WHOSE U-BOATS?

Grey River Argus, 27 March 1948, Page 5

WHOSE U-BOATS?

OFF U.S. SHORES EXPANSION OF FORCES ASKED OF CONGRESS

(Rec. 7.35) WASHINGTON, March 25. Submarines, not belonging to any of the nations west of the “iron Curtain,” have been sighted off the American shores recently.

The Secretary of the U.S. Navy, Mr John L. Sullivan, fold this to the Senate Armed Services Committee to-day. Mr Sullivan,, who asked the committee to approve of the strengthening of the Navy, said that lie was not prepared to evaluate the significance of these sightings, but recalled that “an early step of the Germans in 1917 and in 1941 was to deploy submarines off our coast.” He told tl'e? committee that Russia possesses 250 submarines, including ten new German submarine craft. A high U.S. Navy official later told the press that three foreign submarines had been sighted. The periscope of the first one was sighted on January 30 near Johnston Island and Palmyra, 800 miles from Pearl Harbour. The second submarine was seen off the Aleutian Islands, North Pacific, ten days ago. The third submarine was reported cruising two hundred miles from San Francisco about a month ago. but this report is considered as doubtful, because it was at night time.

The U.S. Secretary for Air, Mr W. Stuart Symington, told the Senate Armed Services Sommittee that Superfortress planes “can take off in limited operations from Alaska or Labrador and can bomb any part of Russia and return to their American bases. Mr Symington said tins “by way of example,” when discussing the reed for the strengthening of the Air Force. Mr Symington explained that, to bomb any part of Russia from Alaska or from Labrador and return to American bases, the Superfortresses would have 1o oe refuelled in tiie air by an imoroved method which has been developed,. “However,” he added, “such limited attacks would not be decisive. Therefore it is necessary to obtain bases nearer to the enemy.”