THE U-BOAT CAMPAIGN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23940, 16 October 1939, Page 6

THE U-BOAT CAMPAIGN

The force of the reservation usually coupled with authoritative statements respecting the progress of hostilities at sea, that war is full of unpleasant surprises and further losses must be expected, is brought home by such tidings as those of the sinking of the battleship Royal Oak as a result of U-boat attack. This is the second major blow of the kind which the enemy’s submarines have struck at the British Navy, the first being the sinking of the air-craft-carrier Courageous, and again the loss of life has been heavy, and will call forth the deep sympathy of the peoples of the Empire for all those whom these sad consequences of war touch most closely. Naturally this successful submarine attack upon a British capital ship has been hailed with considerable satisfaction at Berlin; and has produced extravagant claims as to the sinking of British naval tonnage. But there is of course another side to the picture, and it must be as discouraging to the German Admiralty as it is encouraging from the British viewpoint. According to Mr Churchill’s statement of September 26, the six or seven U-boats of which Mr Chamberlain had earlier mentioned the destruction—emphasising that his estimate was a conservative one—represented one-tenth of the total submarine tonnage of Germany as it existed at the time she entered the war. Since then the U-boat losses have been steadily mounting. The British Admiralty has been able to announce that three were destroyed on Friday last, which is a remarkable achievement for the hunting craft within the space of twenty-four hours. Moreover, on a careful computation, according to a French official pronouncement, the full number of U-boats accounted for to date is seventeen. This must represent close upon a fourth of the original German submarine fleet. The achievement by the British and French navies of such a result in little more than six weeks must give the German Admiralty cause for serious concern, and will no doubt account largely for the announcement from Berlin that henceforth German destroyers instead of Üboats will be employed for “ economic warfare.” In the last war Britain achieved the mastery of the submarine only after a conflict at sea in which the issue seemed for a time to hang in the balance. In this war she has taken the offensive against the U-boats from the beginning, and is increasing its range and effectiveness from day to day. It is not as if the submarine could be easily or quickly replaced. Of all types of war vessel the submarine, in relation to size, has been designated the most costly to build, maintain, and operate, and, leaving cost out of account, the problem of the long period required for the efficient training of crews for this special service is not easily got over in relation to replacements, nor the fact that the casualties among under-water craft are more numerous than in the case of surface ships. The British Admiralty is increasing the strength of the Royal Navy by the addition of a new defensive squadron consisting of armed merchant cruisers, and the effectiveness of the air anti-submarine patrols and the convoy system is being demonstrated in the smallness of the toll which the U-boats are now able to levy on the British mercantile marine. While it must be expected that the enemy submarines may still achieve an occasional spectacular success there is no reason for any abatement of the confidence inspired by the results to date of the countermeasures taken against them.