GAIN IN ATLANTIC

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 285, 1 September 1942, Page 5

GAIN IN ATLANTIC

Month’s Ship Losses (Received September 1, 12.30 a.m.) .NEW YORK, August 31.

The Washington correspondent of the New York “Herald-Tribune” says that a turning point has .apparently been reached in the battle of the Atlantic. Tlte oflicial list of ship sinkings oy Axis submarines in the western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea which the Navy Department has published for August shows a drop of 50 f>er cent, compared with the previous three months. , n The Navy reports that 0n1y.31 United Nations ships were torpedoed in August. This total compares with 68 torpedoed in July, 78 in June, and 61 in May. The Navy is reticent about boasting over this achievement, partly because in the past statements have been made by the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Knox, and others asserting that the U-boat menace “conquered” was invariably totlowed bv a new and bigger wave of sinkings. The reductions may be due to a seasonal slump, since the short summer nights are unfavourable for submarine operations, and it is also possible that the Nazis are transferring submarines to other war theatres. At any rate, the navy authorities view the submarine situation with relative optimism and consider that the convoy system is now controlling the U-boat menace.