Norwegian ship sunk off Lizard on 28 or 29 January 1942

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

I am checking the fate of the Norwegian ship Bjornvik today and while Norwegian sources (warsailors.com, https://minnehallen.no/) say she was sunk on 28 January, all other sources (CWGC for British casualties, British Admiralty War Diary, SKL KTB, http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4201-41JAN02.htm) say the sinking was on the 29th.

Bjornvik was sunk by a very successfull bombing attack, with five bombs hitting her in one pass and blowing her.

Has someone a report from this attack from the Luftwaffe to confirm the date of the sinking ? ID of the attacking aircraft will be a bonus. By the way a report saying there was no German air activity in the area on one of these days could help too.

Thanks in advance

[RSwank]

I think the ship was sunk in the early evening of 28 January. These two links tell the story.

https://www.warsailors.com/singleships/bjornvik.html
https://www.warsailors.com/singleships/bjornvik2.html

The second link has details coming from a February inquiry into the loss and includes testimony from two of the three survivors (who were rescued the next day).
The ship was part of convoy WP.103. The Bjornvik had problems keeping up and had dropped well behind the convoy (which was out of sight). At 18:30 on the 28th the ship was attacked, and it sank in 30 – 40 seconds. There was no time to even fire off any rescue rockets. The three survivors managed to get into a rescue raft but were taken further out to sea and were rescued after some 17 hours adrift by a passing ship.

I think the Admiralty was not aware that the ship had been sunk until the 29th

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hi,

While I usually use warsailors as a very reliable source, in this case I am not so sure. I wonder if there was not a date error or misunderstanding in the Enquiry, that will be used by both Norwegian sources.

As for the Admiralty not being aware of the loss on the 28th and so recording it on the 29th, from my experience, events around UK are usually recorded at the right date, and events from day before usually indicate the date and hour, not only the hour. Also a report from the 30th says that survivors had been landed, and that was supposed to be the dat after the sinking.

[Steve49]

Hi,

Looks to me like the ship was lost on the 29th. As you say sinking's in UK waters were generally accurately recorded by the Admiralty. Lloyd's war losses also has the date of loss as 29th (though confusingly they say 15 crew and 1 gunner killed, rather than the 16 crew listed by warsailors).

Regards,

Steve