Has Answer to U-Boats Been Found?

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 290, 6 December 1941, Page 8

Has Answer to U-Boats Been Found?

(By Telegraph Press Assn. Copyright) (Rec. 4, 1.10). NEW YORK, Dec. 3. The Washington correspondent of the New York Herald-Tribune says that Colonel Knox, Secretary for the Navy, gave the Press a hint ehat the British and American

navies had fonnd an answer to the U-boat problem in the North Atlantic. He did not reveal detail?, but said that the development dated from the torpedoing of the United States destroyer Reuben James on October 30. He added that a clue to the development could be found in newspaper files.

Washington observers make the conjecture that either America is convoying the whole distance to Britain, thus reducing the sinkings, or has discovered an effective mechanical device.

The Washington correspondent of the New York Times says that newspaper files significantly show no sinking of British or American merchantmen since the loss of the Reuben James.

Senator David L Walsh, chairman of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, has made public a letter from Admiral H. R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, revealing that the American destroyer Kearny, fought a pack of U-boats for nearly three hours before she was torpedoed. The senator said that the Kearny was convoying merchantmen, including American ships. Some of the merchantmen had been sunk or damaged, but none of the sunken ships was American. He refused to disclose the nationality or the number of the vessels sunk or damaged.

Senator Walsh said he was asking Admiral Stark for a similar report on the sinking of the destroyer Reuben James.

The United Press of America repons that the British steamer Ashley (4868 tons) was torpedoed and sunk near the Azores. The captain and six members of the crew were killed. The survivors were rescued by a Portuguese destroyer.