World War 2 Timelines 1939-1945 - Battle of the Atlantic 1940


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World War 2 on Film

A convoy battle rages in the Atlantic against one of the 'Wolfpacks'.

Battle of the Atlantic!


09/01/1940	German bombers sink three merchantmen in North Sea.
16/01/1940	British submarines Seahorse, Undine and Starfish reported sunk after penetrating Heligoland Bight.
21/01/1940	The Admiralty announce sinking of Grenville 8 dead, 73 missing, presumed dead.
22/01/1940	Destroyer Exmouth torpedoed off Wick, Scotland by U-22; all hands killed.


16/02/1940	The British destroyer Cossack, enters a Norwegian fjord, captures the German freighter Altmark, former supply ship of the Graf Spee and frees 300 British merchant seamen who were captured from vessels sunk by the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic.
19/02/1940	Destroyer HMS Daring torpedoed, 157 are killed.
22/02/1940	The German destroyer Z3 ‘Max Schultz’, hits a mine and sinks whilst trying to evade an air attack in the North Sea.
23/02/1940	Crews of HMS Exeter and HMS Ajax cheered through London after return from South America.


02/03/1940	British India liner Domala bombed in English Channel, killing 100 people.
16/03/1940	Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base.
22/03/1940	U-boats sink seven neutral ships.
28/03/1940	The British and French decide to start mining neutral Norwegian waters from the 8th April 1940.


02/04/1940	Germans again attack Scapa Flow and North Sea convoys.
07/04/1940	The RAF spots units of the Kriegsmarine steaming North towards Narvik and Trondheim loaded with troops and equipment.
08/04/1940	British submarines torpedo three German ships. Destroyer Glowworm is sunk after reporting German fleet movements and ramming cruiser Hipper. British naval vessels lay mines in Norwegian waters in preparation for landings by British and French forces at Namsos, Narvik and Andalsnes. The Polish submarine ‘Orzel’ sinks the German transport ship ‘Rio de Janeiro’ at 11:50. The Norwegians rescue several German soldiers who claim they are on their way to help the Norwegians against the British.
09/04/1940	The Kriegsmarine loses the cruisers Blücher, which is sunk by Norwegian coastal batteries, plus Königsberg and Karlsruhe to British naval and air attack.
10/04/1940	Six British destroyers surprise ten German Destroyers in Narvik Fiord, in what becomes known as the 1st Battle of Narvik. Two German and two British Destroyers are sunk and the British Flotilla commander, Captain Warburton-Lee is killed. He is later awarded the Victoria Cross, posthumously.
11/04/1940	Royal Navy submarine Spearfish puts pocket battleship Lutzow out of action for a year.
13/04/1940	British Naval forces, this time supported by the Battleship HMS Warspite, again engage the German naval forces located at Narvik in the Jössing Fjord. This, the 2nd Battle of Narvik, results in the sinking of 7 German destroyers and a U-boat whose surviving crews join Gebirgsjäger units that are defending isolated Narvik.
14/04/1940	The German Minesweeper M6, sinks Royal Navy submarine Tarpon.
17/04/1940	Royal Navy bombards Stavanger.
18/04/1940	British submarine Starlet sunk off Norway.


03/05/1940	Destroyer Afridi sunk by German bombers off Norway.
09/05/1940	The French submarine Doris is sunk by U-9 off the Dutch coast.
14/05/1940	Admiralty order requires all owners of large boats to send in particulars within two weeks.
20/05/1940	First gathering of small craft for Dunkirk.
24/05/1940	Luftwaffe sink destroyer Wessex off Calais.
29/05/1940	The British destroyer HMS Wakeful is hit and sunk by a torpedo from the German E-boat S30. HMS Grafton which was nearby try's to rescue the sailors from HMS Wakeful, but is itself hit by another torpedo from the same German E-boat and begins to sink. Another British destroyer, HMS Comfort moves up to help, but HMS Grafton fires on her in the mistaken believe that she is a German ship, sinking HMS comfort. 15 other vessels are also sunk by Luftwaffe Stuka attacks near Dunkirk on this day.
31/05/1940	Heavy Luftwaffe attacks sink two French destroyers off the beaches at Dunkirk.


01/06/1940	The British destroyers Keith, Basilisk and Havant and the transport Scotia are sunk by Luftwaffe dive bombers, near Dunkirk.
03/06/1940	Admiralty announce the loss of six destroyers, 24 small warships and participation of 222 British naval vessels and 665 other craft in Dunkirk operation. 226 vessels are sunk altogether.
06/06/1940	U-46 sinks the British armed merchant cruiser Carinthia off the west coast of Ireland.
08/06/1940	The British aircraft carrier Glorious is sunk by the German heavy battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Southwest of Narvik.
11/06/1940	RAF attack German ships in Trondheim harbour, Norway.
13/06/1940	Armed merchant-cruiser Scotstown is torpedoed by U-25 off Ireland, 6 crew lost. The first US arms ship, 'Eastern Prince', sets sail for Britain. The German raider Orion lays mines off Auckland, New Zealand.
16/06/1940	U-101 sinks the British merchant ship Wellington Star in the Bay of Biscay.
17/06/1940	Liner Lancastria, with 3,000 British troops aboard, bombed and sunk at St. Nazaire, in North West France.
19/06/1940	French ships seek refuge in British ports.
20/06/1940	The German heavy cruiser Gneisenau is damaged by a torpedo from the British submarine Clyde.
27/06/1940	All French ships in British ports are seized by the Royal Navy.


