Mostly costly day in WW2 for Allied merchant ships?

[Rob Stuart]

On 6 April 1942 the IJN's Malaya Force sank 19 Allied merchant ships in the Bay of Bengal. Was this the largest number of Allied merchant ships lost on a single day due to a single enemy force or operation?

[mescal]

Not as many in one day, but :

* Of the 21 merchantmen sunk during the HK229/SC122 convoy battle, 16 were sunk on 17 March 1943.
* 20 ships of convoy SC7 were sunk in 3 days in october 1940.

BTW, do you have the list of the merchantmen sunk by the IJN in april 1942 ?

[Rob Stuart]

Ozawa sank Harpasa, of 5082 tons, on 5 April, using aircraft from Ryujo. The 19 he sank the next day were:

Dardanus, 7726
Gandara, 5281
Dagfred, 4434
Elsa, 5381
Hermod, 1515
Malda, 9066
Indora, 6622
Autolycus, 7621
Silksworth, 4921
Shinkuang, 2441
Exmoor, 4986
Taksang, 3471
Sinkiang, 2646
Ganges, 6246
Bienville, 5491
Selma City, 5686
Van der Capellen, 2073
Batavia, 1279
Banjoewangi, 1279

The 20 ships totaled 93,247 tons.

[Heimatschuss]

Hello,

the Luftwaffe raid on the port of Bari (Southern Italy) on Dec 2nd, 1943 comes close to Ozawa's operation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari

Best regards
Torsten

[Rob Stuart]

Yes, that was a worse day. The 25 ships whose tonnage is given total 93,308, so that beats 6 April 1942 in tonnage as well as in number of ships. Thanks Torsten.

Anyone else know of others days on which more than 19 merchant ships were lost?

Rob

[Rob Stuart]

I’ve poked around a little more and it seems that another possible candiate for the day on which the most Allied merchant ships was lost due to a single enemy force or a single enemy operation is 13 February 1942. In Empires in the Balance, Willmot says that “upwards of forty ships, ranging from 8,000-ton tankers to the meanest motor vessels and yachts, were dispatched by gunnery and aircraft”. Some of the 40 were small warships (e.g., the ex-riverboat HMS Li Wo, 707 tons, 1. 4-inch gun). These vessels were trying to escape from Singapore and were heading for Sumatra and Java. They were sunk mainly by, once again, Ozawa’s Malaya Force. Is there a complete list someone of all these vessels?

[Orwell1984]

http://www.worldnavalships.com/merchant_navy_losses.htm

This website might be of use to you though it lists only Merchant Navy losses. Using it, Dec 8 1941 looks like another bad day for Allied shipping. Admittedly most of the vessels are listed as 'seized' but they are still lost to the Allied war effort

[Carl Schwamberger]

For the broader view of cargo ship losses take a look at both Hughes & Costellos 'Battle of the Atlantic' and John Ellis 'Brute Force'. the former has quarterly data for ships sunk and tonnage and maps of locations in the North Atlantic & North Sea. Brute Force has a couple tables and graph charts showing total annual losses, losses in the north Atlantic by quarter and losses vs cargo ship construction by year.

[Polar bear]

hi,

Anyone else know of others days on which more than 19 merchant ships were lost?

April 7,1941
11 He 111 aircraft of 2./KG.4 (Capt. Kühl) dropped air mines in Piraeus harbour and bay and hit the British ammunition transport "Clan Fraser", 7529 grt. The ship's explosion led to a second explosion, that of ammunition transport "City of Roubaix", 7108 grt, resulting in severe damage to harbour installations. 13 ships with 41.942 grt, 60 barges and 25 caiques were lost.

greetings, the pb