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Show i i i i i i i .1. i ii i i i. ii i i i i i i i i ..i .m FORWARD MARCH By II. S. Sims, Jr. i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i STREAMLINED CONVOYS U. S. REPLY TO HITLER On March 11 of this year, the United States became the "arsenal of democracy" with the passage of the historic Lease-Lend bill, in which seven thousand millions were promised to the democracies. During the first 90 days under the Lend-Lease law, the "arsenal" supplied Great Britain and China with 75 millions in war goods. At this rate, it will take the United States over 23 years to fulfill her pledge! While we were engaged in sending send-ing these goods to the democracies, democra-cies, Germany spent 80 times this sum on arms alone it's a wonder London doesn't ask for Lease-Lend supplies fn capsule form. To get our Lease-Lend pledge of seven thousand millions (and a probable additional pledge of about two-thirds more) to Eng-. Eng-. land means a trip across the Atlantic. At-lantic. This, of course, involves merchant ships and the protection of merchant ships against Nazi subs, planes, and surface raiders. At the beginning of the present war, England had a merchant marine of 16.3 million tons, and the United States, 7.8 million tons, the two largest merchant marines in the world. The Anglo-German war is in its I 22nd month; British (and Allied) shipping losses through the 21st month is more than 6.3 million tons. Losses in May were not as large as in April (Greek campaign), cam-paign), but it is significant to note that losses in the Atlantic were greater in May. For the past three months, Germany Ger-many has sunk English shipping at the rate of over 6 million tons a year. In other words, in 1941 the Germans will sink five or six ships for every one that the U. S. builds. The German ship-sinking success suc-cess can be understood if Germany of today is compared with Germany Ger-many of 1917 (when Great Britain was almost knocked out of the first World War). Today, the British navy fights alone; in the last war it was aided by the French, Italian, and Japanese Japan-ese navies. Today, Germany controls con-trols the entire coast of Europe and thus has sub and air bases closer to essential British sea routes. And the development of the airplane accounts for over 30 per cent more shipping losses than would have been possible otherwise. other-wise. U. S. merchant vessels completed: com-pleted: Year Tons 1940 447,727 1941 1,000,000 1942 2,250,000 1943 3,750,000 estimated The U. S. merchant marine is smaller today than it was at the outbreak of the war. The shrinking shrink-ing was caused by the action of the army and navy in taking over approximately one-eighth of the best U. S. ships to be used as auxiliary and supply units. Great Britain has also received some of our ships, including 50 tankers in the past few weeks. Thus, with fewer ships, we are attempting to make good our Lease-Lend pledge and also import im-port increasing supplies for national na-tional defense. For example, crude rubber consumption in the U. S. has risen by 23 per cent under defense de-fense program activity. The future looks dark when we realize that it will be 18 months before our ship production will equal half the ships that are being sunk by Hitler's cohorts. There is one way by which merchant mer-chant ships could be constructed at a much faster rate: to use ship-ways ship-ways now being utilized to complete com-plete our two-ocean navy. This would be sheer folly, however. U. S. authorities realize the seriousness ser-iousness of the shipping situation. They do not want our aid to England Eng-land on the bottom of the Atlantic. And since it is impossible for us to build enough ships to supply England effectively in the next year and a half at the present rate of shipping losses, they are taking steps to curb these losses. Confidential sources reveal that the U. S. is strengthening her Atlantic At-lantic fleet to meet the needs of the recently-developed streamlined convoy system. It is also true that English warships are being repaired repair-ed in U. S. harbors. In the last war destroyers were successfully used to convoy ships because they had to deal with subs only. In the present war we are experimenting ex-perimenting (and with great success suc-cess to the present date, although time has not permitted a sufficient test) with convoys consisting of destroyers and aircraft carriers, often reinforced with heavier ships. These streamlined convoys are America's answer to Germany's triple threat to shipping. |