Naval War Day-by-Day

[Orm]

Thank you, Warspite1. [&o] [:)]

I am so looking forward to reading next post. And the next.


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Any chance that you will make a pdf document with all the 'day-by-day' posts when this project comes to an end?

[warspite1]

3rd September 1939 (North Atlantic – the U-boat war)

One of the first actions the British took in World War II was to put in place a convoy system. All ships that could achieve 9 knots or more (up to 15 knots) were put into convoy. This was a mammoth undertaking and suffered from two major problems:

1. The imports into the UK were actually slowed up considerably by the convoy process (but was considered the lesser of two evils)
2. There simply were not enough specialist escort vessels available.

New vessels (Hunt and Flower-class) were on their way but these would take time to come through – and the Hunt-class would prove wholly unsuited to the North Atlantic escort role. Royal Navy losses that were shortly to follow as one disaster followed another, merely added to the problems facing the British Government and the Admiralty.

There were to be some particularly dark days ahead....

A common sight from September 1939

[rhondabrwn]

I'm gonna love this

Tell Mrs Warspite that this is merely a "sisterly" kiss [;)]

[warspite1]

Thanks everyone for their words of support and kisses! [:)]

[warspite1]

3rd September 1939 (North Atlantic – the U-boat war and surface fleet)

So if the British were caught unprepared for the war that was to be waged against the sea lanes - the vital arteries that served the United Kingdom with its lifeblood: food, oil, and other resources – what about the Germans?

The head of the Kriegsmarine Grand Admiral Erich Raeder was assured by Hitler that there would be no war with Britain until 1944. By this time, the Kriegsmarine would have Plan Z – a plan approved just months earlier – well underway. Plan Z envisaged a Kriegsmarine with 4 aircraft carriers, 8 battleships, 12 battlecruisers, 3 pocket battleships, 5 heavy cruisers, 32 light and scout cruisers, 68 destroyers, 90 torpedo boats and 250 U-boats. Plan Z was a pipedream – and with the outbreak of war, it was cancelled altogether.

Erich Raeder head of the Kriegsmarine in 1939



The Kriegsmarine’s focus would now be on building up the U-boat arm. But as said previously, the U-boat arm in 1939 was no bigger than the submarine fleet of the Royal Navy thanks to the Hitler’s belief that he could keep the British “on-side” and the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935.

So on the 3rd September 1939 what did Admiral Karl Donitz have operationally ready and at his disposal?

22 Ocean-going U-boats (Types VII and IX) – 17 were in position off the Atlantic coasts of the UK, France and Gibraltar, 1 (Type I) was assigned mine-laying duties in the English Channel, 3 were held in reserve and 1 sent to operate in the North Sea.

29 Type II (known as Ducks) boats – 17 were to operate in the North Sea, 10 on defensive duty, 5 on mine-laying duty and 2 to patrol off Scotland.

Many of the U-boat commanders at sea that day would become “U-boat aces” in the coming months – heroes to the German public and holders of the highly prized Ritterkreuz. Among those at sea on the 3rd September were: Prien, Lemp, Endrass, Bleichrodt, Liebe, Schultze and Hartmann.

Karl Donitz head of the U-boat forces in 1939



There were hopes too for the surface fleet initially in the commerce raiding role. In late August, with Hitler having made up his mind to deal with Poland, the 11-inch gunned “pocket-battleships” Graf Spee and Deutschland had sailed from Wilhelmshaven. Each had a supply ship (Altmark and Westerwald respectively) that would provide the ships with supplies, spare parts and be on hand to assist with taking on prisoners of war etc.

Graf Spee (Captain Hans Langsdorff) was headed for the South Atlantic and Deutschland (Captain Paul Wenneker) was ordered to the North Atlantic. However Hitler, still hoping to get Britain and France to come to terms, did not authorise either ship to begin offensive operations until later in the month.

The Panzerschiffe Deutschland



Other units of the surface fleet were at work from the 3rd too. The German light cruisers and destroyers (under the command of Vice-Admiral Hermann Densch) were deployed to escort ships carrying out defensive minelaying operations in the North Sea – the so called Westwall Barrage. This operation would take until the 20th September to complete.

