SHIPPING TONNAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 May 1941, Page 6

SHIPPING TONNAGE

SURVEY OF APRIL LOSSES FALL IN THE ATLANTIC FIGURES. AN ENCOURAGING INDICATION. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 13. The fact that losses of merchant shipping due to enemy action in April, excluding those incurred in the Greek evacuation, totalled 301.070 tons, the lowest figure for 11 months, is regarded authoritatively as an indication that the measures being taken by Britain in the Battle of the Atlantic are proving effective. There is no sign that the efforts the enemy is making will enable him to obtain the quick victory for which he is seeking. It must be remembered that the March figures were the highest for eleven months—-excluding June, which contained the Dunkirk losses and also that, though it is fair to omit the losses in the Greek campaign (187 054 tons) when studying the course of the Atlantic Battle, the tonnage lost then had reduced carrying capacity as much as if it had been lost elsewhere. The total losses from May 1, 1940, to April 30 were 4,734,407 tons —including Dunkirk and Greece—with a monthly average of 394,534 tons, while, excluding Dunkirk and Greece, they were 4,430,067. with a monthly average of 369,172. During the war the British have lost 923 ships of a total tonnage of 3,896,242. comprising 118 ships of 424,305 tons in 1939, 555 ships of 2,382.221 tons in 1940. and 250 ships of 1.089,716 tons in 1941. The totals of the combined losses of British, Allied and neutral shipping are 211 ships of 741,614 tons in 1939, 929 ships of 3,768.700 tons in 1940, and '369 ships of 1,617,359 tons in 1941. making a grand total of 1508 ships of 6 127.673 tons.

A substantial part of the neutral tonnage sunk by the enemy was never chartered by Britain and was not trading with her, while the figures include approximately 50.000 tons of Italian and Japanese shipping sunk by the Germans before Italy entered the war.