Base for the Axis

By last week Vichy's loud pretense that there are no Nazis at Dakar had been blown higher than an ack-ack barrage. Home from Africa, huge New York Herald Tribune Correspondent Hiram Blauvelt reported that the Nazis, operating from Dakar, had won a smashing victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.

For months the chief West African port of call for British supply ships was the great harbor of Freetown, 570 miles southeast of Dakar. There the ships were gathered into convoys for the rest of the journey to Britain. Nazi submarines slinking out from Dakar sank so much British shipping around Freetown that convoying through the port was ended early in July. With the waters off West Africa no longer safe, supply ships now have to swing far out into the Atlantic, take weeks longer to reach Britain.

Usually the Nazi-submarines lay in wait below Freetown to catch single ships before they could be made up into large, heavily defended convoys. For attacks on convoys the Nazis developed a shrewd tactic. A fleet of six submarines lay submerged on a convoy lane, their engines off. When the prey appeared, one of the submarines started its engines and drew away, pulling the escorting warships, following their listening devices, after it. Then the five silent submarines got into action together.

For a while convoys left Freetown regularly on certain days. On those days Vichy planes circled over, flew back to Dakar to report to the Germans. When the convoy days were changed, the Vichy planes still came over. Baffled British officers suspected disloyal natives of relaying the news to Dakar by drumbeats. Last week Vichy was rushing harbor improvements at Abidjan, 800 miles southeast of Freetown.

Only West African reports pleasing to the Allies last week were Free French opinions that the Trans-Saharan Railway, now being built from North Africa to Dakar, would have little military use for years to come. It must cross 1,700 miles of shifting sands and jungle brush, is a building job as tremendous as the Panama Canal. Its chief current value to Vichy is as an unhealthy place to send political prisoners and refugees whom Vichy wants out of the way.

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