ACHILLES HEEL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20639, 20 August 1941, Page 8

ACHILLES HEEL

U-BOAT OFFENSIVE LOSf> 6f TRAINED MEN The Red Fleet, official Soviet; organ, estimates tl#,. of, 400 p. fully-trained German submarine personnel availalDle at. the outbreak of hostilities in 1039 3QOO were sacrificed. in the first six of. the, U-boat .offensive,”- says the naval correspondent of the Daily Telegraph,, .commentirig on tile ..report. The Germans have adriiitted that by June 26. . their,. best ..U-boat t; ,captains arid crews had perished.,... Because, of . the shortage of, trained personnel, the Berlin radio has broadcast appeals for U-boat, recruits. The, .Daily..Telegraph quotes a Russian statement that 14 , U-boats, have been, destroyed in the past six weeks. Assuming that the Germans possess 150 U-boats,the loss.; of 14—10. per ceiit of, thq, total—would be .a serious blow, coining as it does on top of the severe toll in the .Atlantic, . ... . The Russians calculate that the German maximum.,turnout of U-boats is 20 a mo,ntb, but only,a limited number ere available for operations, because one : third ar.e at sea, one thirc|, are refitting aiid.the remainder are en route to arid from their bases.