REVIEW OF WAR AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 3, 28 September 1939, Page 10

REVIEW OF WAR AT SEA

Heavy German Submarine Losses

Announced

IMPROVED BRITISH METHODS

(British Official Wireless and Press Association.)

Received Sept. 27, 8.15 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. -6. In a statement on the war at sea supplementary to that made by Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, gave interesting figures in the House of Commons showing the progress of measures for dealing with the U-boat campaign. _ _ ... The convoy system, he said, was now in full operation both wavs. The arming of merchantmen was proceeding apace, and. in a very short time the immense mercantile marine of the British Empire, of which about 2000 ships were usually at sea every day, would be armed.

Referring to the curious circumstances in which he was baclc at the Admiralty again after 25 years and moving over the same course against the same enemy in the same month of the year, Mr. Churchill said it gave him an opportunity to make comparisons as no one else could. “I see how much greater are the advantages we possess today in coping with the U-boats than we did 25 years ago,” he said. Part of the First Lord’s statement, which attracted much attention, was the announcement that an enormous building programme of new ships of a simple character, capable of being verv rapidly constructed, was already in full operation.

After detailing the improvements in methods of hunting U-boats, Mr. Churchill said it was no exaggeration to say that the attacks upon U-boats had been live or six times as numerous as at any period of the Great War. “Mr. Chamberlain made a statement a week ago that at least six or seven German submarines had been destroyed,” he continued. “I am in a position to say; that this represents only a fraction of the submarines destroyed in the first two weeks of the war. The number destroyed probably represents a quarter, or perhaps even a third, of the German submarines actively employed.

“One third of the damage in the last war was done by 25 experienced U-boat commanders. It will be easier for Germany to build more boats than to replace the skilled officers and crews now captured or destroyed.” He paid a tribute to the important part being played by the Royal Air Force, both in directing destroyers upon their quarry and in themselves attacking.

In the first week the losses of British shipping amounted to 65,000 tons, but in the second week 46,000 tons, and in the third week 21,000, and for the last six days only 9000 tons. German merchandise seized and converted to British use was 67,000 tons more than the British merchandise sunk by Üboats. • . ' Additional Supplies, “I feel that at the end of three weeks’ warfare the Admiralty’s pre-war judgment does not need revision. It will take a long time to starve us out in Britain. As a result of the seizure of goods destined for the enemy we have got more supplies than if war had not been declared. He also pointed out that more than 2.000,000 tons of German shipping was sheltering in German and neutral harbours. He added that even when German vessels were deliberately self-sunk to avoid the formalities of the prize court, the-Navy so far had succeeded in rescuing the crews. Commenting on the sinking of 11.M.5. Courageous, Mr. Churchill explained that when the ship turned into the wind at dusk to enable aircraft to land on her deck, by a ten to one chance she was attacked by a U-boat, which was on an unpredictable course. Four destroyers were escorting the Courageous. but two went off to hunt for a submarine in the evening. The whole House joined in cheering his closing sentences, in which he declared that if his surmise—he would

not put it higher—that the U-boat

menace would not this time come within reach of assuming the serious proportions it did in 1917 were proved correct, it meant that “one primary danger is falling into its proper confines, and that amid all our anxieties we can feel a certain steady measure of assurance so far as the submarine is concerned. The British Empire, and all its friends in every quarter of the globe will be able to develop its immeasurable latent forces, and the whole strength and great resources and manpower of these many communities can be concentrated in ever-growing intensity upon the task we have in hand, in which task we have only to persevere to conquer.” Nazi Warfare Methods. Mr. Churchill also had'the sympathy of ail parties in the Commons in his measured denunciation of methods of warfare contrary to the long-declared traditions of the sea—methods which were now being turned against neutral ■ shipping. In the last few days Finnish, Dutch, .Swedish, Greek, Norwegian, and Belgian ships had been sunk on the high seas in an indiscriminate manner with loss of life. A great impression was made in the House of Commons by the statement. ,Both Opposition leaders, Mr. C. R. Attlee and Sir Archibald Sinclair, welcomed the First Lord’s encouraging survey, which was the more telling for his insistence on the need for caution in over-sanguine deductions from the figures he gave the House, of which the most notable was the fall of British shipping losses due to enemy action from 05,000 tons in the first seven days of the war to 9000 tons in the last six days. The 'war, he reminded the House, was full of unpleasant surprises, and they must expect further losses. But members seized upon this candid disclosure of the great improvements in the methods of submarine hunting since the last war so that work which required fifteen or twenty destroyers then could now be done by two, and his affirmation that the British attack on the U-boats was only beginning. By the end of October the Navy would have three times the hunting force which was operating at the outbreak of the war.

ORDERS FROM FRANCE

American Armaments Employment figures are reported to be rising sharply in the United States of America as a result of large orders for aeroplanes and other armaments from the United States Government rind foreign countries, specially France. New contracts amounting to £27,500,000 arc being allotted by the American army and navy this autumn. —Bv rad’