Late News FEWER SINKINGS IN ATLANTIC

Southland Times, Issue 24837, 1 September 1942, Page 5

Late News FEWER SINKINGS IN ATLANTIC

(Rec. 2 a.m.) NEW YORK, August 31. The New York Herald Tribune’s Washington correspondent says the turning point has apparently been reached in the Battle of the Atlantic. The official list of ship sinkings by Axis submarines in the Western Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, which the Navy published for August, shows a drop of 50 per cent, compared with the previous three months. The Navy reports that only 31 United Nations’ ships were torpedoed in August. This total compares with 68 torpedoed in July, 78 in June and 61 in May. The Navy is reticent about boasting of this achievement partly because in the past statements by Colonel Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, and others asserting that the U-boat menace had been 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 were unfavourable for submarine operations. It is also possible that the Nazis are transferring submarines to other war theatres. At any rate Navy authorities view the submarine situation with relative optimism and consider the convoy system is not controlling the U-boat menace. PREPARATIONS IN INDIA (Rec. 2.20 a.m.) NEW YORK, August 31. The India correspondent of The New York Times reports that a certain town in India has become a key war centre since the Americans invaded it in force. The Americans have poured thousands of troops and much material into the town in the last five months in a furious effort to prepare for anything the enemy might throw against it. The correspondent says the turn’s importance derives from the fact that the Germans are advancing in the Caucasus and the Japanese on the Burma frontier. Berne radio reports that a state of emergency has been declared throughout Iran, which lies immediately south of the Russian Caucasus.