50 Per Cent. Drop In Sinkings for August

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 208, 1 September 1942, Page 5

50 Per Cent. Drop In Sinkings for August

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) Received Monday, Midnight NEW YORK, Aug. 31. The Herald-Tribune’s Washington correspondent says the turning point has apparently been reached in the Battle of tne Atlantic. The official list of ship sinkings by Axis submarines in the Western Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the oaribbean Sea which the Navy published for August shows a drop of bO per cent, compared with the previous three months. The Navy reports that only 31 United Nat.ons’ ships were torpedoed in August. This total compares with 58 torpedoed in July, 78 in June and 61 in May. The Navy is reticent about the boasting of this achievement partly because in the past statements by Coionei Frank Knox and others asserting that the Üboat menace was conquered were invariably followed by a new and bigger wave of sinkings. The reductions may be due to a seasonal slump since the long summer nights are unfavourable for submarine operations. It is also possible that the Nazis are transferring their submarines to other war threatres.

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.