The Dominion TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1948. WAR’S REALITIES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 8, 5 October 1943, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1948. WAR’S REALITIES

Although the exaggerated claims by the Germans concerning the results of the latest reported U-boat attack on an Allied Atlantic convoy have been substantially discredited by the facts, the new enemy tactics revealed strengthen suggestions previously made that the recent lull in submarine activity could not safely be taken to mean that the enemy’s resources had been permanently crippled. The history of warfare is a serial story of measures and counter-measures. Each new weapon introduced, each new tactic employed by one side, supplies an urgent incentive to the other side to invent something to offset it. German submarine strategy and tactics have developed along very different lines compared with those followed at the beginning of the war. The counter-measures followed by the Allies have in the main consisted in building more ships than were sunk by the enemy, sinking as many U-boats as possible, bombing his U-boat construction yards and sea bases, building up convoy escort strength, and gradually extending the radius of offensive aircraft action over submarineinfested waters. These measures had a definite degree of success, and it may be assumed that the enemy’s latest move will be carefully studied and appropriate measures taken, now that he has shown his hand. It was only last week that his Excellency the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, took occasion to voice a warning on this very subject. With almost prophetic utterance he said:

Though there may be lulls in the number of sinkings and though submarines may be diverted from time to time there will be a recrudescence. New attacks, new methods of attack and no doubt new weapons of offence against Allied ships are being evolved by the enemy, and they will have to be mastered by scientists and sailors. Similar warnings have been uttered by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Alexander, when reviewing the progress of the war at sea. These warnings are by way of impressing upon people that the whole conflict, its deadly nature, its immense difficulties and problems, must be viewed realistically. Things have been going well for the Allies this year, but as the Governor-General pointed out, “it is necessary for us to make a conscious effort to realize that though the war is going well, the road ahead is long, and not altogether smooth.” Note that this must be a conscious effort. It is so easy, so far removed as We appear to be from actual danger-to our own shores, to lapse into complacent confidence with every instalment of good news. What must be realized is that, broadly speaking, we have Simply been recovering lost ground. That in itself is reason for profound satisfaction. The danger to be guarded against, however, is that we may lose our sense of reality. The story of this latest convoy battle in the Atlantic should assist us to retain it.