Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1941. BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 98, 25 March 1941, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1941. BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC.

“We must regard the Battle of the Atlantic as one of the most momentous ever fought in all the annals of war,” declared Mr Winston Churchill in his speech welcoming the new American Ambassador to London. It was natural that the Prime Minister should have something to say of this great conflict between ships that ride the waves and surface raiders, submarines, and aircraft. Behind the censorship, the . curtain of which Mr Churchill lifted a little to announce the loss of three U-boats in one day—a success not recorded since the second month of the war—the battle is developing in all its severity. It will rage with increasing fury as the days pass, Hitler’s so-called “total blockade” being his only alternative to the invasion which he still hesitates to attempt. The submarines he has been building to repair his sharp losses of the first year of war have been sent into the Atlantic from their various bases; ' surface raiders are afloat in the vast wastes of the Atlantic, and once convoys are within range they must face the German bombers which fly well out into the Atlantic Ocean. Üboats and a German battlecruiser have crossed to the American side of the Atlantic to sink some ships travelling independently. Such losses there must be, but they will not be wholly on the side of Britain, and not all the Nazis’ activity under or above the sea and in the air will prevent convoys from reaching their destination. Recent news tells of German submarines going down and 200 ships safely in British ports with their extremely valuable cargoes from the United States. The battle, it is said, will be veiled in official secrecy thicker than the Atlantic fogs, but its seriousness will not be minimised as the struggle to preserve ships and their cargoes goes on. The convoy system which was introduced in the last war, and served extremely well in countering the success of German Üboats, has been put to severer tests in this conflict. Then aerial warfare was in its infancy; now it is a highly developed fighting service, and Germany’s powerful bombers are being thrown against every class of shipping around and distant from Britain’s coasts. Surface raiders have shown the vulnerability of convoys by sneaking quietly in among them and at an opportune moment destroying ships before speeding away. It is not surprising. therefore, that American shipping experts should feel that the system is not now as efficient as in the latter years of the Great War. They suggest a lane across the Atlantic Ocean from Labrador to the British Isles, following the Great Circle route, which would be patrolled each fifty miles by one of forty destroyers engaged in safeguarding shipping. Whatever merit the suggestion has no doubt will have

the Admiralty’s earnest consideration, but the fact must not be overlooked that in his recent speech the Eirst Lord said the Admiralty, was confident of its ability to withstand and counter Germany’s “grievous blows.” New methods, he disclosed, have been devised to fight the U-boats, stronger escorts are being provided. and counter-measures developed to defeat the enemy’s long-range bombers. The greatest measures must be taken to beat the Germans, for as Mr Churchill says, the battle must be won decisively if American and British policies are not be frustrated .