CONVOY ATTACKED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 69, 2 January 1941, Page 5

CONVOY ATTACKED.

FOUR ITALIAN SHIPS SUNK.

BRITISH ACTION IN ADRIATIC.

LONDON, January 1.

A Belgrade message speaks of more British naval activity in, the Adriatic This says that a British warship yesterday morning sank four Italian supply ships in the Adriatic. The ships were carrying heavy guns and lorries. Most of the crews were said to have reached shore safely.

Passengers on a Jugoslav steamer declared that the ships were convened by two destroyers, and that a British submarine came to the surface and shelled the convoy. /

The report adds that the attack was made at a point near the frontier between Jugoslavia and Albania. If this is so it means that the warship penetrated 100 miles into the Adriatic.

SUDDEN SORTIES FROM CLOUDS.

t HITS FROM LOW ALTITUDES.

MISSILES CAUSE DAMAGE

(Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) • LONDON, January 1

Daylight raids, in which only two British bombers were lost, were made yesterday by a small force of, Blenheim aircraft of the Bomber Command. At intervals in the morning and afternoon they made sudden sorties from the clouds, which hung low over the ground and attacked objectives in Germany and the Low Countries.

One pilot described how he swooped down on a bridge near Emmerich,- in the north-west Ruhr district, from under 500 feet. He saw a stick of bombs burst right across the bridge', and bombs in the centre of a stick hit the bridge fair and square;. His daring attack was made from the cover of dense cloud, but even below the clouds visibility was by no means good and only from so low could the pilot have made certain of a direct hit.

Another aircraft was flown through or over thick cloud all the way from Brest. Over Cologne the clouds opened and gave the bomber-aimer a chance, which he took at once and scored a direct hit on a # factory as his secondary target. The Haamstede aerodrome was very successfully attacked from a low level. A long stick of bombs was dropped across the building and on the aerodrome, and after' the bombs had exploded it was seen that half the roof had been blown away. Meanwhile two Messerschmitt 10...9’s were coming up from below and astern, but the British aircraft climbed into the cloud and left the enemy behind. Other targets attacked in the Low Countries were a German oil store at Rotterdam and docks at Ymuiden.

Throughout the raids the Royal Air Force bombers were constantly fired on by anti-aircraft guns from both land and sea.

At Flushing, a Nazi anti-aircraft ship was bombed from under 500 feet. After a stick of bombs had fallen, the ship could be seen to bo down by the stern and listing to port.—British Official Wireless.

ROYAL MESSAGE TO LONDONERS

DEBTRIUCTION OF GUILDHALL (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, January 1. The King sent a message to the Lord Mayor of'London as follow's: “I warmly thank you and the citizens of London for your kind New Year message and tlm Queien, and I cordially reciprocate their good wishes. We feel keenly for them in the wunton destruction of their Guildhall, which for manv centuries has been this symbol of the history and tradition of our beloved capital.”—British Official Wireless.