Ship losses to aircraft

[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

[Nick Beale]

You may find convoy.web helpful and there are files at the National Archives that would help regarding the Mediterranean. If you have the name of a ship it's surprising how often there is an online source either about the individual vessel or the company it sailed for.

[Carl Schwamberger]

That one wont be quick but thanks anyway. Perhaps I can make time later & count ship by ship. meanwhile I'll hang on to the hope that the Brits did a analysis/summary & it lurks on the web somewhere

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Yes, this data exists. One table available on the Web is there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losses_...tic_(1939-1945)

Sources listed are books, not WWII-time reports.

Please note that "sunk by mines" shipping is counted twice. I mean that the "total sunk shipping" does not include this number, probably because the shipping is aslo counted on the U-boat, air or raider figures depending who put the mine in place.

Despite the title I'm not sure if these figures are only for the Atlantic. They certainly include actions off Great-Britain, and possibly raiders and U-boat attacks in Indian Ocean.

I also find the air attacks figures for late war strange: 7176 tons sunk by air attack in May 1945 ? This figure is corresponding to one Liberty Ship but it seems to me that by this date the Luftwaffe was no more active against Allied ships.

[DuncanM]

You also have to look at the number of sorties required to achieve those losses.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Thanks for this

Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti

Yes, this data exists. One table available on the Web is there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losses_...tic_(1939-1945)

Sources listed are books, not WWII-time reports.

Its a start. If I pursue this far enough the sources can be investigated. In the mean time I can make some checks of the gross numbers against Ellis 'Brute Force' or Hughes & Costello 'The Battle of the Atlantic'. Both have quarterly totals.

Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti

Please note that "sunk by mines" shipping is counted twice. I mean that the "total sunk shipping" does not include this number, probably because the shipping is aslo counted on the U-boat, air or raider figures depending who put the mine in place.

That is not made clear in the other books I've looked at. Was the mine laid by submarine. aircraft, or surface ship???

Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti

Despite the title I'm not sure if these figures are only for the Atlantic. They certainly include actions off Great-Britain, and possibly raiders and U-boat attacks in Indian Ocean.

I also find the air attacks figures for late war strange: 7176 tons sunk by air attack in May 1945 ? This figure is corresponding to one Liberty Ship but it seems to me that by this date the Luftwaffe was no more active against Allied ships.

A a wild guess this may have been in the North Sea, perhaps on the approach to Antwerp. There were still a few aircraft operational in Norway & Denmark in May as well.

I notice that in April 1941 the losses to aircraft are larger than to submarine. If accurate this is interesting as the submarine losses are not trivial.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Bekker 'Luftwaffe War Diarys' seems a bit uneven on detail, and perhaps a bit dated. Any recomendations for books on the GAF vs Allied ships?

This web site has extracts from several books. The wide variation in some numbers is interesting

http://www.usmm.org/battleatlantic.html

[Laurent Rizzotti]

It seems to me that the last antishipping missions flown by the Luftwaffe were flown from Norway against Artic convoys in March or April 1945, and AFAIK the last ship sunk by the Luftwaffe was the SS Henry Bacon on 23 February 1945.

Between UK and Antwerp, Allied ships were lost to pocket submarines, S-boats and mines but I have never heard of an air attack against them in 1945.

Regarding the heavy losses to air attack during the spring of 1941, I think a good part of them were lost in British ports during the Blitz, but I also suspect that the heavy shipping losses off Greece are included into this total. My impression is that the table is showing Allied shipping losses not in the Atlantic (even including N Sea and Channel) but in all theaters.

Actually I wonder if the losses to air attack in April and May 1945 were not caused by kamikazes off Okinawa...

Edited: The loss of Feb 45 is the Henry Bacon. The loss in Jan 45 should be the Alcoa Banner, bombed by German jets (Ar 234 of KG 76?) in Antwerp on 24 Jan 45 and declared total loss later. So I was wrong, there was at least one air attack in Antwerp area in 1945.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Actually I'm a bit suprised the last ship sunk by a air attack was only in Febuary. I'd have guessed something might have been sunk in March or later. I have a fair ammount of detailed information on submarine attacks, but the air strikes seem to be much less well documented.

[Brian Bines]

Carl, I take it you are aware of the HMSO publication of 1947 '' British Merchant Vessels Lost or damaged By Enemy Action During WWII''. It lists ships by date, name, ship type, tonnage, position, cause (ie AC) and How Lost ( is T or B Torpedo or Bomb ). Bearing in mind this is British ships only it shows no losses to aircraft in 1945 with the only loss in May being the Avondale Park of 2878 T on 7th May to a U-Boat off the Firth of Forth. I do not know if this publication is available in any US archive, I have not seen it on-line. On 21st.April-1945 KG26 lost a number of aircraft to the Banff Wing in an attempted anti shipping mission off Scotland,

Regards

Brian Bines