Desperate Campaign

OWI's report last week that U.S. merchant-marine casualties in one year of war had reached 3,200 or 3.8% of the crews* underlined the gravity of the U-boat campaign--a campaign which may yet stalemate the war and will certainly delay final Allied victory.

The greatest submarine fleet the world has known is now operating against the lifelines to Russia, Britain, North Africa. Well-informed U.S. and British officials drew a picture of that fleet:

Modern German submarines are as far advanced over the undersea ships of 1914 as modern planes are over planes of World War I. Some of the long-range types can travel 14,520 miles on a single load of fuel. Refueled and reprovisioned by undersea tenders ("milk cows"), they can remain at sea for months at a time. Monstrous metal whales, 220 ft. long with a 20-ft. beam, they carry in their bellies a dozen torpedoes, a crew of 45. When submerged they displace 882 tons (about half the displacement of a typical destroyer).

Their thick skins are double, with oil compartments between to absorb the shock of depth charges, which must explode within 20 ft. of them to blast open their hides. They can crash dive in seconds, submerge to 100 fathoms (600 ft.), resist with safety the pressure of more than 19 tons per square foot. On the surface they can shoulder through the sea at 20 knots, driven by great 2,800-h.p. diesel engines. On their bows is a quick-firing gun big enough to enable them to engage Allied corvettes in surface action. U-boat production is at the rate of 20 to 30 a month. Hitler should have a fleet of 500-700 or more by spring, and the rate of losses now inflicted by Allied planes and ships will have to be greatly increased before the growth of the German fleet is halted.

Into this last-chance gamble Hitler has thrown many of his still vast resources. From the inland industrial centers of the Ruhr he can spawn his raiders and send them across the world. The biggest craft are launched into the Baltic and the North Sea. Smaller craft can be floated through river and canal arteries across the face of France, spewed out into the English Channel through the Seine, into the Mediterranean through the Saone-Rhone Rivers, into the Bay of Biscay through the Loire River.

In the Air. The Allies are desperately fighting submarines with planes. Two out of every three R.A.F. bombers have been fighting the Battle of the Atlantic. Practically every German city under major attack in the last twelve months manufactures some U-boat part. Last week R.A.F. bombers, in their 112th raid on Cologne, made the heaviest attack since May 30, when 5,000 acres and 250 factories were ruined. Last week's raid was timed to flatten Cologne's burgeoning reconstruction, level factories just resuming the production of diesel engines and U-boat batteries. The British dropped 100 two-ton bombs.

Giant Lancasters, attacking the northern industrial heart of Italy, left "colossal" fires blazing at Turin and made their first swoop over Mussolini's naval base at La Spezia. R.A.F. bombers by night, U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators by day, flew over western Europe. They gave Hamburg its 95th plastering. They roared through the valley of the Ruhr. They swarmed over the U-boat base at Lorient, where ten acres of the naval arsenal have now been reported destroyed. Apparently unable to pierce the eleven-foot roofs of the concrete sub pens, the Allied bombers have concentrated on softer targets which are vital to maintenance and repair. Result: 75% of Lorient's headquarters buildings have been wrecked; shops, foundries, warehouses have been knocked down. Daylight precision bombing by Flying Fortresses has undoubtedly affected the morale of workers and returning U-boat crews. This week the Nazis ordered evacuation of Lorient's civilian population.

On the Sea. The Allies also wage their campaign on the seas. Brightest reports:

> In seven months no U-boat has penetrated the U.S. Eastern Sea Frontier.

> The Caribbean has been cleaned up sufficiently to justify sending Rear Admiral James L. ("Sub Buster") Kauffman last week to a hotter, undisclosed area of command.

> Canada has built and put in operation some 500 warships, most of them escort craft which are doing nearly half the Atlantic convoy work.

> According to a Navy spokesman, more than 1,000,000 U.S. soldiers have been convoyed overseas without the loss of a single soldier as the result of submarine action.

> The German High Command claimed the sinking by U-boats in January of only 63 vessels of 408,000 tons--well under the rate of 630,000 tons a month which they claimed for 1942, and less than half the 1,000,000-a-month loss unofficially estimated for recent months.

But January sinkings during the period of tumultuous North Atlantic storms were no index of what the rate may be during the hunting days of spring. On the extent of Allied, power to stop that drive, First Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander made a sadly illuminating remark: "We want the equipment to do the job properly."

* Equal to the total killed in action in the Marine Corps, Army and Coast Guard combined.

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