Find your ancestors in British Royal Navy Casualty Logs 1939-1945

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Ship Casualty Logs, 1939–1945

Ship casualty logs record the fate of Royal Navy vessels lost or damaged during the Second World War, documenting incidents such as sinkings, severe damage, collisions, groundings, and losses caused by enemy action or accidents. Compiled by naval authorities, these logs typically note the ship’s name, date and cause of the casualty, location, and, in some cases, information about survivors or total loss. For family historians and researchers, casualty logs provide crucial context for understanding how and when a ship was lost, helping to explain sudden deaths, missing service records, or the abrupt end of a naval career, while also illustrating the scale and intensity of Britain’s maritime war.