SHIPPING LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 August 1941, Page 5

SHIPPING LOSSES

TABLES BEING TURNED ON ENEMY

DAMAGING BLOWS STRUCK BY ALLIES. VITAL ROUTES VIRTUALLY CUT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. August. 20. How the tables have been turned on the enemy is illustrated by the figure of 600,000 tons of 'Axis shipping estimated to have been sunk in the five weeks from .July 10 when it is remembered that only twice in this year — March and April—have the monthly Allied, losses exceeded 500,000 tons.

Not only has the dislocation of European land transport obliged the Axis to make increasing use of coastal shipping for supplies in the occupied countries. but also the supply of Axis forces in Africa is dependent on sea traffic, and the transport of oil from Rumania to Italy has already been made virtually impossible. Though, as the “Daily Telegraph" says, sea traffic is less vital to Hitler than to the Allies, “it is indispensable to any adventure he may contemplate cutside Europe, and his ability to transport such expeditions is being rapidly constricted." The Axis Powers, writes “The Times,” “may be beginning to regret that they saw fit to reintroduce the methods of warfare which made merchant shipping vulnerable to the attack of submarines and aircraft, for there is some evidence to show that the shortage of shipping is proving even more damaging to them than to us. It is not often than an evil deed so quickly brings retribution."