DRIVEN FROM U.S. COAST

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23748, 21 September 1942, Page 4

DRIVEN FROM U.S. COAST

WAR ON SUBMARINES (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept, 19. Addressing the American Legion Convention, the Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Frank Knox) said that the United States had substantially driven German submarines from American coastal waters, but still must struggle with them on the high seas. ‘‘l am confident that in the long run the monthly total of ships lost will be reduced to a point where it will no longer be a threat to the supply lines of ourselves and our Allies,” he said. Colonel Knox declared that the submarine was the major problem confronting the United Nations. "The problem is closely tied up with the eventual second front in Europe, with the major counter-attack in the Western Pacific, and with the Russian supply,” he said. The growing strength of Allied naval power was noticeable from the way German submarines had already been substantially driven from British and American coastal waters. Also, the German Navy was a fugitive force in European waters and the Italian Navy was more or less a fugitive in the Mediterranean. The victories of the Coral Sea and Midway Island, plus the swift growth of American sea power, had remedied, the unbalance which existed in the Pacific in the months immediately following Pearl Harbour.