Non-stop Blasting Of U-Boat Bases

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 25, 30 January 1943, Page 5

Non-stop Blasting Of U-Boat Bases

POSSIBLE METHOD OP REDUCING MENACE Received Friday, 9.5 p.m. NEW YORK, Jan. 29. “An Axis defeat has already teen deferred by the German submarinesuccesses and might he averted unless the present rate of sinkings is reduced,” says Hanson Baldwin, the New York Times’ military commentator. “Our ship losses have exceeded the total the United Nations’ replace ment capacity while submarines are being built more quickly than we are able to destroy them. “We must speed up the production of escort vessels, particularly the anti submarine type, hundreds of which have been planned hut scarcely delivered. Convoys must also he protected over long distances by planes based on escorting carriers. These measures will help hut they are not enough. So many submarines are al-p'-vdy operating that the bombing of submarine yards and factories no matter how intensified cannot provide the remedy. “The concentration of all the American planes in England with the R.A.F. In great continuous raids on Lorient, St. Nazaire and elsewhere might Immobilise the submarines at their bases by the destruction of machine shops and power plants. If this Is impossible large-scale commando raids against the submarine bases might be justified.”