[warspite1]

3rd September 1939 (Admiralty)

Finally on the 3rd, there was an important appointment made by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Winston Spencer Churchill, an outspoken critic of appeasement during the 1930's was brought back into Government as the First Lord of the Admiralty (the position he had held for a time in World War I). Churchill was now part of the War Cabinet. The message went out from the Admiralty to all commands:

Winston is back!!

[Josh]

Impressive start W1. [&o]

Famous first shots of the Schleswig-Holstein; Schleswig-Holstein

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Josh

Impressive start W1. [&o]

Famous first shots of the Schleswig-Holstein; Schleswig-Holstein

warspite1

Thanks Josh - not seen that before. From 7:15 onwards they show the aftermath of the air attacks on the Wicher and the Gryf plus the re-naming of a couple of the four captured Jaskolka-class minesweepers Czajka (Oxhoft) and Zuraw (Westerplatte).

[operating]

Keep up the good work! Great theater introductions[;)]

[radic202]

This will certainly peek my interest!

[warspite1]

4th September 1939 (Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine)

The day is relatively quiet – certainly when compared with things to come. The transfer of the British Expeditionary Force to France begins; the lead elements of Lord Gort’s HQ sailed in the destroyers HMS Wren and HMS Venomous and are taken to France.

HM Submarines continue to patrol the North Sea. A few submarines come under air attack but without major damage.

German blockade runners continue to be intercepted and/or scuttled by Royal Navy vessels.

The aircraft carrier HMS Courageous leaves port to begin ASW patrols. Sadly such patrols were deemed a good use of precious aircraft carriers in the first month of the war. The Royal Navy would soon learn the hard way that it was not……

HMS Courageous



On the German side, the Royal Air Force were unlucky not to sink the “Pocket Battleship” Admiral Scheer which was hit by three bombs that failed to explode. The light cruiser Emden was also lightly damaged when a Blenheim bomber crashed into her side. Raids against the “Ugly Sisters” (the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau) prove ineffective.

The U-boat mine-laying operations on the East coast of England immediately yield results with two merchant ships lost.

German defensive mine-laying operations continue but a small German coaster, the Lianne, falls victim to a German mine in the Baltic.

[Ranger33]

Thanks for doing this! Should make for a lot of very interesting reading.

[George Patton]

+1

[warspite1]

September – 1939 (The U-boat war)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Rather than making this impossibly complicated (in terms of time) I have decided to streamline the data for the u-boat war. The data below is for the first month of the war 3 September to 30 September 1939 and is no longer split between the North Atlantic and North Sea theatres. Instead, this are all the boats that achieved at least one sinking (or were themselves sunk).

I will add commentary on some of the detail behind the data, but not on every sinking.

I have used three main sources for this:
www.u-boat.net
Chronology of the War at Sea (Rohwer)
Hitler's U-Boat War (Blair)

The data is essentially the same for Rohwer and u-boat.net. The only difference is 202 tons total tonnage, and most of this is account for by U-17 and the sinking of Hawarden Castle. u-boat.net mentions this, but neither Blair nor Rohwer do.

The other differences are between u-boat.net and Blair as follows:

- Blair gives the number of merchant ships sunk as 48 (3 more than detailed below).
- Total tonnage given by Blair is 178,621 (just under 6,000 more than detailed below).

Given the overall numbers, these are acceptable differences. I wonder if Blair has included ships captured by u-boats?

[Capt. Harlock]

U-29 (Type VII) (4) – Regent Tiger (8th) Neptunia (13th) British Influence (14th) HMS Courageous (17th)

Now that last one is rather significant.

Impressive details -- I look forward to the rest of this thread.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

U-29 (Type VII) (4) – Regent Tiger (8th) Neptunia (13th) British Influence (14th) HMS Courageous (17th)

Now that last one is rather significant.

Impressive details -- I look forward to the rest of this thread.

warspite1

Indeed so for "significant" sinkings or events there will be more of a story on the event date. I felt this summary was a better way of keeping track of what is going on generally in the U-boat war. We'll see how that pans out over time.

[t001001001]

When Bismarck gets scuttled this thread turns into a flame war [;)]

[Jagdtiger14]

Flame war over Bismarck being scuttled? Really?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: t001001001

When Bismarck gets scuttled this thread turns into a flame war [;)]

warspite1

[:)] Let's just say the sinking of the Bismarck will be dealt with "appropriately" [:)]

[operating]

"Remember the HOOD"