U-BOAT WARFARE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21242, 12 October 1940, Page 7

U-BOAT WARFARE

RENEWAL BY NAZIS WORK OF BRITISH NAVY CAN MEET THE MENACE (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. copyright) LONDON, Oct. 10 The renewal of the U-boat campaign against British shipping would entail hard work for the Navy and the Merchant Navy this winter, according to a commentator making a broadcast cn naval affairs. “We broke the first German effort to wreck our seaborne trade last autumn,” said the commentator.

“We smashed it to smithereens, and it has taken them months to rebuild the strength of the submarine flotillas. Recent figures of merchant shipping losses are all too clear proof that the German shipyards have turned out large numbers of new submarines, and that in spite of the difficulties in the hasty training of new crews the Germans have been able to man these craft. “We must not, however, exaggerate their feat. They have not, for example, built the hundreds and hundreds of new submarines with which Berlin threatened us. It would perhaps be rash to guess at the exact number they have been able to build, but knowing something of German shipbuilding capacity, I doubt whether they have yet completed 100. “A hundred new U-boats sounds a bit formidable, but the Germans have had to start again from scratch as far as numbers of ships are concerned. British Losses Not Serious “Our losses are not serious even now. The weekly average of tonnage sunk is well below the worst the Kaiser’s U-boats achieved 23 years ago, but it is higher than it was last spring, and the Navy has to start the work of annihilation all over again.

“We know from an Admiralty statement a few days ago that seven U-boats have been destroyed in the last few weeks. We know, too, that others have been damaged. Now, a damaged submarine, like a damaged aeroplane, may not get back to its base, but even if it does, it may be six to 16 weeks before it is serviceable again. Moreover, the Italian flotillas have had their losses. It is officially stated that 16 submarines have been sunk and semi-officially that another six are accepted as almost certain. Others again have been damaged and will have to remain in harbour for a while.

“It is probably fair to say that the enemy submarine service can never throw more than half its weight into the fighting line at any one time — that if there are 100 submarines, not more than 50 can be at sea. The reason is that the crews must be rested between trips, the boats must be overhauled, delicate machinery must be tuned up, and there is the inevitable problem of repairs after heavy depth-charging or a duel with a merchant ship’s defensive gun. Shortage of Men “Another point we do not always remember is that boats can be massproduced, but the men who work the boats cannot. One man is born a natural fighter, another is as cautious as the average boxer and another is a born liar who reports that every

torpedo he fires sank a 10,000-ton ship. That human aspect of the U-boat war is important. “Not every submarine commander is a menace, as actual war experiences show. Only one in ten is really dangerous. There were 45Q commanding officers of U-boats at sea during the last war, but when the German officer who directed the campaign wrote its history, he scheduled only 20 ‘aces’ and another 25 officers as the next best.”

AEROPLANES DIVERTED

FROM SWEDEN TO BRITAIN SHIPMENTS FROM AMERICA .United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright; NEW YORK, Oct. 10 It is learned that approximately 100 dive-bombers originally built for Sweden will be shipped to England shortly.

Seventy-five have already been crated, ready to be loaded into the