PRIORITY GIVEN
TO TASK OF DEFEATING U=BOAT HEAVY LOSSES SUFFERED BUT ALLIES MORE THAN HOLDING THEIR OWN. IMPRESSIVE FACTS STATED BY MR CHURCHILL. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) RUGBY, February 11. “There is no need Io exaggerate the danger of the Üboats or to worry our merchant seamen by harping upon it unduly,” Mr Churchill said in the House of Commons, when commencing his comprehensive statement on the .shipping position in relation to the U-boat menace. “The British and American Governments,” he added, “have known for some time past that there were these U-boats about (Laughter) and have given the task of overcoming them first priority. The losses we have suffered at sea are very heavy and prevent us coming into action on full strength and thus prolong the war. Progress is being made against the U-boats. We are more than holding our own.” Mr Churchill said that before the United States came into the war, calculations had been made on the basis of British building and guaranteed ]ease-lend, and there had never been a moment when we had not seen our way through. Since the United States entered the war shipbuilding had been stepped up to a prodigious extent. It was inevitable that the combined losses of Britain and America in the past few months would exceed what Britain had budgeted for alone, but new building during the last six months had exceeded all losses by over one and a quarter million tons. Shipbuilding was leaping up month by month and losses in the last two months were the lowest for over a year. The U-boats were increasing, but so were their losses. Nothing was more clearly proved than that a well-escorted convoy, protected by aircraft, could beat the U-boat. There had been hardly any losses with heavily-escorted convoys. In the movement of about three million troops, only 1,348 were killed, drowned or missing. VALUE OF ESCORTS.
Mr Churchill said that for this reason emphasis had been placed on the provision of escort vessels during the last six months and the rate of killing of U-boats had steadily improved. January to October, 1942, sinkings of U-boats, certain and probable, were the best so far in this war. From November to the present date, the rate had increased by more than half again, and, provided the present intense efforts were kept up we should be better off for shipping at the end of 1943 than now. Unless something entirely unexpected happened, we should be still better off at the end of 1944, assuming that the war continued that long. “The more sinkings are reduced, the more vehement our war effort can be,” Mr Churchill said, “and the margin of new building forging ahead over losses means the power to strike heavier: blows. Let the enemy nurse vain hopes of averting his doom by the UIpoat. He cannot avert his doom, but may delay it, and it is for us to shorten the delay by every conceivable effort.”
Mr Churchill referred to heavy losses in the Western Atlantic after the American entry into the war, the drain on the Russian Arctic route and the losses caused through Japan’s entry into the war. Although their provision meant some impingement on new building of merchant tonnage, everyone could see, he added, how much better it was to have fast ships than slow. “This also is true of racehorses,” he commented, “but speed in ships is a costly luxury and most careful calculations have to be made and repeatedly revised. Between having fewer fast ships or more slow ones, the choice is not entirely free.” DEMAND FOR FAST SHIPS. In the sphere of fast ships, he continued, engine competition entered a new phase, as did also the supply of materials for high-speed engines. Hecould assure the House that very competent men were working day and night on these aspects, and they would be delighted to supply fast ships, even at some loss of aggregate tonnage, provided the supply of engines would not clash with some other urgent need. The destructive power of the U-bbats had steadily diminished since the beginning of the war. In the first year, each new U-boat accounted for an average of nineteen ships, in the second year 12, and in the third year 71. These figures were a tribute to the Admiralty and all others concerned. “Let everyone engaged in this sphere of operations bend to his or her task,” said Mr Churchill, “trying to cut down losses and bring launchings up, and let them do this not under the spur of fear, gloom or patriotic jitters, but in sure exhilaration and the consciousness of a gigantic task forging steadily forward to successful acomplishment.” The Prime Minister said he could not give precise figures of losses or building, because it was desirable to leave the enemy guessing and let him be the victim of his own lies. It was, however, a horrible thing to plan ahead, in cold blood, on the basis of losing hundreds of thousands of tons a month. Even if they could show a favourable balance at the year, the waste of precious cargoes, the destruction of so many noble ships, and the loss of heroic crews, all combined to constitute a repulsive and sombre panorama. Emphasising the value of convoying, Mr Churchill said the chances of being drowned while travelling in a British convoy were 2,200 to one. The enemy was building more U-boats, but he believed the answer was more convoy I vessels. I “We are possessed of very powerful I and growing forces, with great masses of munitions coming along,”’ Mr Churchill went on to state. “The problem is to bring these forces into action. America has vast oceans to cross to close with the enemy. We also have seas or oceans to cross in the first instance, and then for both there is the. daring and complicated enterprise of landing on defended coasts and also building up the supplies and communications necessary for vigorous campaigning when a landing has been made. Because of this U-boat warfare takes first place in
our thoughts.”
Mr Churchill concluded: “I accent in the fullest degree responsibility for the plans devised. We await the unfolding of events with sober confidence, and are sure Parliament and the British nations will display in these hopeful days, which may nevertheless be clouded over, the same qualities of steadfastness as when the life of Britain and the Empire hung by a thread.’’
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 February 1943, Page 4
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1,083PRIORITY GIVEN Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 February 1943, Page 4
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