ON THE SEAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1942, Page 3

ON THE SEAS

CARIBBEAN SINKINGS

NEW YORK, July 18.

Lieutenant-General A. D, Andrews, United States Commander in the Caribbean Sea area, said submarine attacks in this area had decreased recently. Anti-submarine measures were apparently most effective and would be greatly increased in future. The loss of a number of Allied merchantmen as a result of attacks by Axis submarines is announced by the Navy Department. A large United States merchantman was torpedoed in the Caribbean Sea with the loss of five lives. While 46 survivors drifted in a lifeboat they heard the explosion of another ship. They were later joined by a lifeboat containing 15 survivors. Both lifeboats were picked up by another merchantman, which was torpedoed the same night. A Dutch ship was torpedoed in the Caribbean Sea in broad daylight with the los of two members of the crew. A small British merchantman was sunk off the coast of South America, three members of the crew losing their lives.

An Axis submarine, operating close inshore in the Gulf of Mexico, torpedoed and set on fire a mediumsized United States cargo vessel lying at anchor. The United States Navy Department disclosed this in announcing the loss of four more merchant vessels, in which 29 men perished. Other sinkings were a medium-sized Norwegian merchantman 300 miles off the Atlantic coast, a small Norwegian merchantman torpedoed in the Gulf of Mexico, and a medium-sizied United States vessel sunk off the Atlantic coast of South .America. AXIS FUEL SUPPLIES

NEW YORK, July 18. According to an authoritative source,' a secret fleet of about 40 fishing craft and small freighters are supplying oil and other materials to Axis submarines in the Caribbean Sea and Goulf of Mexico, says the “New York Post’s” Mexico City correspondent. Boats were hide-outs in jungle-covered inlets south of Yucatan and north of Panama sail every night for a rendezvous with U-boats. Most of the hide-outs are so well camouflaged by bush and tropical foliage that they are almost undetectable. , Fuel for the submarines is. obtained openly when a small freighter purchases a Reasonable amount of oil for his own use but repeats the procedure at a nearby port, thus accumulating large stocks which are eventually transported to U-boats by small high-powered fishing boats chartered, by Axis agents ashore. One group of agents operating from Belize in British Honduras was recently rounded up, but others are still free. The chief agents are Germans, but the actual smugglers are ’mostly Spaniards, members of the Spanish Falange, which is operating clandestinely in Central America. Vessels of the Spanish Trans-Atlantic Line are reported also to supply U-boats from special oil drums not listed in the ship s manifest. Measures against these activities are hampered because Spaniards are not considered Axis aliens in Mexico and Central America, and therefore are not expelled from the coastal areas. AMERICAN SHIP ABLAZE WASHINGTON, July 18. The sinking is reported 'of a.medium- sized United States vessel. She was bombed, shelled, and sunk on the southern tip of India. Twentyfour of her crew were killed. Two Japanese planes set fire to the ship, and, although the crew succeeded in controlling the blaze, a Japanese cruiser came on the scene and sank the vessel.

A Japanese submarine has torpedoed an American ship in the Indian Ocean. Six lives were lost.

MORE LIVES LOST

(Rec. 10.55 a.m.) WASHINGTON, July 19. Thirty-nine survivors from a medium-sized United States merchantman. torpedoed and shelled on June 28, by a submarine several hundred miles off the northern coast of South America, have reached an east coast port. Three were killed in the engine-room when the torpedo struck the vessel., and five others died of burns, when in a lifeboat. The U-boat commander took the captain and chief engineer of the torpedoed ship on board the submarine, and delivered an impudent lecture. OFF MADAGASCAR. LONDON, July 17. An unnamed Dutch ship was torpedoed 300 miles off the East African coast. Six members of the crew were killed. Survivors who landed at Mozambique stated that two submarines were seen during the attack. JAP. SHIP TORPEDOED LONDON, July 17. The Tokio radio has announced that an American submarine sank a Jap-

anese ship, and that all aboard were lost. Turkish' loss ISTANBUL, July 19. A Turkish communique states that the submarine Atilay (not the Saldary as earlier cabled) has sunk, and must be considered lost, with all her crew. KING’S THANKS TO SEAMEN LONDON, July 19. The King and Queen, accompanied by the Princesses, attended a special service for the Merchant Navy at a country church to-day. In an appeal on behalf of the King George fund for sailors, this evening, Lord Leathers said the King had asked him to give the following message to seamen: “On this day of thankful remembrance for the service of officers and men of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy, I wish to express once again the heartfelt gratitude of the peoples of the Empire to the brave men of the two navies on whom so much depends, and in whom we place our unbounded trust. Never has their spirit been more resolutely displayed than in the passage of vital convoys, and I wish them Godspeed in their task and a safe return from the dangers which beset them on their journeys.”

ADMIRALTY’S CRITIC

(N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent)

(Recd. 2 p.m.) LONDON, July 19. There is general approval of the shipping debate of the Commons being held in secret, even if there is some impatience at the succession of statements; firstly that the debate would be public, then that it would be private, then' the statement that an announcement would be made after the debate, then finally that there would be no statement. It is regretted that some statement was not made. There is some restlessness regarding the shipbuilding policy which is voiced by Mr. Shinwell M.P.: “I accuse the Admiralty of rejecting a plan to build ships by mass production, which is now adopted by the American Government, and is in operation in the United States.”

Mr. Shinwell is of the opinion that the shipbuilding policy is being dictated by people who are concerned with what is to happen after the war, instead of adapting themselves to the present critical situation. He adds: “If we discover further setbacks and the second front is delayed, don’t blame the shipyard workers or the management of the shipyards, but blame the bottlenecks at the Admiralty.” To-day’s battle for the Atlantic and Mediterranean is regarded as being at the height of its difficulties. The remedies are the destruction of more U-boats both in Germany and at sea, also the production of more ships.

U.S.A. SHIPBUILDING

WASHINGTON, July 19.

The Maritine Commission announced the curtailment of all further shipbuilding plant construction throughout the country, because the available steel is needed for shipbuilding itself at the existing plants. Rear-Admiral Vickery, ViceChairman of the Maritime Commission, revealed that the shipbuilding rate was ahead of 1942 schedule by two million tons. New ship building is already outstripping- American merchantmen losses. He added: I am confident we will turn out enough vessels next year to counteract the inroads made by the submarines against the United Nations’, shipping, ilf materials are available, it will be possible to produce twenty-five million tons of shipping in 1943, —more than the total entire British merI chant fleet before the war.