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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 "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee sails from Wilhelmshaven for a South Atlantic cruise.[1]
August 24, 1939
German "pocket battleship" Deutschland sails from Wilhelmshaven for a North Atlantic cruise.[1]
September
September 3, 1939
German submarine U-30 sinks the SS Athenia. This attack is interpreted by the United Kingdom as the start of unrestricted submarine warfare. However, in Germany it leads to stricter controls being issued by the Kriegsmarine. Germany at this point had 39 of its 58 U-boats at sea, but this was far less than the 300 which Admiral Karl Dönitz, chief of German submarine forces, considered to be necessary before the opening of war.
The first of the SL convoys sails from Freetown.[2]
U-39 attacks the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, but fails to cause any damage. The aircraft carrier's escorts force U-39 to the surface with depth charges and the crew are taken prisoner.[3]
German media reports the sinking of the British aircraft carrier HMS 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 the Battle of the River Plate.
October
October 5, 1939
German "pocket battleship" Deutschland sinks the first merchant ship of its cruise.[4]
British light cruiser HMS Belfast hits a German mine, and is seriously damaged while operating in the Firth of Forth.
November 23, 1939
A German magnetic mine is recovered successfully by the Allies, leading to the development of effective countermeasures. The German battleship Scharnhorst sinks the British armed merchant vessel HMS Rawalpindi. The Scharnhorst and the accompanying Gneisenau 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.
March
March 16, 1940
A German air raid at Scapa Flow damages a cruiser and causes the first civilian casualties in Britain of the war.
June
June 12, 1940
U-46 sinks Willowbank and Barbara Marie from convoy SL 34.[7]
June 14, 1940
U-38 sinks Italia and Erik Boye from convoy HX 47.[5]
U-51 sinks Saranac and Windsorwood from convoy OA 172.[8]
Canada loses its first navy vessel during an accident off the coast of France, when HMCS Fraser is cut in two by Royal Navy cruiser HMS Calcutta, with 45 lives lost aboard the Fraser and 19 aboard Calcutta.
British destroyers HMS Esk and HMS Ivanhoe are sunk and two other ships damaged by mines in the Texel Disaster with the loss of 300 killed and 100 wounded or taken prisoner.
U-93 sinks Dokka and Uskbridge from convoy OB 228.[6]
October 18, 1940
Minelaying begins on the Allied Northern Barrage minefield between Scotland and Greenland.
October 19, 1940
U-boats sink ten ships from convoy HX 79[11] and fifteen ships from convoy SC 7.[10]
October 22, 1940
HMCS Margaree, recently acquired to replace HMCS Fraser, is sunk in a collision with the freighter MV Port Fairy 480 km west of Ireland. 142 men are lost, including the captain and four other officers.
November
November 5, 1940
German "pocket battleship" Admiral Scheer sinks five ships from convoy HX 84 and the escorting armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay.[11]
President Roosevelt 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 escorting Convoy SC 44 off the coast of Greenland. Four merchant ships are also sunk from the convoy by U-boats.[10]
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 Henry German submarine U-432 sinks Brazilian steamer Buarque (which became the 1st of 36 Brazilian merchant ships that would be sunk in WWII).[16]
Along Natal coast, although damaged the Italian submarine Barbarigo 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.[18]
June
June 10, 1942
U-553 torpedoes and sinks the British freighter Nicoya at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River several kilometres off Anticosti Island, followed by the Dutch freighter Leto
July
July 4, 1942
Convoy PQ 17 is scattered in the Barents Sea leading to the loss of 22 Allied merchant ships.
U-507 sinks the tiny sailing vessel Jacyra.[21][22]
August 22, 1942
U-507 sinks Hammeran, 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.[21][22]
August 28, 1942
U-566 sinks Zuiderkerk and City of Cardiff from convoy SL 119.[14]
August 31, 1942
U-609 sinks Bronxville and Capira from convoy SC 97.[15]
September
September 9, 1942
USS Muskeget, a Coast Guard weather ship, is torpedoed near Weather Station #2, Lat. 54o N, Long 44o 30’W by U-755. 121 Officers and crew lost, including one Public Health Service officer and four weathermen, no survivors.
September 14, 1942
HMCS Ottawa is torpedoed by U-91 while escorting Convoy 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 sinks Empire Hartebeeste from convoy SC 100.[15]
September 22, 1942
U-617 sinks Athelsultan and Tennessee from convoy SC 100.[15]
October
October 4, 1942
U-254 sinks Robert H Colley from convoy HX 209.[12]
U-302 sinks Ruth I and South America from convoy SC 156.[29]
July
July 20, 1944
U-861 sinks the freighter-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.[31]
August
August 3, 1944
The largest convoy of World War II, convoy HX 300, arrives in the British Isles without loss.[32]
September
September 8, 1944
U-482 sinks Empire Heritage and Pinto from convoy HX 305.[9]
U-1302 sinks Novasli and King Edgar from convoy SC 167.[29]
April
April 18, 1945
U-1107 sinks Empire Gold and Cyrus H McCormick from convoy HX 348.[9]
Month-by-month summaries
1939
September
Allied shipping losses total 53 vessels. 41 vessels totaling 153,800 tons are lost to submarines. German losses are two submarines.
October
Allied shipping losses total 196,000 tons. German losses are five submarines.
November
Allied shipping losses to submarines are 21 vessels totaling 51,600 tons. More than 100,000 tons are lost to German mines.
December
Allied shipping losses are 73 vessels totaling 189,900 tons. 25 are sunk by submarines. The Germans lose one submarine.
Total Allied losses to mines during 1939 are 79 vessels totaling 262,700 tons.
1940
January
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, Arnold The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945 Naval Institute Press 2000 ISBN1-55750-019-3
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