39 of its 58U-boats at sea, but this was far less than the 300 which AdmiralKarl Dönitz, chief of German submarine forces, considered to be necessary before the opening of war.
The first of the SL convoys sails fromFreetown.[2]
U-39 attacks the British aircraft carrierHMS Ark Royal, but fails to cause any damage. Theaircraft carrier's escorts forceU-39 to the surface with depth charges and the crew are taken prisoner.[3]
German media reports the sinking of the British aircraft carrierHMS Ark Royal. However, this report is false: many such reports would be made during the war.
September 30, 1939
German "pocket battleship"Admiral Graf Spee sinks the first merchant ship of its cruise. Total sinkings for its sortie will total nine vessels of 50,000 tons before it becomes embroiled in theBattle of the River Plate.
Germany begins employing magnetic mines. These cause significant losses to Allied shipping.
October 18, 1939
Germany authorizessubmarine attacks against any passenger vessel in a convoy or without lights.President Roosevelt closes U.S. ports and navigable waters to any belligerent submarines.[5]
British light cruiserHMS Belfast hits a German mine, and is seriously damaged while operating in theFirth of Forth.
November 23, 1939
A German magnetic mine is recovered successfully by the Allies, leading to the development of effective countermeasures. The German battleshipScharnhorst sinks the British armed merchant vesselHMS Rawalpindi. TheScharnhorst and the accompanyingGneisenau are forced to abandon their sortie and return to port.
The United Kingdom announces armaments will be carried by all passenger ships. Germany responds by announcing that all vessels will be considered warships.
U-51 sinksSaranac andWindsorwood from convoy OA 172.[9]
Canada loses its first navy vessel during an accident off the coast of France, whenHMCS Fraser is cut in two by Royal Navy cruiserHMS Calcutta, with 45 lives lost aboard theFraser and 19 aboardCalcutta.
British destroyersHMS Esk andHMS Ivanhoe are sunk and two other ships damaged by mines in theTexel Disaster with the loss of 300 killed and 100 wounded or taken prisoner.
U-93 sinksDokka andUskbridge from convoy OB 228.[7]
October 18, 1940
Minelaying begins on the AlliedNorthern Barrage minefield between Scotland and Greenland.
October 19, 1940
U-boats sink ten ships from convoy HX 79[12] and fifteen ships from convoy SC 7.[11]
October 22, 1940
HMCS Margaree, recently acquired to replaceHMCS Fraser, is sunk in a collision with the freighterMV Port Fairy 480 km west of Ireland. 142 men are lost, including the captain and four other officers.
PresidentRoosevelt announces that US warships will henceforth protect US merchant vessels in the North Atlantic, and the US effectively joined the Battle of the Atlantic.
HMCS Levis is the first Canadian corvette sunk during the war.Levis is hit by a torpedo while escortingConvoy SC 44 off the coast of Greenland. Four merchant ships are also sunk from the convoy by U-boats.[11]
SS Cyclops is sunk 160 miles south of Halifax, heralding the start of a U-boat campaign that saw approximately 200 merchant vessels sunk within 10 miles of the east coast of the US.
January 30, 1942
Convoy SC 67 departs from Halifax and picks up a transatlantic escort in Newfoundland, which accompanies the convoy as far as Northern Ireland. This marks the start of the allied end-to-end convoy escort system, which remained in effect until the end of the war.
30 miles southwest of Cape HenryGerman submarine U-432 sinks Brazilian steamer Buarque (which became the 1st of 36 Brazilian merchant ships that would be sunk in WWII).[17]
HMSEdinburgh was hit by two torpedoes fromU-456 while escorting convoy QP 11 with cargo of gold onboard. 2 days later three German destroyers attacked and severely damaged her, forcing crew to abandon the ship.
