Monday, 2 October

The Admiralty received their first notice that a German raider was operating off Pernambuco when news of the sinking of the CLEMENT by pocket battleship ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE reached England. They responded with the immediate dispatch of aircraft carrier ARK ROYAL and battlecruiser RENOWN to Freetown. ARK ROYAL and destroyers ASHANTI and FORESIGHT departed Loch Ewe on the evening of the 2nd, while RENOWN and destroyers TARTAR and BEDOUIN left Scapa Flow the same day, and joined at sea. Following their escort duties, the destroyers returned to Scapa Flow on the 4th. To relieve ARK ROYAL, FURIOUS, which was being used as a training aircraft carrier at Rosyth, was ordered to join the Home Fleet for operations at Loch Ewe. FURIOUS departed Rosyth on the 1st escorted by destroyers JERVIS, JUPITER, JAGUAR and STURDY. On the 2nd, JERVIS and JAGUAR attacked a submarine contact off Bell Rock, River Tay.

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Light cruisers EFFINGHAM, EMERALD, ENTERPRISE departed Scapa Flow for Plymouth, where they arrived late on the 3rd. At Plymouth, EMERALD and ENTERPRISE embarked gold for transfer to Canada, while EFFINGHAM underwent repairs completed on the 9th.

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The first of the UK to Gibraltar convoys, OG.1, of 37 ships was formed from two convoys. Light cruiser CERES departed Plymouth on the 1st to escort OG.1 to Gibraltar and act as convoy commodore. (1) OA.12G was escorted by CERES and destroyers IMPERIAL and ISIS, (2) OB.12G was escorted by destroyers ILEX and IMOGEN. The four destroyers were detached on the 3rd and joined convoy HG.1. On the 8th, the convoy was joined by destroyer VELOX from Gibraltar, when, still escorted by CERES, it arrived at Gibraltar.

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Convoy FN.15 departed Southend, and arrived at Methil on the 4th. There was no convoy FN.16.

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Convoy FS.16 departed Methil, and arrived at Southend on the 4th.

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Destroyers KEITH and MONTROSE attacked a submarine contact in 50?17N, 1?30.

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Submarine SEAHORSE reported a submarine contact off the Firth of Tay in 50-31N, 2-22.

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Submarine H.34 and minesweeping trawler EURYALUS (renamed HOVERFLY, 242grt/总吨位) departed Scapa Flow in an exercise together to see if trawlers could effectively patrol with submarines. The exercise proved ineffective.

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French sloop AMIRAL MOUCHEZ, escorting French tanker LOT under tow, was missed by torpedoes 20 miles WNW of Cape d'Antifer, and counter-attacked at 2337.

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Convoy BC.6S of steamers ADJUTANT, BAHARISTAN, BARON KINNAIRD, BARON MINTO, BELLEROPHON (Commodore), BIELA, CARINGORM, CUSTODIAN, DALEMOOR, DIPLOMAT, GOLDFINCH, HARMATTAN, JACINTH, MERKLAND, SANDHILL and TELAWNY departed the Loire escorted by destroyers VIVACIOUS, VISCOUNT, VANESSA, ELECTRA andESCORT. The convoy safely arrived in Bristol Channel on the 3rd.

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Convoy BC.7F of steamers BEN MY CHREE and LADY OF MANN departed the Loire without escort, and safely arrived in Barry Roads on the 3rd.

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The U-boat service continued its survey of the approaches to Scapa Flow. On this date, U.10 was west of the Orkneys, U.20 and U.23 were approaching the area for patrol, and U.18 was departing Kiel for patrol in the area.

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German Admiral Raeder removed prize restrictions for U-boats off French and British ports. On the 4th, this order was extended to include shipping as far west as 15°.

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Steamer LINDISFARNE (1004grt/总吨位) was challenged off Hook of Holland by Dutch seagoing torpedo boat Z.7. In the ensuing confusion, the ships collided. Light damaged was sustained by LINDISFARNE and Z.7 was undamaged.

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The Polish base at Hel surrendered to German forces. Polish sloop KOMMENDANT PILSUDSKI, minesweepers RYBITWA, CZAJKA, ZURAW and three mine barges were scuttled by Polish forces. German forces were able to raise CZAJKA and ZURAW on the 3rd, renamed them WESTERNPLATTE and OXHOFT respectively, and assigned them to the 7th Mine Flotilla. Later KOMMENDANT PILSUDSKI, RYBITWA and MEWA were also raised and repaired as German HEISTERNEST, RIXHOFT and PUTZIG, respectively.

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Finnish sailing vessel BALTIC (451grt/总吨位) was sunk by a mine in the Sound.

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Battleship RAMILLIES, light cruiser CAPETOWN, and destroyers KEPPEL and WATCHMAN departed Gibraltar to join liner ATHLONE CASTLE and escort her to Freetown. After leaving harbour, RAMILLIES suffered condenser problems and returned to Gibraltar with the destroyers. CAPETOWN continued on for seven hours, then suffered rudder defects, but was able to meet the liner and take her back to Gibraltar, both arriving on the 3rd.

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Heavy cruiser CORNWALL departed Calcutta on escort duties to Singapore, and returned to Colombo, arriving on the 6th for docking.

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Heavy cruiser YORK departed Halifax on escort duties, and arrived back on the 4th.

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At this time, the South America Station was composed of heavy cruisers EXETER and CUMBERLAND operating as a Hunter Force, and light cruiser AJAX with destroyers HOTSPUR and HAVOCK covering outbound shipping from Rio de Janiero. After a sweep in the area of Ascension Island, CUMBERLAND, light cruiser NEPTUNE, and destroyers HYPERION and HUNTER arrived at Freetown.

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Gunboats DRAGONFLY, GRASSHOPPER, APHIS, COCKCHAFER and LADYBIRD on the Yangtse were ordered to Singapore for duty as patrol boats and minesweepers in a move to free manpower and ships for Europe. This freed the 2nd Minesweeping Flotilla for transfer to the Mediterranean where they relieved the 3rd Flotilla, which in turn, transferred to Home Waters. The transfer also satisfied a Japanese government request of 5 September to remove these gunboats from Chinese territorial waters, a possible war-zone, to prevent any more incidents such as those involving CRICKET, SCARAB and the bombing of the USS PANAY in December 1937. A full list of gunboat movements follows:

In late October, APHIS and LADYBIRD departed Shanghai for Hong Kong, arrived at Saigon on the 29th, but returned to Shanghai as guardships in November where they stayed until the end of 1939.

In December, TERN, PETEREL, GNAT were also withdrawn from the Yangtse to Shanghai.

At the end of 1939, COCKCHAFER was at Nanking, GNAT at the Kiangyin Barrier, SCARAB at Shanghai, APHIS and LADYBIRD at Singapore to convert, and DRAGONFLY and GRASSHOPPER at Singapore.

On 2 January 1940, SCARAB and CRICKET were also withdrawn.

With the completion of this movement, only FALCON remained at Chungking, CRICKET and PETEREL at Shanghai, and GANNET and SANDPIPER laid up in January 1940 at Chungking and Changsha, respectively.

COCKCHAFER and GNAT had gone to Singapore then to the East Indies, APHIS and LADYBIRD departed Singapore on 1 March for the Mediterranean, and DRAGONFLY, SCORPION, GRASSHOPPER, SCARAB, TERN were employed around Singapore.

ROBIN was used as a boom defence vessel at Hong Kong and MANTIS was laid up prior to disposal.

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Convoy SLF.3 departed Freetown unescorted and arrived at Liverpool on the 13th.