The Press FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1941. Shipping Losses

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23414, 22 August 1941, Page 6

The Press FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1941. Shipping Losses

The most encouraging and the most interesting news that the British peoples .have heard for a long time is the statement by the United States Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, that since the United States naval and air patrol went into effect between North America and Iceland the sinking of supplies for Britain on this route “has ceased entirely.” Since June the British Admiralty has discontinued the practice of publishing monthly totals of shipping losses on the ground that this information is valuable to the enemy; but Mr A. V. Alexander gaid recently that July was the best month for shipping losses since he went to the Admiralty 15 months earlier. In March, April, and May shipping losses averaged 479,000 tons a month; in June the figure was down to 329,296 tons; and the previous best monthly total since Mr Alexander went to the Admiralty was 248,650 tons. There is some confirmation for Mr Alexander’s statement in the German claims, which dropped from 769,950 tons in June to 407,600 tons in July. It has been noted by some commentators that the German claims average slightly more than 2\ times the British official figures, so that on this basis, assuming the correctness of British figures, the July losses may have been only about 180,000 tons—a figure which has been bettered in only three months since the outbreak of war and probably does not exceed the rate at which United States and British shipyards are replacing losses. The main reason for the improvement is undoubtedly the extension of the United States sea patrol to Iceland. But there are other factors. It seems certain that within the last three months mass production of small escort craft in British and American shipyards has begun, with a consequent increase in the ratio of escort craft in each convoy. It is also possible that Germany’s need for heavy bombers in her eastern campaign , has caused her to withdraw from the west some of the long-distance machines which have been acting as “spotters” for submarines. But of the air factors affecting the shipping situation the most important is the Royal Air Force’s intensified day and night offensive against German aerodromes in Norway, and occupied France. Germany’s air bases for war against shipping have, it is clear, been'forced back. Comment on Colonel Knox’s statement has, however, centred mainly on his cryptic concluding remark that “not a submarine has “ been heard nor an Axis flag seen in the patrol “ area.” The obvious inference frpm this is that the German Government, bearing in mind the lessons of the Great War of 1914-18, has withdrawn its war vessels from the patrol area father than risk incidents which might bring the United States into a “ shooting war." It is not to be inferred from this that Germany has resigned herself to losing the battle of the Atlantic, which is still the decisive battle of the war. What has happened, to judge by recent diplomatic events in Vichy and Madrid, is that Germany has decided to open up another sector in the battle of the Atlantic—a sector lying between Spain’s Atlantic ports and the Azores. In this new phase of the battle the pivotal point will be Dakar. ‘