Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Schwamberger
Are there any on line sources for ships lost to aircraft attack? I am trying to do a quick & rough estimate of the effectiveness of German aircraft vs Allied cargo ships in the Atlantic & Med. A source that braks down the numbers into some detail would be nice.
Thanks for any help in locating this
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Hello Carl
TNA, Kew, has the Daily Shipping Casualty Lists reported to the Ministry of Shipping Intelligence Branch in Board of Trade BT 347/1. Ships name, date, whether enemy action etc. I saw it two days ago.
It is a thick, narrow volume with 5 or 6 ships listed per page.
I was looking for aircraft incidents and notice incidents with shipping are recorded in the War History cases Volumes in ADM 199, see also ADM 1 and ADM 116.
But you will need to find the ADM Subject Code for shipping.
Code 2 = Accidents and Casualties to HM Ships
Code 3 = Actions with the Enemy
Code 5 & 19 = Accidents and Disturbance to HM Ships
Code 29 = Boards of Inquiry
Code 31 = HM Ships Damage and Loss
Code 90 = Aviation [e.g. aircraft attack on convoy in 1940 was under Code "90"]
You can usually find all the Admiralty filing Codes (including the above) by typing in the word for example "Ship" or "ship*" (or the subject required), the years in the "Year range" and in the "Department or Series" type "ADM 1" on the TNA Catalogue and the filing code is usually bracketed in the catalogue descriptions returned in ADM 1.
Then look in ADM 12 paper indexes and look for the DIGESTS section, then look for the year you want and order for example the Digests Volume which covers the Admiralty number subject Code 90 (being Aviation) for that year.
For example, for 1939 / 1940 the Digest (covering Aviation - Code 90) would be:
ADM 12/1752
Digest 72-90A
[the above TNA Cat number in the ADM 12 paper / online index, must cover the Admiralty Code number 90 in the number range in the description]
Dates Covering 1939 to 1940
You will get a huge Digest volume like an index covering your subject Code and usually other adjacent Admiralty Subject Codes, the example above covers all the subject Codes between 72 to 90. These digests have brief reference to each incident.
If you want to delve deeper, it is possible in most cases to trace each original Report from the Admiralty file reference number or War History Case number. (This is lenghty process looking back in the TNA paper indexes, because if the online TNA, catalogue show no return, it might because you have not entered the original Naval reference or War History Case number exactly as the PRO originally entered it in their computer.)
Having said that, the Digests themselves in ADM 12 for the year and Admiralty subject Code number can be a rich source of information, without the need to trace the TNA Catalogue number for the original Admiralty report reference. The Digests are huge and have many pages to look through.
Each Digest volume is in number order by Subject Code, so go to where 90-1 starts and 90 is further sub-divided under various title subjects. It sounds really complicated, but once mastered there is a rich source of information in the ADM 12 Digests and ADM 1 (searchable online).
The ADM 12 Digests can lead to further information amongst the cases in the ADM 116 and ADM 199 volumes, which each hold many cases etc.
I like the suggestion, to find someone else who has already done the analysis!!
Mark