On the Prowl

Germany's plan for the conquest of Russia is not only to stab at her vitals, but to smother her to death: to cut the remaining routes by which she receives supplies from her allies. Far north of the probing German armies last week the German Navy risked its precious little neck to go prowling for a huge Allied convoy.

Making for Archangel (Murmansk has been bombed useless), the convoy was churning toward the Barents Sea. Off North Cape it ran into trouble. For several days all that was known of the encounter was the Berlin radio's growing claims, first that nine, later that 32 out of 38 ships had been sunk, with an escorting U.S. cruiser tossed in for good measure.

Then a Soviet submarine commander. Captain Nicolai Lunin, told of sighting the 35,000-ton battleship Tirpitz rounding North Cape, protected by three cruisers (possibly the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and pocket battleships Admiral Scheer and Liitzow) and eight destroyers. Lunin maneuvered daringly through the screening vessels, sent two torpedoes crashing into the mighty Tirpitz. Immediately the lesser ships drew close about the wounded one. All slowly turned back toward Norway and later were sighted hugging the shore, still plowing toward their anchorage in Trondheim Fjord.

Soviet dispatches hailed Lunin as a hero who had saved a valuable convoy, declared it would take several months to repair the Tirpitz. That was patently guesswork, because the Tirpitz, when last seen, was proceeding under her own steam. When hit, such warships can often close bulkheads and keep going. Her sister ship Bismarck sustained enormously greater damage before going down.

Though Moscow spoke of the convoy's safe arrival in port, Berlin stepped up its claims by week's end, reporting that every one of the 38 supply ships had been sunk, only five escort vessels left afloat. Whatever the convoy's actual fate, Germany was making its strongest bid to smash the Arctic supply route.

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