WAR ITEMS

Grey River Argus, 17 December 1943, Page 5

WAR ITEMS

GOVERNMENT CALLS CONFERENCE. (Rec. 11.10.) NEW YORK. Dec. 16. The Government is moving to avert the threatened railway strike. The Government has called a conference of the railway management and union officials in Chicago on Saturday next, December 19. It is believed that a strike can be averted only through the Government operating the railroads, or through the administration making a retreat from its refusal to grant the unions’ wage demands. However, Mr. Roosevelt probably will ultimately be forced to settle the issue, i Use of Azores RUGBY, Dec. 12. Within two weeks of the R.A.F. Forces beginning operations in the Azores, Coastal Command aircraft from the islands have sunk a U-boat tn the Atlantic. This emphasises the great value of the air facilities granted Britain by the Portuguese Government, which enable the Atlantic Gap to be closed. British forces, consisting of naval, military and air units which went to the Azores following the agreement with Portugual, are commanded by Air Vice Marshal G. R.- Bromet, senior British officer in the island, who has with him a senior naval officer. He has had a long experience in air and sea warfare. Recently he has been directing a relentless air offensive against U-boats in the Bay of Biscay as Air Officer Commanding Coastal Command Group, west of England. The principal units of the new command consist of squadrons which already have been successful in antisubmarine operations in the Battle of the Atlantic. The use of these important facilities < enables the Coastal Command to patrol a million square miles of sea additional to the ten or 12 million square miles previously operating. Thus vast areas of ocean hitherto unguarded by landbased aircraft are now being regularly searched for submarines. This great trans-Atlantic \air umbrella from the islands links up in lantic with the other R.A.F. patrols from Gibraltar, Iceland. Newfoundland, Canada and the United States. The use of the Azores orings further benefits to the United Nations’ air effort by providing refuelling facilities ror small Allied escort vessels.

The first U-boat kill from the islands was made by an R.A.F. Fortress. It sighted a. full-surfaced submarine and carried out three attacks. The first was made with machinegun fire, and the second with depth charges, which exploded alongside the submarine from stem to stern, in the third, depth 'charges straddled the U-bbat. After the second attack the submarine settled by the stern and heeled over to port. At the end of the third attack it appeared t.ol disintegrate, wreckage, thick oil. and 15 survivors being seen In the water by the Fortress'crew.