A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 197, 17 May 1941, Page 10

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Nazi Submarine Losses FAMOUS ACE DEAD

Germany’s U-boat service has suffered in recent months severe losses in personnel and material. Nazi submarines are being hunted and sunk at sen by British naval patrol ships and air bombers, they are given no rest in their refuelling and refitting bases in France, Belgium, and Holland which are continually hammered by R.A.F. bombers, and the building yards in Hamburg, Bremen, Emden and Kiel, where U-boats are under construction have been the objectives of the heaviest air attacks ever made by the R.A.F. U-Boat Sinkings

A few weeks ago it was officially stated that a large number of German U-boats were operating in the Atlantic and that the successes of the Royal Navy’s anti-submarine forces had been correspondingly greater. More than 50 German submarine officers and considerably more than 400 petty officers and men were prisoners of war in British hands. This indicates a high rate of mortality in U-boat crews, since under the conditions in which anti-submarine operations are carried out survivors are relatively few. There are good reasons for believing that three of Germany’s “ace” commanders of U-boats have been disposed of. Captain Otto Kretschmer, commander of U 99, is a prisoner of war, Captain Schepke of UIOO perished with his boat in the Atlantic, and it was recently reported that Captain Prien, the U-boat commander who sank the battleship Royal Oak in Scapa Flow in the early weeks of the war, was considerably overdue and believed to be lost. These aces had been awarded the oak leaves of tlie Iron Cross for their exploits. The Ace Of Aces

An even more famous officer of the German navy was lost to the U-boat service at the end of February. He was Vice-Admiral Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere, commander of the German naval forces in occupied France and the most famous and successful U-boat commander of the last war. It was announced in Berlin on February 26 that he had been “mortally wounded” two nights earlier. No details were given, but Grand Admiral Raeder published a eulogy of the dead officer. It is believed that he was killed during the R.A.F. Bomber Command’s great attack on Brest on the night of February 24. Vice-Admiral Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere, horn in Posen, Germany, on March 16, 1886, was a son of a former Government official in Potsdam. He traced his French ancestry back to the 15th Century. In 1757 his great-grand-father migrated to Prussia, and rose to be a major-general in the service of Frederick the Great. Von Arnauld entered the German Navy in 1903, and became an officer three years later. From 1913 to 1915 he was adjutant to the Chief-of-Staff in Berlin. His rise to fame came later as commander of the submarine U-35 in the Mediterranean from 1915 to 1918. In November, 1918, he took command of the U-139. As commander of the U-35, von Arnauld claimed to have sunk during one short cruise in the Mediterranean 93,000 of Allied merchant shipping, and, during the whole of his TT-boat. service to have destroyed more than 200 ships. Whatever the number, he was certainly the most successful U-boat commander of the war. and sank more ships than any other German officer. He was awarded the order Pour le Merite, the highest German military decoration, for his services. Visit To Wellington

After the war Captain von Arnauld commanded in 1919-20 a battalion of the Third Marine Brigade, an'd until 1922 the Baltic division at Stralsund. In 1924 he was attached to the army command in Stettin, and two years later became chief of the naval staff at Wilhelmshaven.

In 1929 Captain von Arnauld was appointed to the cruiser Emden, in command of which he made a cruise round the world to show the German flag. The Emden visited Auckland and Wellington, and spent several days in the latter port at the beginning of July. 1929

In 1930, still as commander of tlie Emden, he called at New Orleans, where he and the German Consul, Rolf L. Jaeger, were received l>y the late Governor Huey P. Long in pyjama-, dressing gown, and slippers. Uiron demand of tlie consul the Governor apologized, but-von Arnauld took tlie incident good-humouredly.

During tlie present war \ iceAdmiral von Arnauld de la Periere has been the head of the Nazi U-boat service. Ho ranked as the foremost German authority on submarine warfare, and was chiefly responsible for the organization and training of the U-boat service. His death is certainly a great los-- to the German Navy. Nazi U-Boat Strength

Estimates ot Germany’s U-boat strength vary greatly. Conservative opinion in the United States puts the total at between 120 and 180 of all types and sizes, with perhaps a like number building or projected. Since tlie greater part of Germany’s shipbuilding facilities is not devoted to the construction of surface ships, it is probable that they have lieeu turned over to the production of submarines in large numbers. This would explain the persistence and terrific weight, ot the R.A.F. bombing attacks oa Germany’s principal ports, in which great damage has been done. The extensive shipbuilding and repairing facilities in ports of the occupied countries, such as Flushing and Rotterdam in Holland, Antwerp m Belgium, and Brest, Lorient and >t. Nazaire iu France are also available t" Germany for tlie construction and refitting of submarines. This again explains why these ports are so frequently bombed by tlie R.A.I. Ordinarily about one-third ot the total number'of submarines available is at sea, another third is en route to efrom stations and the remainder in port resting crews and refitting. lossildy the proportion actually operating at iett mav lie greater today since French bases on the Atlantic coast are being used by tlie L -boats. Apart from losses at sea and th" destruction in 111" -liipbmiiling Huu-e is possibly a “boftlem-ek in trained crews. Time and expel tell-1 arc required li> make a really "submariner." Tlie periodic rise aim fall in merchant shipping losses ipurtlv explained by the fact that toe majority of ships Mink by U-boats ate accounted lor by a relatively <" -killed submarine commanders, nn< n they are at sea the ship sinkings tend to rise and when they are back. at thd ba-e= the losses fall away This waso in the last war and probably holdgood today. That is why the mlljm. or capture of “ace" commanders i- important: il lias also considerable influence oil Hie moral of the others. i S.D.W. I