01/07/1940	In the first 6 months of the year, German U-boats have sunk 900,000 tons of Allied shipping.
02/07/1940	The British liner Arandora Star, carrying 1,500 German and Italian prisoners of war to Canada, is sunk by U-47 off the west coast of Ireland, with many casualties.
03/07/1940	59 French warships that had sought refuge at Plymouth and Portsmouth are seized by the Royal Navy, but only after overcoming armed French resistance in some cases. The British Auxiliary AA ship Foyle Bank is sunk in German air attacks on the docks at Portland, Dorset. Due to heavy losses at the hands of the Luftwaffe the British suspend all future convoy from passing through the English Channel.
04/07/1940	German Stukas and MTBs attack a British convoy South of Portland, sinking 5 merchant ships.
05/07/1940	The British destroyer Whirlwind is sunk by U-34 off Land’s End.
06/07/1940	German aircraft and minesweepers sink 4 British submarines, Narwhal, Spearfish, Shark and Thames. The first German U-boat base in France is opened at Lorient.
09/07/1940	The British submarine Salmon is lost south-west of Stavanger, Norway. The German raider Komet leaves Bergen in Norway for operations in the Pacific via the Northwest Passage in the Arctic Ocean assisted by Russian icebreakers.
16/07/1940	Destroyer Imogen sinks in Pentland Firth after collision in fog.
20/07/1940	German aircraft sink destroyer Brazen off Dover.
24/07/1940	Reports of Lancastria disaster released in London after Churchill’s ban on the news lifted. Neutral French liner Meknes, taking 1,100 French sailors back to France, sunk by German E-boat 572: 400 killed.
27/07/1940	German aircraft sink destroyers Codrington at Dover and Wren off the Suffolk coast.


10/08/1940	U-56 sinks armed merchant-cruiser HMS Transylvania off Northern Ireland.
17/08/1940	Hitler announces that a total maritime blockade is to be placed around Britain, with any neutral ships transporting cargo to Britain to be sunk without warning.
24/08/1940	The German battleship Bismarck is commissioned.
25/08/1940	German U-boats sink 5 more British ships from the convoys HX-65 and HX-65A near Hebrides, Scotland.
27/08/1940	Armed merchant-cruiser Dunvegan Castle sunk by U46 off Ireland.


01/09/1940	Destroyer Ivanhoe hits mine and sinks off Dutch coast, second to go down there in two days.
06/09/1940	British naval blockade lifted on all French colonies supporting General de Gaulle.
15/09/1940	In the mid-Atlantic, south-east of Iceland, the Canadian merchant ship Kenordoc is sunk en route to Bristol, England.
17/09/1940	Liner City of Benares, evacuating children to Canada, is sunk by U48; 77 out of 99 children lost, total killed 260.
21/09/1940	Over the past 17 days, British aircraft have sunk 12.5% of 1865 German transport vessels preparing for an invasion of England.
22/09/1940	Moscow Radio reports that RAF bombing has largely destroyed the German invasion fleet along the Channel.
25/09/1940	Royal Canadian Navy armed merchant cruiser Prince Robert captures German merchant ship Weser off Manzillo, Mexico.
28/09/1940	The first of the recently purchased US destroyers arrive in Britain.


04/10/1940	Admiralty announces recent sinking of seven German submarines.
12/10/1940	U-101 torpedoes and sinks the merchant ship Saint-Malo south of Iceland. The ship was a former French vessel requisitioned by the Canadian government. 28 are killed.
16/10/1940	U-124 torpedoes and sinks the merchant ship Trevisa of Convoy SC-7 south of Iceland, 7 are killed. Convoy SC-7 (30 ships) is on the final leg of its journey from Sydney to Aberdeen, and is attacked by 7 U-boats in the North Atlantic between the 16th and 19th October. Losses amount to 20 ships for 79,646 gross tons. No U-boats were lost.
19/10/1940	Convoy HX-79 (49 ships), sailing from Halifax in Canada to Britain, is attacked by 5 U-boats between the 19th and 20th October in the North Atlantic. The British lost 12 ships for 75,063 gross tons, while not a single U-boat was lost. The destroyer Venetia sinks after hitting mine in Thames Estuary.
22/10/1940	On a convoy in the North Atlantic, Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Margaree collides with freighter Port Fairy in poor visibility, 400 miles west of Ireland. It is the first convoy mission for the destroyer, and 140 lives are lost.


01/11/1940	British mine Bay of Biscay.
03/11/1940	U99 sinks the armed merchant-cruiser HMS Laurentic off Iceland. As the crew of HMS Laurentic are being rescued by another merchant-cruiser, HMS Patroclus, she in turn is struck and sunk by torpedo's from U-99, which had lain in wait.
05/11/1940	Armed merchant-cruiser Jervis Bay sunk by pocket-battleship Admiral Scheer during its attack on an Atlantic convoy.
06/11/1940	Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Ottawa and Royal Navy destroyer Harvester sink Italian submarine Faa di Bruno off Ireland.


01/12/1940	The Italian submarine Argo torpedoes Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Saguenay, killing 21, but not sinking the ship. Saguenay had been escorting an eastbound convoy 300 miles west of Ireland.
07/12/1940	The Admiral Hipper leaves Kiel for an anti-shipping sortie into the Atlantic.
17/12/1940	Destroyer Acheron sunk by mine off Isle of Wight.
25/12/1940	The Admiral Hipper intercepts a convoy bound for the middle east, but is forced to withdraw by three escorting cruisers and has to put in to Brest for repairs.
31/12/1940	Allied merchant shipping sunk by U-boats, world-wide from January to year's end 1940 is 567 ships, equalling 2,771,483 gross tons. 24 U-boats were lost worldwide in the same period.