World War: AT SEA: Back Talk

A few hours after Franklin Roosevelt made his speech declaring undeclared sea warfare (see p. 11), trumpet fanfares interrupted German radio programs and an announcer read Germany’s answer: “Submarines in the North Atlantic attacked a large convoy … of more than 40 ships. After heavy fighting, submarines have sunk, up to now, 22 steamers of 134,000 tons. . . . The enemy convoy is still being further attacked.” This was an answer not calculated to turn away wrath. It reminded Americans that the Battle of the Atlantic was still very real. Before long the Germans revised their claims for the kill upward to 28 merchant ships of 164,000 tons and three escorting warships.

The British answered this answer in two ways. They announced that a convoy, after struggles with inimical gales, submarines and planes, had reached England minus eight of its ships. If this was the same convoy (which the British did not claim), the German retort discourteous was not quite so bad; it had been mostly for home consumption.

The other British answer was action. In the Mediterranean the Fleet Air Arm and the R.A.F. caught and broke up a convoy. “Seven or eight vessels” were sunk, halted, or hurt. Earlier in the week the British had hit two ships in another convoy. Of the two British answers, this was by far the more effective. It underlined a significant claim in Winston Churchill’s cheerful speech to Parliament (see p. 28) : “. . . Sinkings of British and Allied shipping by enemy action in July and August, added together, do not amount to much more than one-third of German and Italian tonnage we have sunk. . . .”