THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, August 17, 1943. THE U-BOAT DEFEAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25306, 17 August 1943, Page 2

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, August 17, 1943. THE U-BOAT DEFEAT

Impressive evidence of the continued success of the Allied campaign to counter the U-boat is contained in the latest statement on this subject by President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill. In some respects, no doubt for good reasons, the reports on shipping losses and other details concerning the U-boat war are incomplete. But the facts as stated in this and earlier statements are unequivocal and beyond misinterpretation. It is apparent that the U-boats, which once were marauders without compare, are now themselves suffering heavily. The hunter has become, at least in certain circumstances, the hunted. A loss of 90 U-boats in three months is very serious from the point of view of Grand Admiral Doenitz. The estimated total of German U-boats is 500 to 600, to which new production adds an estimated 30 a month. Even allowing for the probability that some of the submarines claimed were Italian, this means that at sea the Allies are seriously interfering with Germany’s replacement ratio. Besides, they are making sustained and devastating raids upon the U-boat production centres in the Reich and operating bases in northwestern France. The emphatic declaration that. U-boat attacks have been having an “ insignificant ” effect on the war effort of the Allies is amply supported by recent figures. Those just released by the democratic leaders, disclosing a loss of some 50,000 tons in the Sicilian venture, in which 2500 vessels were used, show how effectively the Royal Navy and Allied air forces have asserted themselves in the Mediterranean. The loss is indeed “insignificant” in military terms. The earlier announcement of the low percentage of loss, 2.16 per cent., in the North African campaign, suggests even more strikingly the extent of the immunity from enemy depredations that has been* established. In the six months from early November, when the African campaign got under way, the Allies are reported to have sent 11,000,000 tons of shipping through to North African ports, and an unofficial statement is to the effect that a million tons of shipping have been crossing the Atlantic monthly in supplying the American Fifth Army alone, and, no doubt, in reinforcing it for future operations. The warning which concludes the latest report from the Allied leaders is scarcely needed. Shipping is, and must remain for the duration of the war, one of the most exposed as well as most vital weapons of the Allies: it must be conserved, yet it can never be skimped if the War effort in its new offensive aspects is to attain full momentum. Up to the present time the Nazi U-boat campaign has signally failed to reach the new goal promised by Herr Hitler a few months ago, when Doenitz took over his appointment. The fact that the Allies have been able in a year of intense U-boat warfare to build 3,000,000 tons of shipping over sinkings provides the most solid basis for asserting, with due respect for the warning in the joint statement, that though the campaign may yet be capable of development, the Axis has already lost the war at sea.