This is a timeline for the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945) in World War II.
August 19, 1939
August 21, 1939
August 24, 1939
September 3, 1939
September 5, 1939
September 7, 1939
September 14, 1939
September 16, 1939
September 17, 1939
September 17, 1939
September 20, 1939
September 26, 1939
September 30, 1939
October 5, 1939
October 14, 1939
October 16, 1939
October 27, 1939
October 30, 1939
November 21, 1939
November 23, 1939
November 25, 1939
December 4, 1939
December 5, 1939
December 10, 1939
January 30, 1940
February 5, 1940
February 14, 1940
March 16, 1940
June 12, 1940
June 14, 1940
June 22, 1940
June 25, 1940
June 30, 1940
July 2, 1940
July 4, 1940
July 8, 1940
July 10, 1940
July 17, 1940
July 26, 1940
July 31, 1940
August 4, 1940
August 5, 1940
August 15, 1940
August 16, 1940
August 23, 1940
August 24, 1940
August 25, 1940
August 28, 1940
August 30, 1940
August 31, 1940
September 2, 1940
September 4, 1940
September 6, 1940
September 8, 1940
September 15, 1940
September 17, 1940
September 18, 1940
September 20, 1940
September 21, 1940
September 26, 1940
September 27, 1940
September 28, 1940
October 9, 1940
October 11, 1940
October 14, 1940
October 15, 1940
October 17, 1940
October 18, 1940
October 19, 1940
October 22, 1940
November 5, 1940
November 6, 1940
November 15, 1940
November 21, 1940
November 22, 1940
November 23, 1940
December 1, 1940
December 11, 1940
December 27, 1940
January 16, 1941
January 29, 1941
February 12, 1941
February 19, 1941
February 24, 1941
February 26, 1941
February 27, 1941
March 1, 1941
March 7, 1941
March 8, 1941
March 13, 1941
March 16, 1941
March 17, 1941
March 19, 1941
March 29, 1941
April 1, 1941
April 3, 1941
April 6, 1941
April 9, 1941
April 16, 1941
April 28, 1941
May 8, 1941
May 11, 1941
May 14, 1941
May 20, 1941
May 21 or 22, 1941
May 24, 1941
May 27, 1941.
June 1, 1941
June 11, 1941
June 13, 1941
June 24, 1941
June 26, 1941
July 7, 1941
August 5, 1941
September 10, 1941
September 15, 1941
September 19, 1941
September 22, 1941
October 16, 1941
October 21, 1941
October 31, 1941
November 3, 1941
December 10, 1941
January 12, 1942
January 30, 1942
February 10, 1942
February 15, 1942
February 16, 1942
March 20, 1942
May 12, 1942
June 10, 1942
July 4, 1942
July 5, 1942
July 6, 1942
August 8, 1942
August 15, 1942
August 16, 1942
August 17, 1942
August 19, 1942
August 22, 1942
August 28, 1942
August 31, 1942
September 9, 1942
USS Muskeget , a Coast Guard weather ship, is torpedoed near Weather Station #2, Lat. 54o N, Long 44o 30’W by U-755. 121 Officers and crew lost, including one Public Health Service officer and four weathermen, no survivors.
September 14, 1942
September 20, 1942
September 22, 1942
October 4, 1942
October 13, 1942
October 14, 1942
October 24, 1942
October 25, 1942
October 27, 1942
November 2, 1942
November 18, 1942
December 8, 1942
January 3, 1943
January 8, 1943
January 13, 1943
January 17, 1943
January 26, 1943
February 2, 1943
February 7, 1943
February 15, 1943
March 7, 1943
March 10, 1943
March 16, 1943
March 28, 1943
April 4, 1943
April 12, 1943
April 17, 1943
April 22, 1943
May 6, 1943
May 7, 1943
May 11, 1943
July 31, 1943
September 8, 1943
October 9, 1943
October 31, 1943
December 26, 1943
April 6, 1944
July 20, 1944
August 3, 1944
September 8, 1944
January 27, 1945
March 2, 1945
April 18, 1945
Total Allied losses to mines during 1939 are 79 vessels totaling 262,700 tons.
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HX convoys were transatlantic convoys in the North Atlantic during the First World War and in the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. HX convoys sailed eastwards from Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, to Liverpool and other ports in Britain. They were joined the BHX convoys from Bermuda en route. After the United States entered the war, HX convoys began at New York.
HMS Gladiolus was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy, the first ship of her class.
The first USS Twiggs (DD–127) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for Major Levi Twiggs. She was later transferred to the Royal Navy, as HMS Leamington and to the Soviet Navy as Zhguchy, before returning to Britain to star in the film The Gift Horse, which depicts the St. Nazaire Raid.
