All, this is the start hopefully of a long day by day account of WWII at sea. The main source of information will be the book 'Chronology of the War at Sea 1939 - 1945' by J. Rohwer and G. Hummelchen, I will also use other sources, and give credit when those sources are used.

So with the new year drawing ever closer by the minute I will start.

Jan 1 - 4
Baltic sea:
The Minelayer 'Hansestadt Danzig' and training ship 'Brummer' conduct mercantile warfare.

That is all.

Ciao
Luciano

Cool idea Luciano. Keep up the good work.

Kenny

Ahoy mates! Luciano is going to take us on a journey through the naval battles of World War II. This is going to be a great trip. So, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Kenny

Jan 3rd
North Atlantic:
The American steamer 'Mormacsun' while en-route to Bergen is intercepted by a British blockade force and redirected to Kirkwall.
Following the reactions of the American press, Churchill orders that no more American merchant ships are to be stopped or brought in to a combat zone.

Ciao
Luciano

Right I hope this is of interest to you all, anyway the next entry.

Jan 4
Baltic:
The German cruiser Karlsruhe and the minelayer Schiff (ship) 23 intercept the Swedish steamer Kong Oscar trying to reach Sweden with Polish refugees from Riga.
42 Poles are captured, the ship is declared a prize and sent to Memal.

North Sea:
German special service vessel Schiff 20 (ex-Nerissa 992 tons) sinks by torpedo and gunfire an Estonian merchant vessel.

Quite start to the year but will heat up later.

Ciao
Luciano

Sorry for the lack of update but I've been busy installing a new model bench which required some moving of things.

Anyway back to it.

Jan 6th:
North Sea
The 1st DD Flotilla of Friedrich Eckoldt, Erich Steinbrinck, and Friedrich Ihn carry out mining operations in the Thames estuary.

North Sea
The British Submarine Undine in A/S operations in the Heligoland Blight is unsuccessfull against the minesweepers M1201, M1204 and M1207, but is counter attacked by German vessels and forced to the surface. The crew of 29 is taken prisoner and the codebooks are confiscated before the sub sinks.

Indian Ocean
The first New Zealand and Australian contingents of 13500 men start out for Suez in convoy US.1. The transports Orion, Empress of Canada, Strathaird and Rangitata set out from Wellington escorted by the BB Ramillies and the HMAS Canberra. These ships will be joined by transports Dunera II and the Polish ship Sobieski together with HMNZS Leander in Cook Strait.

Ciao
Luciano

Jan 7th:
North Sea
The 1st MS flotilla sinks the British submarine Seahorse.

Jan 7th - 6th Feb:
Western Atlantic
The German freighter Consul Horn gets through the Anglo-French blockade unnoticed at Aruba, then escapes the French submarine Agosta and deceives US naval aircraft and the British cruiser Enterprise, as she is disguised as a Soviet ship. She reaches Norwegian waters.

Ciao
Luciano

Jan 9th:
North Sea
The minesweeper M7 forces the British submarine Starfish to the surface with depth charges, the sub is scuttled and the crew taken prisoner.
After these loses operations by submarine in the Inner Heligoland Blight are halted.

9th-30th Jan:
North Sea
Attacks on shipping by bombers of FK X are carried out off the British coast line, twelve freighters of 23944 tons and one trawler were sunk.

Ciao
Luciano

Jan 10th:
Indian Ocean
Convoy US.1 is joined off Sydney by the transports Orcades, Strathnaver, Otranto and Orford, the Australian cruisers Australia and Sydney (as far as Jervis Bay) relieve the Leander.

North Sea
Offensive mining operations are carried out in the Newcastle area by Wilhelm Heidkamp, Karl Galster, Anton Schmitt, Friedrich Eckoldt, Richard Beitzen and Freidrich Ihn.

North Sea
4th DD flotilla lay mines in the Cromer area comprising the ship Bruno Heinemann, Wolfgang Zenker and Erich Koellner.

10-17 Jan:
Baltic
The minelayers Preussen and Konigin Luise conduct Mercantile warfare, many ships are stopped and some are sent to German ports as prizes.

Ciao
Luciano

Great info Luciano. I didn't realize there was so much minelaying around England.

Wow ~
Aruba and the Suez as well??
Ron

Thanks Kenny, yep loads of minelaying around the UK interesting to note the Germans also used the minelayers to stop ships and as anti submarine vessels.

Ron thanks mate loads more to come but the first couple of months are a bit slow in places.

Ciao
Luciano

Ahoy,

Here we go with some more history.

Jan 12th
Indian Ocean
Empress of Japan from Melbourne joins convoy US.1 on its way to Suez.

Ciao
Luciano

Jan 13th
North Atlantic
The Janus a German Steamer leaves Vigo but is scuttled after being intercepted by French ships.

Baltic
The Soviet submarine Shch-324 attacks a Finnish convoy, one of the escorts Aura II (a yacht of 563 tons) is lost due to leaks caused by depth charges.

Ciao
Luciano

Gday Luciano

Great stuff thus far.

Always real nice to see mention of the New Zealanders.

I appreciate all your hard work.

Keep it coming.

Regards

Sean

Hi guy's sorry for the lack of updates but I've been a tad busy of late.

But the show must go on!

Jan 16-17
North Atlantic

U44 is located by French radio interception. The German B-Service establishes that the position is inaccurate by 70miles after intercepting the French report.

Jan 18
Baltic

The Finnish icebreaker Tarmo is severly damaged in a Soviet air attack on the port of Kotka,

Jan 18-27
North Sea

The following U-boats have success off the British East coast:
U59 sinks one ship
U61 sinks one ship
U9 sinks two ships
U22 sinks one ship and the destoryer HMS Exmouth
U57 sinks one ship plus one ship on mines
U18 sinks one ship
U19 sinks four ships
U23 sinks one ship
U14 sinks one ship
U20 sinks four ships

U15 and U60 have no success due to defective torpedos.

Jan 24
Mediterranean

The Ljubljana a Yugoslav destroyer is sunk at Kotor by accident, the ship is raised and later repaired.

Jan 25-26
North Sea

The planned sortie into Skagerrak by the German destoryers Wilhelm Heidkamp, Karl Galster, Anton Schmitt, Paul Jacobi, Richard Beitzen and Hermann Schoemann is abandoned, most of the ships suffer some damage due to heavy seas.

Jan27 - Feb10
North Sea
The following U-boats have success off the British east coast and southern North sea.

U13 sinks two ships
U21 sinks two ships
U58 sinks one ship
U59 sinks three ships

No success for U56, U24 and U17

Jan29 - 30
North Sea
Aircraft from KG26 and KG30 carry out strikes against shipping on the East coast of Britian, four ships are sunk and four are damaged.
He111's of FK X sink two and damage eight.

Jan30
North Sea
Following a collision between U15 and the torpedo boat Iltis on U15's return voyage through a swept channel, U15 sinks with all hands.

January
Arctic
The Soviet minelayers Pushkin and Murman lay 200 mines to protect the occupied territory of Petsamo from possible Anglo-French operations.

That brings January to a close, next entry will be on the third of Feb in the North Sea.

Ciao
Luciano

Great work Luciano.

Thanks Kenny