(c) crown copyright Catalogue Reference:cab/66/14/17 Image Reference:0001 SECRET. Copy No. W.P. (40) 487 (Also Paper No. C.O.S. (40) 1056) -December 19, 1940 TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY, It is requested that special care may be taken to ensure the secrecy of this document. WAR CABINET WEEKLY RESUME (No. 68) of the NAVAL, MILITARY AND AIR SITUATION from 12 noon December 12th to 12 noon December' 19th, [Circulated with the approval of the Chiefs of Staff. I Cabinet War Room NAYAL SITUATION. General Review. Naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean have been continuing operation ­ in support of the Army in the Western Desert. Although the tonnage which has been reported lost due to enemy action is considerable, the actual losses of merchant shipping during the week under review, as far as is known at present, were not excessive. Minelaying by enemy aircraft has been concentrated on the south-ea,st coast. ' . Home Waters. 2. M.T.Bs. carried out a sweep off the Belgian coast on the night of the 13th December but sighted no enemy ships. During a similar operation on the night of the 17th/ 18th a large armed merchant vessel was torpedoed and sunk off Zeebrugge, one armed trawler was hit by machine-gun fire and another possibly hit by a torpedo. No casualties or damage were sustained by our forces. The British-manned French torpedo-boat Branlebas apparently broke her back and foundered off the Lizard in heavy weather while escorting a convov to Dartmouth on the 14th; 3 survivors were picked up. On the 17th H.M Destroyer Acheron sank following an explosion whilst carrying out high-speed turning trials off the Isle of Wight. Some survivors were picked up. The cause of the explosion has not been ascertained, but a new contact minefield is suspected in this area. On the 15th December H.M. Minesweeper Britomart was damaged in collision off the Orkneys and will require docking. On the same day the Polish destroyer Blyskawica dragged on to H.M. Canadian destroyer Skeena in the Clyde and damaged her above the waterline. The Town class destroyers (ex-US.S.) Reading and Ramsey have arrived in home waters from Canada. H.M. Cruiser Mauritius was commissioned on the 14th December. North Atlantic. 3: During the week a force, which included heavy ships, has carried out a patrol in the Azores area, and additional submarine patrols have been stationed in the Bay of Biscay. Mediterranean. 4. Naval units of the Mediterranean Fleet have been engaged in harassing the retreat of the Italians, supplying our forward troops and evacuating prisoners. H.M. Monitor Terror, with Swordfish aircraft co-operating, success­ fully bombarded Bardia. During this operation Terror was ineffectively attacked by an E-Boat. The Italian submarine Naiade, which attempted to interfere with these operations, was sunk by H.M. destroyers Hyperion and Here-ward, on the morning of the 14th, five officers and 42 ratings being taken prisoner. H.M.S. Coventry was torpedoed by a U-Boat on the 13th, but was only slightly damaged. Fleet Air Arm aircraft from Malta successfully attacked Tripoli on the night of the 13th/14th, obtaining three direct hits on two ships alongside as well as inflicting damage on warehouses, and bombing ships in harbour. H.M. Submarine Truant reported that she sank one and possibly two loaded merchant ships off Cape Spartivento on the night of the 13th/14th, and a large south-bound tanker in the Gulf of Taranto on the night of the 15th/16th. H.M. Submarine Triton and the Free French submarine Narval are both overdue. The former was on patrol in the South Adriatic, and the latter between Sicily and Tripoli. Anti-Submarine Operations. 5. H.M. Submarine Thunderbolt reported that she successfully attacked an Italian U-Boat escorted by three trawlers off the Gironde on the 15th December. H.M.S. Bridgewater, which was escorting a merchant ship to Freetown, chased a U-Boat of unknown nationality in a position 150 miles west of Dakar. An attack was made by one of our aircraft on the 13th December eight miles north-west of Newquay, and one hit Was claimed with a 100-lb. bomb. Destroyers and aircraft continued to search and HM. A/S ; Yacht Migrante attacked a firm contact 30 miles to the northward on the following day. Enemy Intelligence. German. 