U-BOAT FLEET

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 102, 24 January 1940, Page 10

U-BOAT FLEET

Nazis’ Claim Of Rate Of Production

BRITISH SCEPTICISM (British Official Wire! RUGBY, January 22. Little credence is given by those who make a close study of shipbuilding matters to a Nazi claim that submarines will be produced this year at a rate of one each'day. They will be surprised if more than 80 are put into service in the current year. Apart from the heavy call on material resources which this would entail, the provision of nearly 3000 trained and skilled officers and men is likely to present an even more serious problem.

Informed commentators remark that from six to nine years’ experience on active service at sea is needed to build up competent key men for commanding officers and senior petty officers. The supply of such men has seriously diminished owing to the U-boat losses iu wartime, and it is estimated that over 1000 who started training in submarines five years ago have since the war began gone down with, their ships. In the last war Germany had built up a large personnel when, after 30 months of war, her big effort was made with the commissioning of 87 new Üboats in 1917.

It is recognized that there ,is a sharp difference in technique between British and German practice owing to the fact that U-boats are not primarily fighting ships and that attacks on merchantmen call for a lower degree of accuracy in handling the vessel on the part of the commanding officer. The shortage of trained men as first lieutenants and petty officers, upon whom a great deal of the technical responsibility rests, is. however, likely to be felt in the course of the next few months. Tn the British Navy no volunteer for the submarines is transferred until he is rated as an able seamen at the age of 21. Then, after six years’ experience. he may qualify as a petty officer coxswain in one of the smaller types, and after a further three years’ experience he becomes due for advancement to chief petty officer, and may taken up duty as the most responsible hand in one' of the large types. Regular service in a submarine is not undertaken by a young lieutenant until he has done eight months’ training, partly at a depot and partly as a spare hand in a fully-commissioned vessel. Then he does three years as a third officer, followed by four years as a first lieutenant, before being entrusted with a command at about the age of 29.