Sea Change

The full import of the recent Allied successes in the Atlantic became apparent last week. At a time when, as of four months ago, Allied authorities expected to be losing ship after ship to the greatest of U-boat campaigns, the actual losses were astoundingly small. In fact, the ocean lanes to Britain and North Africa last week were more dangerous for Germany's U-boats than for Allied merchantmen.

Winston Churchill announced that in May the Allies, for the first time, destroyed more submarines than the Ger mans build in a month. Exactly this had long been the goal of the anti-submarine campaign, but early this year the men in charge of the campaign did not expect to attain such a rate of destruction before 1944. If, as is generally supposed, the Germans have been building around 25 U-boats a month, the Allied bag may well have averaged one U-boat a day. Unofficial reports that the Germans lost 30 submarines were probably close to the mark.

German spokesmen told their own people that they were losing the campaign which had been touted to them as their main means of defense. Said an official Nazi organ: "However untiringly U-boats fight against American convoys* in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, it is not possible to strangle enemy supply lines." As every German knew, the chief purpose of the 1943 U-boat campaign had been to strangle those lines and thus to save the Continent from invasion.

The Allies have perfected a system of defense by aircraft and escort vessels which the Germans have been unable to break. Some of its elements:

> The British, Canadian and American navies at last have enough escort vessels to do two things: provide defensive cover for the convoys and hunt down any submarines which may approach.

> New anti-submarine devices have increased the efficiency of planes and escort vessels. Though secret, enough has been published of them to indicate that they concern both the detection of submarines and the automatic control of antisubmarine fire.

> Air cover from Britain has been extended to the mid-Atlantic. The R.A.F.'s Coastal Command long ago drove the submarine packs from British waters. Recently the Coastal Command has become an ocean command, shifting gradually from short-range medium bombers to VLR ("very long range") American Liberators and other heavy bombers. These planes, armed with guns and depth charges, have attacked U-boats 1,100 miles at sea, and the number of air actions against submarines has multiplied many times. This cover is being extended also from the U.S. and Canadian coasts. But still longer range planes, or bases on the Atlantic islands, will be needed to provide a complete, land-based umbrella.

*British and Canadian vessels do most of the convoying in the North Atlantic.

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