The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1944. U-Boat Danger Fades

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22968, 11 August 1944, Page 4

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1944. U-Boat Danger Fades

even after failure to win the air Battle of Britain, still had one small chance left to inflict a mortal blow on Great Britain. If sea communications with the United States could be severed, vital supplies would have been prevented from crossing tlie Atlantic. If the other sea approaches to the United Kingdom could have been made impossibly hazardous, the British people would have gone so tragically short of food that the situation at best would have been critical. Like the leaders of Imperial Germany in the First World War, the Nzais put full faith in their ability to cut the British Isles off from the rest of the world. This strategy almost succeeded in 1917, and how close it may have come to success in this war is a tale yet to be told. In 1941, and in the early part of 1942, it is probable that Britain’s position was as desperate as it had been even in 1917. The Mediterranean was closed and the ships bearing essential foodstuffs from Australia and New Zealand had hazards to meet on almost every stage of their long journey. The Germans, understanding well that their only chance of winning the war was to subdue Britain before she could prepare herself to deliver counter-blows, made a supreme effort Io win the Battle of the Atlantic which must be reckoned one ol the decisive battles of the war. As the menace to Britain's ocean life-lines developed, the convoy system, the final protective resort of the last war, was tried. To some extent it succeeded, but new perils developed when the U-boats evolved their pack-hunting strategy. They believed that if a sufficient number of submarines could be loosed against a convoy a large proportion of the ships would be sunk. Possession of the French Atlantic ports provided excellent bases for these operations and it is no secret now that the U-boat packs won devastating victories in the Atlantic. The history

of war shows that a defence can be found against most offensive weapons, and this was proved again in the Atlantic. Air-power was the factor which turned the Battle of the Atlantic in favour of the Allies after a grim struggle. Although the details of how they did it have not vet been disclosed, patrolling seaplanes became the effective answer to the U-boats, whether they hunted singly or in packs. The probable effect of Allied anti-submarine slrategy was to compel the U-boats to abandon the pack-hunting method which had proved so destructive. Once the submarine was deprived of its power to deliver these concentrated attacks the Allies made their first important move towards victory in the Atlantic struggle.

Now there has come an extraordinarily gratifying account of the results of the Allied anti-submarine measures in a joint statement by Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt. Since the beginning of the war more than 500 U-boats have been sunk, which more than doubles the German submarine losses in the last war. If this great total of sinkings has been necessary to place Allied shipping in its present position of relative security, it shows how great was the menace to be mastered. The extent to which the Allies have overcome the danger was revealed convincingly in the past two months. If there ever was a time when the Germans could have used submarines to enormous profit, it was while the Allies were relying upon ships to launch and maintain their invasion of France. The Churchill-Roosevelt statement discloses that during July the Germans lost more submarines than the Allies lost ships when attempts were made to attack shipping in the English Channel. It has been suggested that the American advance in Brittany, which will result in the capture of Brest, Lorient and St. Nazaire will virtually put an end to U-boat warfare because a large number of U-boats will be seked at these bases. This optimistic view, however, is not taken at Allied Headquarters. There it is believed I hat the threatened submarines have probably escaped already and gone to new lairs further south along the Atlantic coast or to havens in Norway, where they arc still likely to be of operational use. But these submarines are only portion of the great fleet with which Hitler hoped to starve Britain into submission. At worst, they can still do some damage, but their activities can no longer affect lhe outcome of the Mar.