To my knowledge, both....The occupied country's resistance-movements kept British High Command up to date with the German shipping, and there was extensive mining-ops carried out as well...mostly the Strike Wings' attacked on information received though....
A total of 4,786 British merchant ships and fishing vessels were sunk by subs, mines, surface craft, aircraft and 'unknown causes'...as stated, aircraft-figures alone are elusive here.....
Roughly 52,000 RN sailors died in action, and 31,000 British Merchant Navy seamen....
A total of 10,600,000 personnel were moved around the world in troopships during the War, and of these, only 2,978 lost their lives at sea.
Many thanks for presenting those awesome action-shots guys, bloody superb !!!!.....
IMHO, the B-25 Dauntless were the PTO's best....and Beaufighters....
- ETO, the Mosquito and Beaufighter, the latter had to be a refinement of the Beaufighter at this task, being a little faster and more manoeuverable, both as heavily-armed and with a few 'Tse-tse's' as well...
The Fw-200 was really more a reconn to bring the U-boats in, or if within land-range, Luftwaffe bombers.....Although heavily-armed, they appear to have only attacked vulnerable targets, and with the advent of the Cam ships, which put up a Hurricane, they would try to avoid aerial combat....afterall, they were only airliners with guns and were quite structurally vulnerable...As Coastal Command got more aircraft to support convoys, Condors' kept out of their way....
Gemhorse