U-BOAT ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 March 1943, Page 3

U-BOAT ATTACKS

LIKELY TO BE FIERCE & CONCENTRATED IN ATLANTIC DURING APRIL. JAPANESE CRAFT RELATIVELY IMPOTENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, March 22. While Mareh has* been a bad month for Allied ship sinkings in the Atlantic, it is „ expected that U-boat attacks in April will become even fiercer and more concentrated. The Director of the Office of Wai* Information, Mi’ Elmer Davis, told this to a conference of United Nations correspondents. He added that by contrast Japanese submarines were relatively impotent. They only occasionally attacked shipping routes and had made no serious attempt to disrupt communications between America and the South Pacific. Asked for an explanation for the apparent diminution of the striking power of the Japanese Air Force, Mr Davis expressed the opinion that the majority of the enemy’s first-line pilots had been knocked out and the reserves were less capable. He\ said Japan undoubtedly possessed a reserve of air aces, but he was unable to say whether they were being held for offensive purposes. There was no evidence of any development of advanced types of Japanese aircraft. Mr Davis was sympathetic to a suggestion that the Office of War Information prepare a statement setting out all the known facts about military Japan, estimating the naval, army and air strength as well as the internal situation. Such a statement, it was felt, would be particularly useful in England, where the Japanese menace was held to be still less understood than in America.