Re: Allied / Neutral Merchant Losses January 1943
Posted by:
Tojoda (IP Logged)
Date: July 13, 2018 03:08PM
Hello Jan-Olof,
firstly thank you for a great discussion!
I heard the story of C. J. Barkdull being sunk by U-632 on 10 Jan 1943. But in the case Roskill would think this ship had been sunk by a particular U-boat he would count her as a submarine victim. And he did not do that in connection with January 1943 (I have already completed data for his North Atlantic losses in January 1943). (He still could do that for Dec 42 - I have not completed this month yet… Who knows?)
"Unknown" cause in his point of view means unknown "war cause" - different from a case we know of the particular German U-boat, like U-632 in this case. So C. J. Barkdull would have to be lost due to "war cause" without further specification in his eyes (e. g. an unknown U-boat) - it was lost probably far more to the south from the U-632's patrol grid so it may be his way of thinking.
In the case of Eureka, he put her erroneously as lost in the Mediterranean - I have no other explanation. A question is if he thought she had fallen victim to a "war cause" or if it was obvious it had sunk in heavy weather at the time he collected his tables...