15% Better than Average

News of the Battle of the Atlantic grew so bad in March that the British Admiralty decided to announce losses monthly instead of weekly. Last month the news appeared to grow better--losses were off 145,000 tons to 352,000--whereupon the contrary Admiralty announced it was going to cease regular announcements altogether.

This reduction did not necessarily mean that the Battle of the Atlantic was going much better for the British. In June Britain had no Grecian disaster or Cretan fiasco to swell her shipping losses to the figures of April and May. Nevertheless June was 15% better than the monthly average since the Battle of the Atlantic began in earnest in June 1940. Why, when things were looking up, did the British go mum?

Their announced reason: "The enemy has become increasingly reliant on our monthly figures to calculate the success of his newer methods of operation." Another possible reason: the British may expect results to grow progressively better, fear that good news might make U.S. aid a trickle, as bad had made it a flood.

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