USAAF aircraft lost through transport sinkings during Battle of the Atlantic?

MrSmoothie · Jan 2, 2025

I've seen many photos of USAAF aircraft loaded on ships for transport to England. But I've never read how many aircraft (as cargo) were lost due to ships being sunk by U-Boats during transit. I seem to recall somewhere that when the P-51C introduced a dorsal fin, that fins were manufactured for retrofitting to in-service P-51B's -- but that the ship carrying all of these dorsal fins was sunk.

Are there any estimated or actual numbers, and perhaps by aircraft type? When I search, it seems like I just come up with aircraft lost operationally (not as cargo).

fubar57 · Jan 2, 2025

A few days ago I saw a bunch of post war PDFs that listed U.S. shipments but at the moment I can't recall how I entered the search and unfortunately I cleared my cookies and history about 20 minutes ago

fubar57 · Jan 2, 2025

Here is a list of everything(?) the U.S. shipped during the war. Still looking

GregP · Jan 20, 2025

Thanks! Good find.

MrSmoothie · Jan 20, 2025

Am I just not reading closely enough, or are the numbers on that PDF just for lend-lease aircraft?

Peter Gunn · Jan 24, 2025

Interesting that on page 10 it appears the invasion of Sicily cost more (in dollars) than the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Snautzer01 · Jan 24, 2025

MrSmoothie said:
I've seen many photos of USAAF aircraft loaded on ships for transport to England. But I've never read how many aircraft (as cargo) were lost due to ships being sunk by U-Boats during transit. I seem to recall somewhere that when the P-51C introduced a dorsal fin, that fins were manufactured for retrofitting to in-service P-51B's -- but that the ship carrying all of these dorsal fins was sunk.

Are there any estimated or actual numbers, and perhaps by aircraft type? When I search, it seems like I just come up with aircraft lost operationally (not as cargo).

Usaaf digest.

Frog · Jan 24, 2025

Peter Gunn said:
Interesting that on page 10 it appears the invasion of Sicily cost more (in dollars) than the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

As long as military hardware is concerned, it is difficult to sort charts expressed in value only and this is only the American part. Also, shipments for the Army Ground Forces strangely do not appear. There were 11 months between both invasions and the British industry has a right to vote for Overlord. Also, bear in mind that the Normandy D-Day as long as the naval part is concerned was proportionally more British than US, including the Mulberries whose remains still decorate our coast.
This is not of course an offense to the US Navy, that had another game to play in the Pacific by the same date (Saipan).

USAAF aircraft lost through transport sinkings during Battle of the Atlantic?

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