Return of the Wolf Packs

A savage swoop on two Allied convoys in the North Atlantic signaled the return of Germany's wolf packs with new tactics, new weapons. The battle of supply, temporarily won by the Allies, was on again in full fury.

In the South Atlantic, Brazilian authorities reported eleven sinkings in recent days, took over a radio station suspected of guiding Nazi submarines to their victims. But the North Atlantic was once more the scene of the fiercest attacks, the worst losses.

Survivors who reached Canada last week told how the Nazis fell first on the slower of two westbound convoys. Night & day the waddling cargo ships and their escorts were under attack or threat of attack. According to the survivors, at least ten vessels were sunk. One of them was the Canadian destroyer St. Croix, formerly the U.S.S. McCook. The St. Croix was picking up the crews of other luckless vessels when a torpedo hit her. She went down in a small-size holocaust, taking all but one of her 147-man crew.

Two other warships were reported sunk. So hot was the going that the two convoys united, then had some 18 escorts for 70 cargo ships. A German communique indicated that the subs had deliberately concentrated on escort ships rather than merchantmen.

The U-boats' armament included new torpedoes, evidently derived from magnetic and sonic mines with which the British long since learned how to cope. Attracted toward a ship's stern by the metal mass, the torpedoes exploded automatically when they came within the radius of the propeller vibrations. Once the propellers were crippled or destroyed, the ship was then an easy mark for conventional torpedoes.

Royal Canadian Air Force pilots flew back to base with reports of heavily gunned U-boats which had elected to stay on the surface and slug it out when Liberators pounced on them. One Liberator limped home with one of her four motors knocked out, flak holes in her wings, tail and fuselage, and one of her crew wounded. From air photographs it was clear that the U-boats were organized in fleets, prepared to fight underwater or on the surface. One submarine had at least ten deck guns, evidently stood by as an antiaircraft vessel while others concentrated on surface ships.

As in all forms of war, offense and defense have constantly seesawed in the U-boat campaign. For a time--the worst time for the Allies--the subs had everything their way. Stronger escorts, improved depth charges, air attack, many secret devices then bested the U-boats. Now that the packs have returned with some new tricks of their own, Allied losses will rise for a while.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.