U-BOAT STRENGTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1942, Page 3

U-BOAT STRENGTH

4 HITLER’S LATEST CLAIM ANALYSED. REGARDED AS GREATLY EXAGGERATED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 30. Commenting on the claim made by Hitler in a speech in the Reichstag that “the numbers of U-boats today have left the highest figure of the U-boat in the World War far behind,” Mr H. C. Ferraby, the well-known naval commentator, writes:

“By this Hitler must have meant one of two things, both inaccurate. He might have meant that production had exceeded the paper programme for 1914-18, of 810 U-boats, or he might have been referring to the true number of U-boats delivered in 51 months of the first war—either 344 or 345, the British and German tabulations disagreeing by one boat . “Even if Hitler is referring to the lower and accurate figures, he is still exaggerating. Experts are agreed that the best average delivery is nine a month, or 270 in 30 months, which is far from outstripping the deliveries in 50 months of the last war. “If the boast is to be taken as hinting at a present total of 500 boats, it is open to doubt, because it would mean that 25,000 raw hands have been trained in 30 months. German official figures show that only with the greatest difficulty were 18,000 trained during the.last war and this training was hasty and incomplete for part of each crew. It cannot be claimed that German methods of construction and training were inefficient then.”