Warsailors Forums

Hi all,

British destroyers Esk (sunk), Ivanhoe (sunk) and Express (damaged) were mined on 31 August 1940 off Texel Island.

I'm trying to find how many survivors were on both destroyers rescued by their own forces.

Esk had: 135 killed, 1 wounded? and 25 survivors captured by Germans. Wounded and rescued by own forces?
Ivanhoe had: 8 killed, 3 wounded and 24 captured by Germans. Rescued by own forces?
Express: 59 killed, 22 wounded and 7 captured by Germans.

Any figures solved?

Thank you very much
Jordi

hi, Jordi,

according to http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4008-21AUG02.htm, your numbers are correct. The text says furthermore "Only two crew from ESK were rescued by British ships."

greetings, Urs

Thank you Urs,

Searching in the web I've found this on Esk:

127 killed
26 POW
1 Survivor rescued by own forces

Regards

Hello Jordi,

The website that Urs referred to has full and thus very helpful lists of Royal Navy personnel who died at sea during the war. The names of those crew members of HMS Esk, Express and Ivanhoe who perished on 31 August appear in the September list, see http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1940-09SEP.htm
The abbreviation MPK in these lists stands for Missing Presumed Killed. You will see that the names of the men taken prisoner have been omitted.

May I ask for the source of your interest in this incident?

As a new member of Warsailors, I should introduce my own interests. These are primarily the causes of victory and defeat in war, especially both World Wars. Ship losses during both wars interest me insofar as they reflect changes in the course of these conflicts.

In the specific case of these Royal Navy losses, available British accounts stress that an important contributing factor was an urgent order to intercept a German naval force which had been observed by aerial reconnaissance. See, for example, http://hmscavalier.org.uk/D16/
Is the identity and task of this German naval force known?

Regards,

Dan

Maybe of interest:

Into the Minefields: British Destroyer Minelaying 1916-1960
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Minefield ... 1844152715


Regards

Darius

Hi Dan,

German force was composed by auxiliary minelayers Roland, Cobra and Tannenberg escorted by destroyers Karl Galster, Paul Jacobi and Erich Steinbrinck, torpedo boats T-5, T-6, T-7, T-8, Falke, Kondor, Greif, Jaguar and mine barrage ships Sperrbrecher 3 and Sperrbrecher 10. This force departed Cuxhaven on 31 August to lay the minefield SW-3 and arrived to Rotterdam on 2 September.

Thank you Darius,

I've already ordered this book a couple of days ago

Regards

Hello Jordi,

Thank you for describing the German force. A brief web search shows that there is a specific document at the German military archives in Freiburg which describes this operation. I leave the link here because it may be of use:
Bundesarchiv, BArch RM 35-II/170
Unternehmen "S.W. 3" (Minenoperation, Legen von Minensperren im Kanal)
https://www.archivportal-d.de/item/RM46 ... TJ3EQQR44H

I have also found the following list of German convoys during the war, which includes the force involved in laying the SW-3 minefield. That does not contain any information that you do not already know, Jordi, but it may be a useful quick reference in other cases, see http://www.schiffswrackliste.de/dt%20it ... e%20hp.htm

Regards,

Dan

Thank you Dan!

Regards

New on the forum, was looking for info about HMS Esk, to see if there are any publications about it or the action on which it was lost, but it seems not.

Yes,

Book "Into the minefields" by Peter C. Smith

Regards