AlongNatal coast, although damaged theItalian submarineBarbarigo manage to escape two times of attacks done by Brazilians B-25, after have unsuccessfully tried to sink Brazilian merchant ship "Comandante Lyra" at May 18.[19]
U-553 torpedoes and sinks the British freighterNicoya at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River several kilometres offAnticosti Island, followed by the Dutch freighterLeto
U-507 sinksBaependy, a Brazilian merchant ship, killing 270 civilians. A few hours later, the sameU-507 sinks another Brazilian passenger ship, the SSAraraquara, killing another 131 people, followed hours later by the SSAnnibal Benevolo, on which 150 civilians drowned.[20][21]
August 17, 1942
U-507 continues its slaughter, sinking another Brazilian merchant ship, the SSItagiba at the city ofVitória, killing 36,
and the SSArara similarly sunk with 20 deaths as she picked up the survivors of theItagiba.[22][23]
U-507 sinks the tiny sailing vesselJacyra.[22][23]
August 22, 1942
U-507 sinksHammeran, a Swedish merchant ship. In just one week,U-507 acting in Brazilian waters killed over 600 people, all of them neutral civilians. As result, Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy at that very same day.[22][23]
August 28, 1942
U-566 sinksZuiderkerk andCity of Cardiff from convoy SL 119.[15]
August 31, 1942
U-609 sinksBronxville andCapira from convoy SC 97.[16]
USS Muskeget, a Coast Guard weather ship, is torpedoed near Weather Station #2, Lat. 54o N, Long 44o 30'W byU-755. 121 Officers and crew lost, including one Public Health Service officer and four weathermen, no survivors.
September 12, 1942
Convoy PQ 18 continuously attacked by U-boats and aircraft until September 21; 13 merchantmen were sunk at the price of 4 U-boats.
September 14, 1942
HMCS Ottawa is torpedoed byU-91 while escortingConvoy ON 127 500 nautical miles (930 km) east of St. John's, Newfoundland. 114 crew lost their lives, including the commanding officer, while 65 survivors were rescued by nearby vessels.
September 20, 1942
U-596 sinksEmpire Hartebeeste from convoy SC 100.[16]
September 22, 1942
U-617 sinksAthelsultan andTennessee from convoy SC 100.[16]
Battle of Barents Sea: Kriegsmarine attempted to intercept convoy JW 51B.Admiral Hipper andLützow with destroyer screen sailed from Norway, butHipper was intercepted and damaged byHMSSheffield andHMSJamaica, andLützow failed to find a target. This failure led to temporary suspend of Kriegsmarine surface vessel operations.
U-861 sinks thefreighter-troopshipVital de Oliveira, the only Brazilian military ship sunk due to submarine action at WWII, and the last Brazilian vessel to be torpedoed in that war.[32]
Allied losses are 73 vessels totaling 214,500 tons, of which 40 vessels totaling 111,200 tons are sunk by submarines. Germany has 38 operational submarines to begin the year.
February
Allied losses are 226,900 tons, of which 45 vessels totaling 169,500 tons are lost to submarines.
March
Allied losses are 45 vessels, of which 23 are lost to submarines. Germany loses three submarines.
The Battle of the Atlantic by John Costello and Terry Hughes (1977, Collins, London)OCLC464381083
Barone, João (2013)1942: O Brasil e sua guerra quase desconhecida (1942: Brazil and its almost forgotten war) (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro,ISBN8520933947
Donald A Bertke, Gordon Smith & Don Kinde.World War II Sea War, Vol 5. Bertke Publications, 2013.ISBN9781937470050
Carey, Alan C. (2004)Galloping Ghosts of the Brazilian Coast Lincoln, NE, US: iUniverse, Inc.ISBN0595315275
Hague, ArnoldThe Allied Convoy System 1939–1945 Naval Institute Press 2000ISBN1-55750-019-3
Kelshall, Gaylord T.M. (1994).The U-Boat War in the Caribbean. United States Naval Institute Press.ISBN1-55750-452-0.
Rohwer, Jürgen; Hummelchen, Gerhard (1992).Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN1-55750-105-X.
Rohwer, Jürgen (1999).Axis submarine successes of World War Two: German, Italian, and Japanese submarine successes, 1939–1945. Greenhill Books.ISBN1853673404.
Scheina, Robert L.Latin America's Wars Volume II: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900–2001. Potomac Books, 2003.ISBN9781574884524
Wagner, Margaret E.; Kennedy, David M.; Osborne, Linda Barrett; Reyburn, Susan (2007).The Library of Congress World War II companion. New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN978-0-7432-5219-5.
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