U-Boats Sunk in Record Numbers

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 112, 5 September 1942, Page 5

U-Boats Sunk in Record Numbers

NIW DEVICES HELP CLEAR ALLIED SEA LANES (British Official Wlreles..) . , RUGBY, Sept. 3. July an 4 August have been the most •uccesatul month. In the war for the pumber of U-boats destroyed, said the Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, speaking in London to-day. In addition, he added, a large number of U-boats had been damaged or put out of action. The U-boats had now turned back to their more usual haunts, Mr. Alexander a4id. If the U-boats found this area of attack dangerous last year, they would find it doubly dangerous now. New methods had b£en developed, and new devices were in action. When changes in German tactics occurred, it was because flew methods and devices forced them on the U-boats. The majority of the main German warships had remained throughout the year in Norwegian waters. The battleship Tirpite had been there since January, accompanied at times by the Scheer, Lutaow and Hipper. The battle cruiser Scharnhorst had completed repairs and was expected shortly to return to service after being out of action for more than 16 months. The battle-cruiser Gneisenau Vas damaged by a mine or torpedo during the Channel action and again by air in Kiel, and now lay dismantled at Gdynia. Th»i heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which wtu torpedoed at Trondheim, was completing repairs in Germany. Tne - u.«j« lee* a menace in

German waters than they were when lying at Brest. Dangers to Russian Convoys.

Mr. Alexander said that the running of the Russian convoys had been achieved only under growing difficulties. The situ atlon was probably at its worst in midsummer before the ice receded northwards and when the convoys were forced to proceed in continuous daylight. With the recession of the ice and some periods of darkness, the conVoys* difficulties would tend to decrease a little, but the dangers would remain great. During the year, four convoys had been passed into Malta. A regular series of operations also took place in which fighters were flown from carriers foi* Malta. In Just over a year, 35 operations of this type had taken place and 815 fighters had been flown into Malta. Never once had the Italian Battle Fleet dared to proceed west of Sardinia or, since the Battle of Cape Matapan, to the east of that cape. Although the Italian Battle Fleet had escaped total destruction, several ships had spent long periods in dock as a result of damage, and the wearing-down of the cruiser force continued. Of the seven eight-inch gun, cruisers with which Italy started the war, two, or possibly three, remained. Of the 12 six-inch gun cruisers, seven remained. The Italians had in service little more than half the submarines with which they started. Powerful Indian Ocean Fleet. In spite of our losses in the Far East, Mr. Alexander added, we had built up a powerful fleet in the Indian Ocean. British minesweepers had mastered serious minelaying, and it was only occasional now that a ship was sunk or damaged by mines. British merchant shipbuilding had far outstripped the production in the first three years of the last war, while oyr very heavy naval losses were being made good. There was also a new fleet of corvettes and a very large number of motoi launches, motor torpedo-boats, motor gunboats, and landing craft of ail kinds,.