530 SUNK OR DAMAGED

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 248, 21 October 1942, Page 5

530 SUNK OR DAMAGED

INCOMPLETE ALLIED FIGURES GRIM SIGNIFIC AN CE FOR HITLER.

B.O.W.

RUGBY, Oct. 20.

To-day, on the eve of Trafalgar Day, Mr A. V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty, revealed that mere than 530 Axis submarines have been sunk or damaged by Britain and the United States. This figure does not include any attacks made by the Russian Navy or the French before June, 1940, nor are the American figures cQmplete. During the last war the enemy lost less than 200 U-boats. Paying a tribute to the Royal Navy, Mr Alexander quoted what Napoleon said in captivity: "It was the British Navy that thwarted me at every turn." Mr Alexander remarked : "Hitler may well say the same when his turn comes for removal." The First Lord emphasised three particular*' changes in sea warfare since 1914-18 which had enormously increased the task of the Navy and the threat to our communlcations. They were the gtfeatly increased radius and striking power of aircraft; the far greater endurance and capabilities of U»boats; and the big extent and variety of enemy mining operations. Countering these was the main task of our naval effort, and it was in doing so that the Navy had suffered most of its casualties. These had been large, even by the standards of the last war, but they had not been in vain for the sea lanes bf the United Nations were still open. And they must be kept open so as to get fuel for our bombers over Germany and so that supplies could be sent to Russia and outposts like Malta. No second front would be possible unless we eontrolled the sea as well as the air.