Saturday, 9 December

Battleship RODNEY, escorted by destroyers ECLIPSE, GURKHA and FEARLESS, arrived at Liverpool for repairs. The ships followed convoy SLF.10B into port.

————

Battlecruiser HOOD and destroyers KINGSTON, KANDAHAR, KASHMIR and KHARTOUM left their patrol area covering convoy HN.4 and proceeded to the Clyde, arriving on the 10th.

————

Admiral Forbes withdrew the armed merchant cruisers from Northern Patrol. The threat of German mining, brought home by the damage to NELSON, prevented his heavy ships from leaving and entering port, and therefore were unable to cover the Northern Patrol ships. Seven armed merchant cruisers left the Patrol for the Clyde and Liverpool. Light cruiser SHEFFIELD was en route to the Tyne, passing Fair Island Channel at 2100/9th while light cruiser NEWCASTLE proceeded to Scapa Flow to relieve her on Northern Patrol duties. Heavy cruisers SUFFOLK and BERWICK moved from the Denmark Strait to SE of Iceland.

Heavy cruiser DEVONSHIRE departed the Clyde to relieve BERWICK on Northern Patrol, and arrived at Scapa Flow after patrol on the 22nd.

————

Heavy cruiser YORK began refitting at Liverpool.

————

Light cruiser CERES departed the Clyde, and arrived at Scapa Flow on the 16th.

————

Armed merchant cruiser CHITRAL arrived in the Clyde.

————

Anti-aircraft cruiser CURLEW departed Chatham for Invergordon, arriving on the 10th.

————

Destroyers EXMOUTH, ECHO and ECLIPSE departed the Clyde to rendezvous and escort arriving battleship BARHAM.

————

Destroyer IMOGEN drydocked at Govan to repair defects.

————

Convoy BC.18 departed Bristol Channel, escorted by destroyers MONTROSE and VESPER, and arrived in the Loire on the 11th. The convoy returned, departing on the 13th and arrived back in the Bristol Channel on the 15th.

————

Convoy FN.52 departed Southend, escorted by destroyers VIVIEN, VALOROUS and sloop BITTERN, and arrived in the Tyne on the 10th.

————

Convoy FS.52 departed the Tyne escorted by destroyer WHITLEY and sloop STORK, arriving at Southend on the 10th.

————

U.20 sank Danish steamer MAGNUS (1339grt/总吨位) in 57?48N, 00?35; her sole survivor was picked up four days later on the 13th by British trawler PHILIPPE (203grt/总吨位).

————

U.48 torpedoed tanker SAN ALBERTO (7397grt/总吨位) from convoy OB.48 west of the English Channel in 49?20N, 09?45. One member of the crew was lost and the survivors abandoned ship to be picked up by Belgian tanker ALEXANDRE ANDRE (5322grt/总吨位). However, the rescue was cut short when the Belgian tanker's engines became partially disabled. SAN ALBERTO broke in half and the forward section sank in 49-28N, 9-51. The stern section was relocated on the 11th and reboarded by her crew who were able to restart her engines. She was able to proceed for ten hours, but eventually scuttled by destroyer MACKAY.

————

Convoy HG.10 departed Gibraltar with 62 ships, escorted by destroyers WATCHMAN, ACTIVE, HAVOCK and the French CHEVALIER PAUL and TARTU. The French ships remained with the convoy from the 8th to 16th when they arrived at Brest. ACTIVE was detached that evening, still on the 9th. HAVOCK and WATCHMAN detached to OG.9 on the 10th and escorted that convoy for one day before arriving back at Gibraltar. HAVOCK then left on the 12th to return to Sheerness for repairs. On the 15th, the convoy was joined by destroyers VISCOUNT and ANTELOPE from OG.10 and also destroyer VIVACIOUS. All three were with the convoy when it arrived at Liverpool on the 16th.

————

Northwest of Mossamedes, heavy cruiser SHROPSHIRE of Force H encountered German steamer ADOLF LEONHARDT (2990grt/总吨位), which had departed Lobito on the 8th. She scuttled herself off South Africa rather than be captured, and her six officers and 19 crew were picked up by SHROPSHIRE.

————

French sloop COMMANDANT DUBOC attacked a submarine contact 2.5 miles 357° from Cape Spartel.

————

Heavy cruiser DORSETSHIRE arrived at Simonstown.

————

Light cruiser EFFINGHAM arrived at Bermuda for refitting, completed on the 23rd.

————

German merchant ship NORDMEER (5671grt/总吨位) departed Curacao, and despite efforts by French submarine OUESSANT to intercept her in Mona Passage on the 15th, was able to reach Vigo on 5 January 1940.

German steamers SEATTLE (7369grt/总吨位), HANNOVER (5537grt/总吨位), WESERMUNDE (5356grt/总吨位), VANCOUVER (8269grt/总吨位), PATRICIA (3979grt/总吨位), ESTE (7915grt/总吨位), HENRY HORN (3164grt/总吨位), ALEMANIA (1383grt/总吨位), KARIBIA (428grt/总吨位) and FRISIA (561grt/总吨位) were also at Curacao. Only SEATTLE and HANNOVER had managed to escape before 10 May 1940 when the remaining ships, less steamer WESERMUNDE which had been sold to the United Fruit Company on 28 December 1939, were seized by Dutch forces and renamed for Dutch service – VANCOUVER became CURACAO, PATRICIA the ARUBA, ESTE the SURINAME, HENRY HORN the BONAIRE, ALEMANIA the ST MARTIN, KARIBIA the ST EUSTATIUS, and FRISIA the SABA. On 10 May 1940, two other German steamers were in Dutch Caribbean ports, the ANTILLA (4363grt/总吨位) at Aruba and GOSLAR (6040grt/总吨位) at Paramaribo, Suriname. These ships were scuttled by their crews to avoid capture.