STILL ACTIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 January 1942, Page 3

STILL ACTIVE

U=BOATS OFF COAST OF AMERICA STRONG COUNTER-MEASURES TAKEN. LAND PLANES ASSISTING NAVY. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON. January 20. A United States Navy communique states: “Enemy submarine activity is continuing off the Atlantic coast from Cape Hatteras to Newfoundland, with attacks on additional vessels, but strong counter-measures arc being taken by the Navy.” A Washington message says that at least four persons are dead as a result of the attack on the tanker Malay, which was reported yesterday to be approaching the safety of port after having been damaged by a submarine. The submarine without warning shclleci the Malay from a distance of 500 yards and then torpedoed her from 1500 yards. Today the survivors said that after the shelling the lifeboats were lowered with 15 of the crew and the passengers, while the rest remained on board trying to repair the damage. Immediately after the attack scores of military planes took off to search the coastal waters for submarines. In view of the American reports of the activities of Nazi submarines (says a British Official Wireless message), authoritative circles in London regard such a development as a logical sequence of events which are likely to be a German offensive reconnaissance in force to discover local areas profitable for extended operations. Though U-boats have been reported off Newfoundland, this is the first time they have been close in to the American coast.

For submarines operating from ports in the Bay of Biscay, the journey would be 7000 miles there and back and the actual operational time in the area would be limited to 10 or 12 days. On their passage the U-boats would be likely to pass through the convoy routes, and therefore would always have a chance of picking up a target. A patrol of 40 days must be a very severe trial to any submarine in the North Atlantic during winter, and the period might even be extended by meeting supply ships at a rendezvous, as was known to be the case of U-boats operating in the South Atlantic. With regard to a suggestion that these submarines were hunting for Mr Churchill on a possible return journey from the United States by sea, it is felt that though Admiral Raeder might have had his own hopes in this direction, the evidence is not very strong in its favour, as the U-boats would have been unlikely to disclose their positions as early as they did by attacking merchant ships instead of waiting for the “biggei- game.”