List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

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Sid Guttridge
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List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#1

Post by Sid Guttridge » 08 Feb 2014, 13:57

It is easy enough to find chronological lists of ships sunk by U-boats, but are there any equivalent lists of ships attacked and/or sunk by German aircraft, either in print or on the internet?

Many thanks,

Sid.

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hucks216
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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#2

Post by hucks216 » 08 Feb 2014, 14:11

I'm not sure of an all in one source but the book Luftwaffe Aerial Torpedo Aircraft & Operations in WW 2 by Harold Thiele list those attacked by torpedo bombers, while Warriors And Wizards by Martin j Bollinger lists those hit by glider bombs.
And here on the Airwar Publications website is a free download of Allied ships lost to air attack from 14th May to 2nd September 1943 in the Med... http://www.airwarpublications.com/free- ... d-material


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mescal
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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#3

Post by mescal » 09 Feb 2014, 14:13

Hello,

I have done some partial work on this topic.

I've not yet double-checked everything, thus the data must be taken with a grain of salt.

With regard to capital ships, the Luftwaffe did not sink any aircraft carrier, and only one battleship - the Italian Roma.

For cruisers, below is a list which is, to the best of my knowledge, complete :
cruisers_LW_snk.jpg
And for destroyers, here is a list of the British (and Empire) destroyers sunk by the Luftwaffe.
Be careful, as some ships sunk in the Med may actually have been sunk by the Regia Aeronautica.
UK_DD_LW_snk.jpg
As for the destroyers of other navies :
the French Bison was sunk by the Luftwaffe off Norway, and most of the six destroyers sunk during Dunkirk evacuation must have fell to aircraft.
No complete data yet for the USN destroyers, but Beatty and Maddox were sunk in the Med by German aircraft.
Olivier

James A Pratt III
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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#4

Post by James A Pratt III » 06 Mar 2014, 00:45

Their is a german book that was translated into English I think it was The Chronology of WW II at Sea which lists a number of ships sunk by german aircraft.

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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#5

Post by James A Pratt III » 19 Mar 2014, 21:41

The Chris Shores books: The Fledgling Eagles, Malta the Hurricane years, Malta the Spitfire Year ect often list the unit that sank the ship. The Black Cross Red Star series and other books by Christer bergstrom also list Russian ships sunk by the Luftwaffe.

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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#6

Post by James A Pratt III » 27 Mar 2014, 00:34

The book I mentioned earlier is "Chronology of the Sea war" by Jurgen Rohwer it is on line at:
www.wld-stutgart.de/seekreig
If you want to known what Luftwaffe unit sank what ship the 12O'clockhigh.net site may be the place to post a question.

Sid Guttridge
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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#7

Post by Sid Guttridge » 19 Apr 2022, 17:22

Hi Mescal,

Thanks. That is clearly work in progress. Unfortunately it does not yet seem to cover the merchant ships sunk from Norway, many of which were trawlers.

Cheers,

Sid.

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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#8

Post by Sid Guttridge » 19 Apr 2022, 17:29

Hi James A Pratt III,

Thanks. I have Rohwer's books. Unfortunately they don't seem to go down to the level I want.

There were a lot of British (and Icelandic and Faroese) fishing boats reported missing west of Norway, most apparently in 1941-42 at times when confirmed aerial sinkings by the Luftwaffe were at their highest. I was wondering if there is any published source that could match these missing vessels against Luftwaffe claims?

Such works certainly exist for U-boat claims, but not, apparently, for Luftwaffe claims.

Cheers,

Sid.

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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#9

Post by Sid Guttridge » 19 Apr 2022, 17:32

Hi hucks216,

Unfortunately I am looking for information on Luftwaffe claims from Norway.