6. Air reconnaissances of the German naval ports on the 14th and 15th December produced the first substantial information of German main units available for some time. The battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz were seen at Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven respectively ^ At Kiel the pocket battleship Lutzow had moved out of dry dock and was alongside. The two old Schlesien class battleships were both in Kiel, one in dry dock and one in a floating dock. A six-inch cruiser, probably Niirnberg, was also in dry dock at Kiel. Six destroyers were seen in the German ports as a whole, and one in dry dock. There was no indication of the whereabouts of either Scharnhorst or Gneisenau. Italian. 7. Air reconnaissance of Italian ports on the 17th and 18th December observed one cruiser in dock at Naples, and a number of merchant ships in the port; one 6-inch cruiser at Messina; and two Cavour class battleships, one 6-inch cruiser and five destroyers at Taranto. There were no reports of the whereabouts of the other battleships. U-Boats. 8. In the earlier part of the week there were five or six German and two or three Italian U-Boats in the North-West Approaches. There are indications that in this area the Germans have been moving gradually northwards and the Italians have correspondingly moved to the central part of the area. The present dispositions suggest that when the Germans leave patrol, they may return to Bergen in preference to Lorient. One or two German U-Boats are in the Cape VerdeiArea and to the south of it (one may possibly be Italian) and perhaps two Italian U-Boats near the Azores. There is no further news of the two Italian U-Boats which left Tangier on the 13th December. Enemy Attack on Seaborne Trade. AOTE.—The following figures give the losses which have been reported during the period the llth-lQth December. They should not be confused with the figures shown for the last week in the diagrams of shipping losses attached at the back of the Resume, which show the actual losses for each complete iveek since the outbreak of war and are only made up to midnight of Sunday-Monday of the week immediately preceding that covered by this Resume. Later figures are not included in the diagrams as they are likely to be unreliable, owing to delayed notifications and uncertainty regarding the result of recent attacks. 9. Details of shipping losses are given in Appendix I. 23 ships totalling 114,863 tons were reported lost by enemy action. Of these, 16 ships (86,837 tons)' were British; 14 ships (90,657 tons) were sunk by U-Boats (12 in the North-Western Approaches and 2 off the Spanish coast); 3 ships (12,038 tons) by raider and E-Boats; 1 ship (1,673 tons) by aircraft; and 5 ships (10,495 tons) by mines. 8 British ships and 1 Swedish ship were reported damaged by enemy action. During the period from noon the 11th December to noon the 18th December only 6 ships (4 British), 3 of which were sailing out of convoy, were reported attacked by U-Boats, and of these 4 were sunk, 5 British ships were mined off Southend, of which 4 were sunk, and 3 ships were attacked by aircraft. Mr. Howe, the Canadian Minister of Munitions, was among the survivors from the s.s. Western Prince, which was torpedoed and sunk far out m the North-Western Approaches on the 14th December. On the same evening a single E-Boat torpedoed and sank the Danish s.s. Monberg in a southbound convoy off Yarmouth. The British s.s. Newton Pine reported that she was [22038] ' B attacked by a U-Boat about 700 miles south-west of Freetown on the 13th December. The ship was first attacked by torpedo, which was avoided and then unsuccessfully engaged by gunfire for half an hour. On the 18th the British merchant ship Duquesa, on her way from Montevideo to Freetown, reported that she was being shelled by an enemy raider 700 miles south-west of Freetown. The report, which was incomplete, indicated that the raider was the A dmiral Scheer. Dispositions were made to meet this situation. Protection of Seaborne Trade. 10. During the week ending noon Wednesday, the 18th December, 671 ships, including 134 allied and 20 neutral, were convoyed, of which seven were lost by enemy action. These seven ships include three in a homeward-bound convoy from Flalifax. Other ships in this convoy were sunk before the arrival of the local escort, and have, therefore, been excluded from the losses in convoy. One battle­ ship, one cruiser, ten armed merchant cruisers, 35 destroyers and 28 sloops and corvettes were employed on escort duties. Since the beginning of the war 207 ships, including 23 allied and 16 neutral, have been lost out of 47,281 ships, including 5,110 allied and 4,221 neutral, which have been convoyed. Imports into Great Britain by ships in convoy during the week ending the 14th December totalled 904,673 tons, compared with 571,979 tons during the previous seven days and an average of 822,773 tons for the previous ten weeks.