WARFARE AT SEA

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21185, 7 August 1940, Page 8

WARFARE AT SEA

HEAVY GERMAN LOSSES COMPARISON WITH BRITISH ALLIES’ GOOD POSITION (Omcial Wireless) (Received August 7, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, August 6 Figures of mercantile losses due to enemy action in the week ended at midnight on Sunday, July 28, were made public to-day. Eighteen British ships, of 65,601 tons, were lost, with two Allied ships of 7090 tons. There were no losses ot neutral shipping in that week. The total tonnage lost, therefore, was 72,691 tons, which compares with the German claim to have sunk in the same period 229,298 tons. The figures given to-day of enemy losses show that up to August 4 they amounted to a total of about 1,172,000 tons, of which 918,000 tons were German and 254,000 tons Italian. In addition about 26,000 tons of shipping formerly neutral but now under enemy control have been sunk. Plenty of Lifeboats In the House of Commons the Minister of Shipping, Mr R. H. Cross, denied that the Arandora Star, which was sunk recently, had been insufficiently equipped with life-saving apparatus. There were lifeboats for 750 and buoyant apparatus or rafts for 1088 against a total of 1569 persons on board. There were also 2000 lifejackets. H.M.S. Resolution Not Hit It is authoritatively stated in London that there is no truth in the report that H.M.S. Resolution was hit by a bomb or that a British cruiser was domaged during an engagement of the Balearic Islands.