Much of the Germans success against Allied shipping can be rightfully attributed to their submarine fleet. Of the close to 5,000 vessels the Germans sank, 2,939 of them can be attributable to the Kriegsmarine’s submarine arm. Far behind in number but still significant are the number of ships sunk by the Luftwaffe: 1,312.
Much of this, of course, occurred in-shore along the coast of the British Isles or in the Mediterranean but the Luftwaffe did have some success with the Allies’ trans-Atlantic supply route. There the Germans employed their only long-range bomber, the 4-engined Folke-Wulf 200 Condor, with some success. With a range of 3,560 kilometres the bombers could reach out almost the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, at least at one point.
The map above shows the location of some of the 1,312 ships that were sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft. The dashed blue line indicates the approximate range of the Folke-Wulf 200. Another 413 vessels remain unmapped but most of these were in Allied harbours.
Sunken Ships of the Second World War 