“The Battle of the Atlantic”

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 102, 1 May 1941, Page 6

“The Battle of the Atlantic”

The announcement by the United States Chief of Naval Operations that America is patrolling the Atlantic for a distance ot 2000 miles comes as welcome news in the gigantic and vital straggle for supremacy of the sealanes over the broad waters which divide the two great freedom-loving democracies. It that patrol is effective over the distance given by Admiral Stark then a new force of tremendous significance has been introduced into the struggle. It means that United States naval vessels are actually covering two-thirds of the Atlantic, and it can be taken for granted that they will do their job with typical American efficiency The lengths of some of the most frequently-used sealanes show how far across the sea the naval arm of the United States reaches. From New York to Southampton the distance is 3091 miles and to Liverpool 3043 miles. From Montreal to Liverpool the distance is only 2700 miles, while from lialifati to Ulasgow it falls to 2408 miles. “The Battle of the Atlantic will be long and hard, and vhe issue is by no means determined.” Thus Mr. Churchill gave us a reminder of that grim, merciless war that is being fought behind the shroud of silence that, for a long time, has covered the Atlantic Ocean. The weekly reminder that once we used to get in the form of tonnage lost has disappeared, and is to be replaced by monthly announcements. It is a long time since any announcements were made of British successes against U-boats, the last reference to this matter having been by Mr. Churchill ill liis previous broadcast. The German reports of tonnage sunk, have, since the very start of the war, been greatly exaggerated. It has not all been deliberate exaggeration, for the submarines which deliver the attacks are not able to say whether or not they have sunk their victim. . . It is doubtful if the Germans are ever able to ascertain with complete certainty the effect of an attack. Their policy appears to have been to announce as sunk any ship against which an attack was delivered and in which the torpedo was heard to explode. With them, presumption has been accepted as certainty. The British policy has been more cautious, and for that reason more accurate.

But, whatever the errors and exaggerations, the fact remains that the Germans are still taking a very much heavier toll of our shipping than we can afford. Up to the time that the weekly reports were discontinued, the average a week of definite shipping losses was 1)8,000 tons, and that was at least 10,000 tons than we could afford, or could hope to replace. And the trend of the average figure was then upward, after having shown a steady decline during the northern winter. At any given moment, Germany has about fifty submarines in the Atlantic carrying on the war against our shipping. That figure seems to be pretty generally accepted by competent observers, though nobody can be sure. It is a figure that presupposes at least 150 German U-boats in active commission. Germany started the war with sixty-six U-boats, and, in less than four months, lost more than fifty of them. It looked at that time as if we were on the way to wiping the submarine from the seas altogether. The Germans, apparently, had not fully realised the potentialities of the Asdig, and one U-boat after another went to fragments in the bursts of the depth charges. Since then the enemy has changed his methods. For one thing, he has learned all about the Asdig—probably is using his own version of it for defensive purposes. When France fell the Germans were able to examine the Asdig equipment on the French vessels, and so an important naval secret with which we started the war was a secret no longer. One of the greatest efforts that Germany has made has been in submarine building, and there can be no doubt that she has built a lot. Hitler, in his address at the beginning of March, made much of this new U-boat programme and of the new offensive which they connoted. He referred more than once to the “new U-boats now coming from the shipyards,” and added: “The fact that they are coming cannot be doubted.” To some extent, mass production methods of U-boats have doubtless been perfected. The existence of many “minnows”small submarines—is beyond question. These are the craft that Captain Alec Stratford Cunningham-lleid described in Parliament as “suicide craft, manned by fanatical young volunteers of the death and glory brigade.” These “simplified submarines”they are almost wholly without safety devices, and have only sufficient mechanism to “make them work”—are about 250 tons and carry a crew of 23 (compared with 40 in a 600-ton cubmarine). They mount only one machine-gun, and are thus practically harmless in attack except by medium of their three torpedo tubes. N On the surface they could be disposed of by any merchant ship that mounted a gun of almost any sort. Thus they must work always under water, in most instances without even periscope aid. Hence the development of the “Browning” attacks—attacks by squadrons of submarines firing their torpedoes in the general direction of a convoy, hoping that some torpedoes will make contact as they go through the convoy lines. And, of course, some do. The unseen attackers, having made their assaults purely by directional equipment, then lie doggo and hope for the best. They waste a lot of torpedoes and probably lose a lot of minnows—but they also get too many ships for our liking.