COUNTERING U-BOAT MENACE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22478, 13 January 1943, Page 5

COUNTERING U-BOAT MENACE

Adequacy Of Measures Questioned

<8.5 p.m.) LONDON, January 11. The "Daily Mail,” in a leading article on the Atlantic convoy battle, says all that could be claimed after 35 separate attacks was that the Allies almost certainly sank two U-boats and damaged a number of others. This is disappointing. The account of the battle gives the impression that hostile submarines were popping up all over the place. To be “almost certain" of only two is an admission that we are not yet able to destroy U-boats at a rate which will eventually master them.

As the war spreads and new fronts are opened greater opportunities are given to enemy submarines. Apart from their own supply lines from North America, the United Nations have to maintain Important lines of communication to Russia, the Middle East, North Africa. India, Australia and to the Pacific territories. They are all open to submarine attack. One current estimate of the U-boat total is 500, with the Germans turning out a submarine a day. What the Americans are doing in merchant ship construction the Germans arc doing in U-boat construction.

The question is whether there is yet full realisation of the peril facing us and whether the measures being taken are adequate to defeat the menace. An anti-U-boat committee of the War Cabinet was appointed three months ago. The test of its work will lie in results, but we cannot afford to wait long for results.