Thanks,

Sid

igorr
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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#10

Post by igorr » 25 Apr 2022, 10:57

I'll never see any works about Luftwaffe claims in paper or on-.ine, but i see many claims in original docs. Some can be found on-line in nice table form like this https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/ ... ect/zoom/9
Alas, these Lageberichte presents only to 4.6.41 and partially for 09-11.1941 on "500 Fond" site. More of such berichte from June to date unknown to me (at least 14.9.41) one can find in NARA T-77's rolls. Unfortunately i don't know exact rolls (i only know that rolls 913 and 914 has such Lageberichte for midsummer 1940)

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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#11

Post by Sid Guttridge » 28 Apr 2022, 12:38

Hi igorr,

Thanks for that. It looks a useful primary source for larger ship claims. However, it only seems to be a collation of claims for ships over 2,000t, because I could find nothing smaller.

I am looking for trawlers and other fishing boat losses. The trawlers were usually in the 500t range and smaller fishing vessels were as little as 20t. Perhaps they were too insignificant to include in this collation? A lot of the smaller fishing boats that survived seem to have only undergone cannon or machinegun attack, but this alone could be enough to have sunk others.

Cheers,

Sid.

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T. A. Gardner
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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#12

Post by T. A. Gardner » 28 Apr 2022, 18:52

mescal wrote:
09 Feb 2014, 14:13
Hello,

I have done some partial work on this topic.

I've not yet double-checked everything, thus the data must be taken with a grain of salt.

With regard to capital ships, the Luftwaffe did not sink any aircraft carrier, and only one battleship - the Italian Roma.

For cruisers, below is a list which is, to the best of my knowledge, complete :

cruisers_LW_snk.jpg

And for destroyers, here is a list of the British (and Empire) destroyers sunk by the Luftwaffe.
Be careful, as some ships sunk in the Med may actually have been sunk by the Regia Aeronautica.

UK_DD_LW_snk.jpg

As for the destroyers of other navies :
the French Bison was sunk by the Luftwaffe off Norway, and most of the six destroyers sunk during Dunkirk evacuation must have fell to aircraft.
No complete data yet for the USN destroyers, but Beatty and Maddox were sunk in the Med by German aircraft.
I noticed something interesting in those lists. In the column marked "month" almost all the sinkings happened in summer between April and June (4,5,6). I think there's a trend in that that should be investigated further.

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hucks216
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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#13

Post by hucks216 » 28 Apr 2022, 19:02

Would Lloyd's War Losses: The Second World War Vol 1 & 2 (British, Allied & Neutral Merchant Vessels Sunk Or Destroyed by War Causes) cover them? Are there any names for the vessels in question?

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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#14

Post by Andrew Arthy » 29 Apr 2022, 13:35

hucks216 wrote:
08 Feb 2014, 14:11
I'm not sure of an all in one source but the book Luftwaffe Aerial Torpedo Aircraft & Operations in WW 2 by Harold Thiele list those attacked by torpedo bombers, while Warriors And Wizards by Martin j Bollinger lists those hit by glider bombs.
And here on the Airwar Publications website is a free download of Allied ships lost to air attack from 14th May to 2nd September 1943 in the Med... http://www.airwarpublications.com/free- ... d-material
Hi,

We have been working on a comprehensive update of our list, with considerable input from Andy Mitchell. We now have 895 individual Luftwaffe claims against Allied shipping, including all those from the Norwegian campaign in 1940. This will be published on our website in the future.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

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Re: List of ships attacked and sunk by German aircraft?

#15

Post by Peter » 29 Apr 2022, 17:29

Hi Sid
For losses in the North Sea which seems to be your area of interest I'd recommend building a spreadsheet based on "British Vessels Lost at Sea 1939-45" (PSL 1983) includes Merchant and Royal Navies and add to that material from "Britains Sea War - A diary of Ship Losses 1939-1945" by John M Young (PSL 1989). That will get you the basics and includes motor and steam trawlers, sailing vessels and all sorts of smaller vessels as well as warships, steamers, motor ships, etc, etc. It wont ID the Luftwaffe unit but will give you smaller vessels and cause of loss if known.

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