Sunken Ships of the Second World War
An ongoing project to track and map every ship sunk as a result of military action during the Second World War
The following changes have been made to the database:
The following sunken vessels were added to the map:
A light month for changes. The following changes have been made to the database of sunken ships:
The following sunken vessels were added to the map:
The following changes have been made to the database of sunken ships:
The following sunken vessels were added to the database:
A shorter list of updates to the database for January.
The following sunken vessels were added to the database:
Read about the discovery of the 6 U-boats mentioned here that were scuttled at the end of the war in Europe in the U-boat bunkers in Hamburg.
Updates for this month:
The following sunken vessels were added to the database:
Updates for this month:
The following sunken vessels were added to the database:
Updates for this month:
The following sunken vessels were added to the database:
The Danish merchant fleet’s history is varied with ships at one time being laid up, in neutral, Allied and Axis hands. Totaling 868,797 tons when the war began on September 1, 1939, by the end of the war it had been reduced by 44%.
The Sankey diagram explains the demise of the Danish merchant fleet’s in World War II.
Compare Denmark to Belgium.
A slow month for updates.
Updates for this month:
The following vessels were added to the database:
Belgium was a relatively minor player in the Second World War, both on land and on the sea. At the start of the war in September 1939, it boasted a merchant fleet of only 472,182 tons – well behind the UK, the undisputed world leader in shipping at the time with 16.6 million tons. In the period of September 1939 to May 1940 before Belgium was invaded by the Germans and the country joined the Allied cause it had already lost close 30,000 tons of shipping to accidents, mines and German torpedoes (even though it was officially neutral).
When Belgium surrendered to the Germans on May 28, 1940 only a small part of its merchant fleet fell into German hands – about 71,000 tons – while the majority – 358,000 tons – continued to serve the Allies. The Germans steadily whittled away at this disadvantage throughout the war so that by the end of the war, only about 108,000 tons of Belgian shipping in Allied control remained afloat. Of the 71,000 tons the Germans had captured, only 21,000 tons managed to survive the war. In the end, only 27% of the Belgian merchant fleet that existed at the start of the war survived to the end.
The sankey chart below provides a breakdown of the status of the Belgian fleet during the course of the war.
Sunken Ships of the Second World War 