AT SEA: Churchill v. Chain Belt

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Mass production of U-boats for Ger many was described last week in Berlin's authoritative Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, with the implication that production would soon be one per day. "Every shipyard in Germany suitable for submarine building has been pressed into service," said the article. "Furthermore, only the hulls are constructed in yards, while all internal equipment, superstructure, armaments and the like are built in the interior of the country. The time required for construction, from keel-laying to commissioning, is therefore extremely short. . . . A sufficient number of reserve crews has already been trained so that there are no difficulties on the delivery of the new vessels."

Day of this article's publication, Winston Churchill arose in the House of Commons to give his fourth war review as First Lord of the Admiralty. With his usual dry punch he declared : "The destruction of U-boats is proceeding normally . . . between two and four a week. . . .

"When I see statements that the Germans during 1940 will have as many as 400 U-boats in commission and that they are producing these vessels by a chain-belt system, I wonder if they are producing the U-boat captains and crews by a similar method. If so, it seems likely that our rate of destruction might well undergo a similar expansion."

Mr. Churchill revealed that 1,000 British merchantmen have been armed to shoot in self-defense at U-boats, that "before long" 2,000 will be so armed. He pointed out that torpedo attack from beneath the surface "can only be delivered at a quarter of the speed that is possible to U-boats on the surface." Not all naval experts would agree. But of convoyed ships declared the First Lord, "less than one in 750 has been sunk."

Convoys can go no faster than their slowest members. Mr. Churchill said that the system has now been speeded by instituting "slow" and "fast" convoys, so that wallowing tramps do not hold up the parade.* He pointed out that while losses of British merchant shipping declined in October to half the tonnage lost in September, and again in November to two-thirds of October, neutrals last month lost four times what they lost in September. This, he said, "is indeed a strange kind of warfare for the German Navy to engage in. When driven off the shipping of their declared enemy, they console themselves by running amuck among the shipping of neutral nations. This fact should encourage neutrals to charter their ships to Great Britain for the duration of the war, when they can be sure of making larger profits than they ever made in peace, and have complete guarantee against loss." He said Britain's total tonnage loss for three months was 340,000, offset by 280,000 tons transferred from other flags (exclusive of charters), captured or built new. Net loss: 60,000 tons out of a grand total of 21,000,000 tons. For every 1,000 British tons sunk, 110,000 tons reached British ports and nearly 140,000 tons went out, a ratio of 250-to-1.