FUEL FOR U-BOATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 July 1942, Page 3

FUEL FOR U-BOATS

SECRET FLEET OPERATING IN CARIBBEAN FISHING CRAFT & SMALL FREIGHTERS. SPANISH VESSELS ASSISTING. (By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright) NEW YORK, July 18. According to an authoritative source, a secret fleet of about 40 fishing ciaft and small freighters is supplying oil and other materials to Axis submarines in the Caribbean Sea and Mexican Gulf, says the New York “Post’s” Mexico City correspondent. Boats from hideouts in jungle-cov-ered inlets south of Yucatan and north of Panama sail nightly for a rendezvous with U-boats. Most of the hideouts are so well camouflaged in the lush tropical foliage that they are almost undetectable. . .; . j Fuel for the submarines is obtained openly when a small freighter pmchases a reasonable amount of oil for its own use but repeats the prodecuic at a nearby port, thus accumulating large stocks which are eventually transported to the U-boats by small highpowered fishing boats chartered by Axis agents ashore. One group of agents operating from Belize, British Honduras, was recently rounded up, but other are still free. The chief agents are Germans, but the actual smugglers are mostly Spaniards, members of the Spanish Falange which is operating clandestinely in Central America. ~ Vessels of the Spanish transatlantic line, it is reported, also supply Üboats from special oil drums not listed in the ships’ manifests. Measures against these activities are hampered because Spaniards are not considered Axis aliens in Mexico and Central America and therefore are not expelled from the coastal areas. Lieutenant-General Andrews, United States commander in the Caribbean, said submarine attacks in this, area had decreased recently. The anti-sub-marine measures were apparently most effective and would be greatly increased in the future. The loss of a number of Allied merchantmen as the result of attacks by Axis submarines is announced by the Navy Department. A large United, States merchantman was torpedoed in the Caribbean with the loss of five lives. While 46 survivors drifted in a lifeboat they heard an explosion in another ship. They were later joined by a lifeboat containing 15 survivors. Both lifeboats were picked up by another merchantman, which was torpedoed the same night. A Dutch ship was torpedoed in the Caribbean in broad daylight with the loss of two members of the crew. A small British merchantman was sunk off the coast of South America, three members of the ciew losing their lives. A Japanese submarine torpedoed an American ship in the Indian Ocean. Six lives were lost.