U-Boat War Turns Against Nazis

Northern Advocate, 14 December 1943, Page 5

U-Boat War Turns Against Nazis

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13. A steady decline in U-boat sinkings on the western side of the Atlantic is announced. During America’s first year as a belligerent Axis submarines sank 585 Allied and neutral ships in those waters — an average of over 10 a week. In the next 12 months shipping losses here dropped to 110, or two ships a week. The Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet, writing in the current Army and Naval Journal, says that whereas a year ago the Germans had a determined and successful submarine fleet in the Atlantic and boasted that America would never be able to send an army of any consequence to Europe, today the combined Allied fleets, with escorting ships and planes, are succeeding in thwarting the enemy. German submarine losses have reached a new peak. Although the position is satisfactory as a whole, he adds, in cne area of the waters around the Caribbean Islands, the enemy has resumed his U-boat attacks. In this area five ships have been sunk within the past month. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbour Japan had 7,500,000 tons of shipping. Today at least one-fifth of that tonnage lay at the bottom of the Pacific. How the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission is helping to overcome wartime problems in the islands of the Caribbean is shown in a report issued by the State Department. A convoy system has been organised to meet supply difficulties caused by the German U-boat blockade in this area with special feeder lines to distribute the supplies to the various islands, says the report. Canada is rendering a signal service here by drastically revising her shipping route. The combined efforts of all the countries involved to improve the conditions of the blockaded peoples in the Caribbean have met with success. Through co-operation with Britain and the United States there has been a big increase in industrial expansion, local fisheries have been promoted, and, more inter-isiand trade arranged.