Churchill v. Chain Belt

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.

France's Naval Minister Cesar Campinchi last week declared: "German attacks by means of mines may already be considered broken." First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill was not so sanguine. He could not say that the magnetic mine was beaten, only that "many variants are being developed and applied as interim measures before full scientific treatment can be given to this problem." He said that the magnetic mine, "neither new or mysterious," perhaps was Herr Hitler's "much vaunted secret weapon. It is certainly a characteristic weapon and one that will forever be associated with his name" (a prod at Hitler's well-known concern about what history will say about him). "In the third month of the war, neutral losses from mines have been twice as great as the British losses and neutral losses of all kinds one-third greater than belligerent losses. ... As far as the sea war is concerned, German friendship has proved far more poisonous than German enmity."

Word that Germany plans to encircle Britain completely with a monster mining campaign was countered by word that Britain will enlist 100.000 men if necessary in a monster mine-sweeping campaign. The Admiralty last week declared "sea defensive areas" in the waters around Portsmouth, the Thames Estuary, Firth of Forth, Orkney and Shetland Islands. This measure was announced after a fresh flurry of sinkings--mostly by U-boat torpedoes--had furnished what Berlin called an "accompaniment" to Mr. Churchill's speech. Three ships went down one day, four another, five another, four the next--to a total of 24 (eleven British) for the war's fourteenth week. Including German submarine crews, the week's sea dead were about 400. Survivors of the Dutch Tajandoen had to race in their lifeboats to escape from blazing oil. Then their rescuer, the Belgian Louis Sheid, went aground and broke up.

British air pilots claimed fatal bomb hits on two submarines, including one which had managed to cripple (but not sink) the new destroyer Jersey. Another pilot was fairly sure of having hurt a third U-boat. There is no sure way to tell that a submarine has been fatally damaged. An old U-boat trick to escape further attack is to expel oil and fake "wreckage" from a container specially loaded for this purpose.

> The German armed liner Windhuk, which slipped out of Lobito, Angola last month (TIME, Dec. 4), arrived at Santos, Brazil flying Japan's flag and renamed Santos Maru--which her crew painted out after making port. Neutral Brazil sealed Windhuk''s radio room.

> When the Polish submarine Orzel ("Vulture") got through Germany's minefields in October and joined the British fleet, first thing her 19-year-old commander said when he went aboard the receiving British ship was: "Well, here we are. When do we start work?" Last week the Admiralty announced that the French-built Polish submarine Wilk ("Wolf") had also escaped from the Baltic and had reported for duty.

*The carrying capacity of Allied meat ships will be increased (by 1,500,000 lb. from the Argentine alone) by slaughtering and dressing at the source of supply to eliminate some 40% of the animals' weight not eaten.

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