FLOCK OF U-BOATS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22476, 11 January 1943, Page 5

FLOCK OF U-BOATS

Allied Shipping Suffers (Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, Jan. 9. Flocks of U-Boats estimated at 300 are concentrated at four strategic points, one each in the North and South Atlantic, North Africa and the northern route to Russia, says Mr Drew Pearson in the “New York Daily Mirror.” Hitler seems to be gambling everything on stopping supplies to the war fronts. The sinkings in the early months of the winter were amongst the worst of the war. The Nazi methods have much improved the submarines’ crash-diving, according to the War Shipping Administration, and they are now able on an average to crash-dive four minutes after launching a torpedo. Torpedoes, too. are apparently larger and more powerful, blowing ships in two, preventing them from sending an SOS, thereby not revealing their position and sharply increasing the casualties among the crews. The British estimate that they lose one third of the crew of a torpedoed ship, the Americans 35 per cent and the Norwegians 40 per cent.

Lifeboats and cork-filled lifebelts are out of date as there is no time to launch boats, therefore they are being replaced by liferafts suspended at the side and releasable from the bridge. Lifebelts are being discarded because they break too many arms through the belt flying up and wrenching the arms when the wearer leaps into the water.

Germany is launching a 750-ton submarine a day. says the Rome radio. These submarines usually hunt together in packs of 10 or 12.