Evening star., 1939-10-04
Reich's Sub Warfare
Apparently Stopped,
With Fleet Crippled
Neutral Figures Reveal
Failure of Drive
On High Seas
BY ROBERT J. CASEY,

BY ROBERT ]. CASEY,
Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent
PARIS, Oct. 4 (by radio) An
amazing story Of Germanys quick
failure in the submarine war came
to light today in figures from an
authentic neutral source. Germany's S
'blitzkrieg" lightning thrust) on
the high seas, which was to have
duplicated the shipping destruction
that hamstrung the allies between
1914 and 1918, seems to have been
stopped, with half its active under
sea force crippled, captured or per-
manently on the bottom and the
remainder in home port, virtually
unable to move.
At the beginning Of the present
war, according to this information,
Germany had between so and 10
U-boats in commission. The high
commands own estimate of 140 now
appears to have been due to a bad
census.
In August, Fuehrer Adolf Hitler
was still announcing peace plans
and rapprochments with Poland
and his propagandists were quick
to assure the world that there would
be no war. However, all his lean
ings toward paciflsm did not pre-
vent the departure of 80 subs from
Wilhelmshaven on August 20 under
sealed orders. These boats, pro-
ceeding, as gossip in their own coun-
try had it, on regular training
trip, separated once they had cleared
the North Sea and the English
Channel and took up lettering posts
near the shipping lanes in the At
lantic.
Fifteen Believed Lost.
How they found out that the war
was in progress local authorities
are not informed. But one remem-
bers how in the last war a broad
cast message, "A child is born" put
every German ship afloat to new
and important uses. Much of what
they did after they found out has
already been fairly well covered in
the public prints.
Figures available here show that
they sank about 100000 tons in the
first weeks of the war. Thereafter,
the record trails off into white space,
save for isolated casualties near
Scandinavia. What happened to
the U-boats themselves is not so
we'll known, though much more in
teresting.
1t is believed in informed circles
that of the 80 boats that went out
to usher in the war, Is were sunk
or captured, and three disabled by
ailments peculiar to all submarines
The remainder, out of fuel and
supplies, got by patrols and reached
their harbor.
This leaves between 40 and As
U-boats still available to Germany
but in view of successful patrols,
mine barrages and air reconnais-
sance it is considered doubtful that
they will ever venture far from Will
helmshaven again.
Production Boast Discounted.
The same sources discount Hitler's
boast that if necessary Germany
can produce new submarines at the
rate of thousand month. In the
first place, such rate of manufac-
ture is considered preposterous. In
the second place, admitting the pos
sibility at the outside of a produc-
ton, 80 a month, the training of
crews is felt to be an insurmountable
obstacle to putting them into line.
1t is pointed out that the opera
ton of a sub is matter of closely
adjusted teamwork. Each man has
his own job to do in synchronism
with all the other jobs in highly
complicated routine. If one of a
hundred things goes wrong, or is
improperly timed, the result is a
Thetis or Squalus or Phenix.
Months of drill are necessary to
produce crews capable Of acting, not
as individuals, but as a single COM
plex, but infallible, human mecha-
nism. In submarine operation one
man makes only one mistake.
That one or two U-boatS, blocked
from home ports, may still be at
large in the Atlantic is considered
possible. Although no definite in
formation is available on this point,
it is pointed out that they may
have made contact with German
ships and taken refuge in
unfrequented coves such as the
fjordS of Iceland.
Nazi Subs Now Inactive.
It Is known that much German
shipping is still unaccounted for, as.
for instance, fuel ships which
the transatlantic airmail
planes on the South American run.
Belief Is gaining ground that the