LOSSES MADE GOOD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1942, Page 3

LOSSES MADE GOOD

UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET STRONGER THAN BEFORE PEARL HARBOUR. OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 6. The United States Pacific Fleet is now stronger in ships, aircraft and men than before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7. This statement was made on behalf of the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Knox, by his special assistant, Mr E. Hayes. The department announced that the destroyer Kearny, which was torpedoed in the North Atlantic on October 17 with the loss of 11 lives, had been completely repaired and was again operating with the fleet. Three merchant ships have made port safely following incidents with enemy submarines at Sea. They were one large Panamanian, one large United States, and one medium-size United States vessels. The Navy Department also announced that losses of ships in Atlantic waters last week totalled 21, bringing the acknowledged losses since December 7 to 115. . Twenty-nine survivors from a United States merchantman which was torpedoed and sunk off the Atlantic coast on March 20 have arrived at New York. Survivors said that the ship successfully outran four submarine before it was torpedoed by a fifth.

DECLINE SHOWN ATLANTIC SUBMARINE , CAMPAIGN. AMERICAN NAVAL ACTION STRENGTHENED. LONDON, April 7. The German submarine campaign off the American east coast has • lately shown a decline. The Secretary for the Navy (Colonel Knox) attributes a falling off in the number of attacks to the strengthening of American naval measures against the U-boats. The United States Navy, he said, was using new methods, which were partly responsible for the decline in attacks. ITALIAN SUBMARINE OPERATING OFF U.S. COAST. MIAMI (Florida), April 6. The captain of a medium-sized British merchantman which was torpedoed off the Atlantic coast, said the submarine which sank the ship was undoubtedly of the larger class of Italian submarines. After surfacing, the U-boat flew the Fascist flag. The commander spoke English with a strong Italian accent. Fifty-seven survivors have reached here. One member of the crew died of a heart attack after the torpedoeing. The senior wireless operator, Anthony Cox, of London, who is only 21, said it was the sixth time a ship had been blown up from under him. Cox also participated in the evacuation from Dunkirk.