New Britain herald., 1918-01-12
FLEET OF U-B0ATS
 ID BLOCK AMERICA
(ContinTed from First Page)


 ican army and for the supplies and equipment which will be needed in a constant stream, and they hope that the U-boat campaign which they are planning will be sufficient to disar- range all the merican plans
 Junkers of the Tirpitz type and the Pan German leaders are openly boast ing that the tonnage already sunk. by the U-boats has left such a shortage in ocean transportation that it will be impossible for the United States to send a large army to France or to keep up communication and supplies even if the troops get there.
 Tageblatt Sizes Up Situation.
 A copy of the Tageblatt just re- ceived here has an article openly de- claring the aims of the Berlin officials in this respect.
 '"The entire Entente hopes," says the article, "are now based on expect ed help from the United States. Whether the Americans will be able to provide a fighting army in number enough to bring about a decision, whether they will be able to furnish sufficient ships for the transport of the army, and whether they will then be able to provide the necessary sup plies of food and war materials are questions upon which opinion is di- vided.
 "But there is no doubt that the ef- forts the Americans are making must be taken seriously The hope of an early peace depends almost entirely on the efficacy of our submarine weapon.''
 Reviewing the first year of Ger many's ruthless submarine campaign, which ends February l, the Tage- b1att asserts that the Central Powers have succeeded in completely upset ting the economic life of the Entente and adds that the submarine cam paign, which has now become the principal factor in naval warfare, is being expanded and developed still further
 Summarizing the results of the un- der-water campaign since February 1, the Tageblatt claims that U-boats have sunk on an average S21, 900 tons of shipping monthly from February to December and for the whole year the toll may be expected to show nearly 1O,OOOOOO tons, and that the building of new ships by the Entente and neu- trals during the year will replace only between 2,50000O and 100000 tons of these losses.
 The newspaper says the monetary loss to Germany's enemies as the re- suit of the years work by the U-boats will reach $5,OOO, 100000, figuring the value of the ships at $250 per ton and their cargoes at the same amount
 Claims Exaggerated.
 The article still sticks closely to of off 9f the beginning of the submarine war fare last year but British officials claim those figures have been almost cut in two in actual experiences. l They point out that the advocates of ruthless U-boat warfare predict that the tonnage destroyed would amount to about 1O00 900 tons a month and i that England would be starved into l peace in three months.
 This starvation period was later ex- ] tended two or three times and finally l the Berlin officials stopped predicting | any particular date for the British l surrender. The sinl1ings also de- l creased materially after the first two l months and it was stated officially 1 only a few days ago that now the l tonnage being built is almost equal to l that destroyed.
 When the full program of ship 1 building in England and the United l States is being realized, the new ton mage is expected to far surpass the 1 sinkings.
 Tn the meantime all the efforts of | the Teutons will be directed to gain ing every advantage possible before. the United States aid can be made 1 fully effective. These efforts will in clude an intensified submarine cam paign and a great offensive in the | west as soon as conditions are favor 1 able.
 A despatch to the Central News 1 from Amsterdam says that Admira | von Tirpitz former German minister of marine and the foremost advocate | of Germany s submarine warfare, de- clared that while the Germans must |