HMS Malcolm was one of eight Admiralty-type destroyer leaders built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was the first of only two Royal Navy ships to carry the name Malcolm, although HMS Valkyrie was originally planned to bear the name. She was one of two Admiralty-type leaders to miss the First World War but saw service in, and survived, the Second World War. Her pennant number was changed from D19 to I19 in May 1940. She was broken up in 1945.
German submarine U-100 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
German submarine U-99 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 31 March 1939 at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel as yard number 593. She was launched on 12 March 1940 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Otto Kretschmer and was assigned to the 7th U-boat Flotilla based in Kiel and later in St Nazaire.
During the Battle of the Atlantic, British merchant shipping was formed into convoys for protection against German submarine attack. In March 1943 convoys HX 229 and SC 122 were the focus of the largest convoy battle of the war. Kriegsmarine tactics against convoys employed multiple-submarine wolfpack tactics in nearly simultaneous surface attacks at night. Patrolling aircraft restricted the ability of submarines to converge on convoys during daylight. The North Atlantic winters offered the longest periods of darkness to conceal surfaced submarine operations. The winter of 1942–43 saw the largest number of submarines deployed to the mid-Atlantic before comprehensive anti-submarine aircraft patrols could be extended into that area.
HX 79 was an Allied convoy in the North Atlantic of the HX series, which sailed east from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The convoy took place during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. One ship dropped out and returned to port, leaving 49 to cross the Atlantic for Liverpool. Two armed merchant cruisers and a submarine escorted the convoy to protect it from German commerce raiders.
The ON and later ONS convoys were a series of North Atlantic trade convoys running Outbound from the British Isles to North America during the Atlantic campaign of the Second World War. The ON convoys replaced the earlier OA/OB series of outbound convoys in July 1941 and ran until the end of the campaign in May 1945. They were organized as alternating fast and slow convoys until March 1943, when the ONS series was begun to take over the slow trans-Atlantic traffic, after which all in the ON series were fast.
Convoy SC 130 was a North Atlantic convoy which ran during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It was the 130th of the numbered series of Slow Convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island to Liverpool. SC 130 was one of several convoy battles that occurred during the crisis month of May 1943.
SS Somersby was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1930, sailed in a number of convoys in the Second World War and was sunk by a U-boat in 1941.
SS Soesterberg was a Dutch-owned cargo steamship that was built in Belgium in 1927 and sunk by a U-boat in 1940 in the Battle of the Atlantic.
SS Scoresby was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1923, sailed in a number of transatlantic convoys in 1940, and was sunk by a U-boat that October.
Convoy HX 90 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX series which ran during the Battle of the Atlantic in both world wars, this being a Second World War convoy.
HMCS Agassiz was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Canadian Navy. Named after the community of Agassiz, British Columbia, the ship was constructed by Burrard Dry Dock Co. Ltd. in North Vancouver, British Columbia and was launched on 15 August 1940. The corvette was commissioned on 23 January 1941 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Flower class were initially designed for coastal service during the Second World War, but due to the demands of the Battle of the Atlantic, Agassiz was used primarily as an ocean escort for convoys crossing the Atlantic Ocean in engagements with German submarines. Following the war, the corvette was sold for scrap.
Convoy HX 65 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX series which ran during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It was the 65th of the numbered series of merchant convoys run by the Allies from Halifax to Liverpool. The convoy was attacked by German U-boats and aircraft, losing eight of its 51 ships sunk and a further three damaged. One U-boat was damaged.
SL convoys were a numbered series of North Atlantic trade convoys during the Second World War. Merchant ships carrying commodities bound to the British Isles from South America, Africa, and the Indian Ocean traveled independently to Freetown, Sierra Leone to be convoyed for the last leg of their voyage to Liverpool.
The Gibraltar convoys of World War II were oceangoing trade convoys of merchant ships sailing between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom. Gibraltar convoy routes crossed U-boat transit routes from French Atlantic ports and were within range of Axis maritime patrol aircraft making these convoys vulnerable to observation and interception by bombers, submarines, and surface warships during the Battle of the Atlantic. OG convoys brought supplies from the United Kingdom to Gibraltar from September 1939 until September 1942. Beginning with Operation Torch, OG convoys were replaced by KM convoys transporting military personnel and supplies from the United Kingdom to and past Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. HG convoys brought food, raw materials, and later empty ships from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom from September 1939 until September 1942. After Operation Torch, HG convoys were replaced by MK convoys returning mostly empty ships from the Mediterranean to the United Kingdom. KM and MK convoys ended in 1945.
HMS Periwinkle was a Flower-class corvette, built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War, and was in service in the Battle of the Atlantic. In 1942 she was transferred to the United States Navy as part of the Reverse Lend-Lease arrangement and renamed USS Restless, one of the Temptress-class gunboats. With the end of hostilities she was returned to the Royal Navy and sold into mercantile service.