WAR ON U-BOATS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23965, 4 June 1943, Page 5

WAR ON U-BOATS

Record Sinkings In May ALLIED SUCCESSES REVIEWED LONDON, June 2. “May has been the best month of the war for U-boat kills,” said the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr A. V. Alexander), in a statement on the U-boat warfare in the House of Commons,' He added that it looked as if the number of U-boats destroyed in May would exceed the number the enemy had been able to bring into the war during the month. The number of kills in the last 12 months had exceeded those for the whole previous period of the war, and the rate of destruction in the last six months was 25 per cent, above that for the previous six months. In addition a large number of U-boats had been damaged. The number of U-boats in the Atlantic battle during the last two months appeared to have decreased, said Mr Alexander. “This is no doubt due to more than one cause, but principally to the rising tide of kills at sea,” he added. Although March was a poor month it was not the worst of the war. Indeed. because of the high output of new tonnage in America there had been a substantial net gain in tonnage during March. Merchant shipping losses in April and May were reduced again to the level of the three months from December to February, and even below. There had been in each month for the first five months of 1943 a substantial reduction in merchant shipping losses compared with the corresponding period of 1942. Losses over the whole five months had been reduced by more than one-third. “This improved situation reflected the growing size of our escort forces, both in ships and aeroplanes, and the growing total of our new weapons and devices." said Mr Alexander. He added that he could give an assurance that the enemy was quite wrong in asserting that the low rate of sinkings in April was related to the small amount of shipping at sea. Imports in April were the highest since the beginning of 1942.