FIGHTING THE U-BOAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24535, 18 March 1943, Page 2

FIGHTING THE U-BOAT

The naval conference being held in Washington to discuss the war against the enemy submarine may he linked, according to a well-in-formed correspondent, with the opening of a second front in Europe this year. The interpretation is consistent with what Mr. Churchill said in the House of Commons immediately after his visit to Casablanca. The enemy, he said, by relying on the U-boat, "cannot avert his doom. He may delay it, and it is for us to shorten the delay by every conceivable effort." It was revealed then that Britain and the United States had 1,750,000 tons more shipping than in August, 1942. But Mr. Churchill rightly emphasised that to meet the menace merely by building more ships than would replace losses was "a horrible thing to plan ahead in cold blood." He preferred to dwell on means of carrying the fight to the enemy. Fven when Mr. Churchill spoke it was possible to state that the rate of sinkings suffered by the sub-

marines had increased by 50 per cent between August, 1942, and February. The present aim, obviously, is to increase that rate still further. The German capacity to replace losse,s and even increase tonnage is rated high. Skilled crews cannot be supplied in the same automatic way, nor can the damage done to morale by high mortality be easily repaired. It had its effect eventually in the last war, and will have it again as the Allied counter-measures, especially on the vital North Atlantic route, grow deadlier and more persistent. More submarines are expected to be unleashed in these waters with the spring. Their threat must not be under-rated, but it is to be met and will be overcome by the British and American tradition of the offensive.