AXIS DEFEAT

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22493, 30 January 1943, Page 5

AXIS DEFEAT

Deferred By U-Boat Successes America Without Escort Ships By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (8.0 p.m.) NEW YORK. Jan. 28. At the Casablanca conference Mr Roosevelt and Mr Churchill faced no greater problem than the fact that a year after the entry of the United States into the war not one American convoy ship of approved trans-ocean type is in service, says Mr Charles Hurd, the correspondent of the “New York Times.” Action has now been taken by Mr Donald Nelson, and there will be a measurable number of escort ships in service by the summer and sufficient for a good showing by the next autumn. Mr Hurd pointe out that if the Navy plans had been carried out, escort ships would have been available 18 months earlier. An Axis defeat, already deferred by the German submarine successes, might be averted unless the present rate of sinkings is reduced, says Mr Hanson Baldwin. Our ship losses have exceeded the total replacement capacity of the United Nations, while submarines are being built more quickly than we are able to destroy them. We must speed up the production of escort vessels, particularly of the anti-submarine type, hundreds of which have been planned but scarcely one has been delivered. Convoys must also be protected over long distances by planes based on escorting carriers. These measures will help, but they are not enough. So many submarines are already operating that the bombing of submarine yards and factories, no matter how intensified, cannot provide the remedy. The concentration of all American planes in England with the R.A.F. in great continuous raids on Lorient, St. Nazaire and elsewhere might immobilise the submarines at their bases by the destruction of machine-shops and Power plants, but if this is impassible large scale commando raids against submarine bases might be justified.