The Dominion THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1943. FIGHTING THE U-BOAT MENACE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 111, 4 February 1943, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1943. FIGHTING THE U-BOAT MENACE

From various statements in the Press and by war commentators recently the public should be able to appreciate the fact that the German U-boat attacks on Allied shipping have lately assumed the dimensions of a disturbing menace. Both Mr. Churchill and the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Alexander, made reassuring statements about the position a few months ago to the effect-that the deteiioiating trend of the situation had been arrested, and that slight headway was being made. More recent statements suggest, however, that this improvement has not been maintained, lhe situation, moreover, has assumed a new aspect from the announcement of a significant change in the German Naval High Command by wnich the head of the submarine branch. Admiral Doenitz, has become Commander-in-Chief of the navy, replacing Admiral Raeder. In cabled dispatches yesterday it was stated that the Geiman U-boat fleet was estimated at from 500 to 600 submarines, from which an average of 150 could be kept constantly at sea. The late Mi. H. C. Ferraby, the well-known naval writer and commentator on the war at sea, who died recently, examined the position from the point of view of German losses and replacements in an article published in the November Nineteenth Century, following a statement by the Admiralty that a total of 530 Axis submarines had been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war. He came to the conclusion, based on what facts were available, that the Axis Poweis during thiee years of war had added between 900 and 1000 submarines to their strength, thus trebling the output of the German yards during the last war. It is evident, however, that the enemy’s efforts in this direction are likely to be greatly intensified, and correspondingly greater efforts will have to be made by the Allies to counter these. Mr. Ferrabv points out that the “wolf-pack” tactics now employed by the U-boats enable a number of submarines manned by comparatively raw hands to put to sea with a flotilla leader commanded by an experienced, highly-trained officer and manned by a seasoned crew—“an interesting example,” he says, “of spreading a veiy little butter over a large piece of bread.” Many of the men captuied, he adds, were on their first operational cruise, and were “woefully ignorant” of the technical aspects of their work. It would thus. appear that the German U-boat campaign is being carried out at a high ratio of losses to units launched, and under difficulties of finding crews that are no doubt a contributory factor in these losses. But it is also grimly evident that this policy of squandering resources to gain a certain objective, the crippling of Allied sea commerce, has had results which to the German mind may seem to justify the cost. In the counter-measures for meeting this threat, one factoi must be borne in mind. New naval tactics, new devices for the destruction of the enemy at sea, a higher ratio of shipping replacements to losses, are requirements that every effort is being made to meet. These ai.e matters for expert elucidation. What we can do in this countiy is to- see that the best use is made of existing toiTnage so that not a week, or a day, or an hour is lost in turning the ships round when they arrive in our ports for discharge and loading. 1 hat is the best contribution we can make toward the frustration of the U-boat enemy at sea. It may not seem very large, or important, but. in the sum total of effort expended and results achieved over a period it would be a verv valuable one.