U-BOAT MENACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1942, Page 3

U-BOAT MENACE

STILL MAJOR PROBLEM FOR ALLIES OBSERVATIONS BY COLONEL KNOX. SUCCESS ANTICIPATED IN LONG RUN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, September 19. The Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Knox, addressing the annual convention of the American Legion, declared that the submarine vzas the major problem confronting the United Nations. “The problem is closely tied with-an eventual second front in Europe, with a major counter-attack in the western Pacific, and with the Russian supply,” he said. The growing strength of Allied naval power was noticeable from the way the German submarines had already substantially been driven from British and American coastal waters. Also the German navy was a fugitive force in European waters, and the Italian navy more or less fugitive in the Mediterranean, while the victories of the Coral Sea and Midway, plus the swift growth of American sea-power, had remedied the unbalance which existed in the Pacific in the months immediately following' Pearl Harbour. “In the long run,” Colonel Knox added, “shipping losses will be reduced to the point where they are no longer a threat to Allied supply lines, but this battle is difficult.” Quick results, he said, could not be expected. Discussing war Lime policy, Colonel Knox said: “We can lose the war unless we unitedly support President Roosevelt. Political snipers are as dangerous as Japanese hiding in the palm trees.” Victory, he said, must be used for the total destruction of Fascism, and to build a world wherein the next generation would not again pay in blood for the mistakes of its elders. In Ottawa, the Minister of the Navy, Mr Macdonald, revealed that the destroyer Assiniboine sank a German submarine in a 24-hour action shrouded in fog, which ended when lhe destroyer rammed the U-boat and the survivors of the crew surrendered.

Mr Macdonald emphasised that it was only one of the successful actions the Canadian Navy has waged against submarines.