BATTLE OF THE SEAS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13056, 26 January 1943, Page 2

BATTLE OF THE SEAS

FIGHTING U-BOATS Destroyers' Part Praised First Lord Visits Home Fleet London, Jan. 21. The work of British, destroyers was praised by Mr A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, during a three-day visit to the Home Fleet. No other section of the Royal Navy, he said, had had such a high percentage of the fighting as the destroyer flotillas. "There have been great casualties in ships and men," said Mr Alexander, "and it is something of a miracle that we have been able to replace ships lost by the most modern of ships. "This is the critical year in which the enemy has made up his mind to have his last try in the battle of the seas. The enemy is now using new U-boats in larger packs and. with new tactics. They are now even more concentrated than before. They are lying not in single packs, but in echelons of packs."

Mr Alexander described 19 43 as a very important, vital, crucial year.

The enemy was very concerned to break our sea communications. These communications, now as ever were the lynch-pin of our defence and offence and he was relying on the men of the Navy this year to defeat the Axis challenge. Admiral Sir Percy Noble, the chief of the British" Admiralty delegation to the United States, told a Washington press conference that the U-boat menace must be beaten before the war could be won. Urging the nee for more escort vessels, he said he preferred escort ships of destroyer size to corvettes. Shipping was a most important factor governing the war to-day and it would take all our strength, resources and ingenuity to overcome the U-bats.