U-BOAT ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 January 1943, Page 3

U-BOAT ATTACKS

HEAVY DURING THE LAST FEW MONTHS BUT TOLL TAKEN OF ENEMY STATEMENT BY BRITISH FIRST LORD. » TRIBUTES TO MINE-SWEEPERS & FLEET AIR ARM. LONDON, January 13. U-boat attacks have been heavy during the last few months, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Alexander, said in London today, but the Allies had been hitting back. To use his own words, they have taken a very heavy toll of the enemy. They had, however, such a U-boat campaign to face that they could not rest on their oars. They needed every ounce of drive and energy to combat the campaign. Mr Alexander described the work of the Fleet Air Arm as truly magnificent, even when, as often happened, the pilots had to fly the older and slower types of aircraft. They must do their utmost, he said, to see that the Fleet, Air Arm got the most modern planes. The work of the mine-sweepers, Mr Alexander declared, had eclipsed anything done in the last war. They had cleared away enough mines to have sunk the whole British merchant fleet twice over. The replacement of British naval losses in this war had been a great feat. Britain now had a far larger naval strength than in 1939. He emphasised that the replacements had been made with at least 100,000 fewer shipyard workers than in the last war.