Evening star., 1943-05-31
The War at Sea

Behind the spectacular and much
publiciZed activity on land fronts
and in the air, the vastest and most
vital struggle of all goes grinly on.
It is the Battle of the Seven Seas
a battle waged for the most part in
silence and secrecy, both on and
| beneath the waves. Yet, upon its
outcome the issue of the war itself
depends.
Though this global sea battle is
basically one, it has several sectors.
The most important are the Atlantic,
the Mediterranean and the Pacific
In the Atlantic the Allies command
the surface while the Axis U-boats
range the depths. In the Pacific
those roles are partially reversed, our
submarines being the threat to
Japans water communications The
connecting link of the Mediter-
ranean seems to be in the process
of falling under effective Allied con-
troll, with all that this implies. How
ever, the Atlantic sector continues to
be the major strategic concern.
Until the U-boat menace is reduced
to manageable proportions, as it was
in the last war, an all-out Allied
assault upon Axis Europe remains
dubious or impra racticable.
Fortunately, current official dis
closures, both here and in Britain,
are distinctly optimistic in tone.
Last Friday British Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden stated publicly that
the battle against the U-boats "con-
tinues to be encouraging. 1t is not
yet decided, but at least we feel
better about it than we have" This
qualified optimism of Mr.. Eden's is
borne out by recent statistical sum-
maries. The year 1912 was bad one
for us, with net loss of a million
tons of merchant shipping over new
construction just at the time when
transportation demands were rap
idly increasing. The early months of
the present year were likewise unfa-
vorable, March being an especially
bad month. But April was much
better and the favorable trend has
kept up during May. That is note
worthy, because the record of this
and the last war shows April and
May to be usually good hunting
seasons for the U-boats, owing to
light and weather conditions which
favor their depredations. If we have
been able even partially to negative
those natural advantages for our
undersea foes, it is logical to hope
that definite corner has been
turned in the submarine problem
and that the history of the last war
is in process of being repeated.
Should this prove true it will be
due to several co-ordinated factors.
First on the list is undoubtedly the
greatly expanded quotas of escort
warships and planes, which cut down
convoy losses to negligible propor-
tions where such protection is truly
adequate. Next comes the factor Of
long-range aerial patrol, that spots
U-boat packs, harries them and
drives them below the surface. Like
wise important are the constant
bombings of U-boat bases, shipyards
and construction plants right back
to their sources. Still another fac
tor is the invention and employment
of various anti-submarine devices,
which naturally can only be sur
missed, since they are closely guarded
military secrets. Finally, there is the
trend toward lowered U-boat eff
cheney due to the capture or killing
of many of the best U-boat COM
manders and crack crews. Such
officers and men are developed only
by long training and are hard to
replace.
1t is too early to predict definitely
that the U-boat menace is on the
wane. Yet the indications are favor
able. And they coincide with a new
record in merchant tonnage con-
struction which raises the margin
over sinkings and thus expands our
pool of shipping for war needs. The
80, L c,,1