FEROCIOUS BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1943, Page 3

FEROCIOUS BATTLE

FOUGHT AGAINST U-BOATS AIRCRAFT DEFEND ATLANTIC CONVOYS. NINETEEN SUBMARINES ATTACKED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 19. One of the most ferocious battles of the war between aircraft and U-boats was fought recently across hundreds of miles of the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted four days, and Coastal Command aircraft were able to claim 19 attacks. Strong U-boat forces had apparently been concentrated across the path of two highly important inward-bound convoys. They foymed an undersea wall of fire and steel between the Atlantic and England. As the ships came within range of the Coastal Command’s aircraft, however, Liberators, Flying Fortresses and Sunderlands were launched ‘against the enemy submarines in an all-out offensive. A relentless air hunt and attack increased in tempo and afterward the Coastal Command was able to signal to the squadrons concerned that the effect of the enemy’s attack on the convoys was immensely reduced from the moment the aircraft arrived, and there was not the least doubt that they had saved a large number of ships. The sighting of two or three U-boats during an aircraft sortie became commonplace. One Liberator captain saw six submarines and attacked three within an hour. Three of them were sighted simultaneously, travelling on a converging course toward a convoy. Close co-operation between the naval escorts and the R.A.F. enabled the convoys to change course and avoid places where the enemy was known to be concentrating. In the running four-day battle, tens of thousands of miles were flown by the aircraft, which were manned by crews from Britain, New Zealand and other parts of the Empire, and Belgium. Time and again, U-boats surfacing for a few hours again, U-boats surfacing for a few houi's were damaged, shoken, and poshoure were damaged, shaken, and posaircraft.