NAVY WATCHFUL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 81, 5 April 1941, Page 9

NAVY WATCHFUL.

ENEMY TRANSPORTS. Bengasi And Mediterranean Campaign. (Reed. 1.30 p.m.) RUGBY. April 4.

The withdrawal from Bengasi, in accordance with General \Va veil's well-tested strategy of "choosing his own battleground."' has its naval, as well as its military aspects. In the general Mediterranean situation there has been no indication that the British have made any use <>f Bengasi as a port since its occupation in February and it may -he assumed that they had good reasons for not doing SO.

Whether, if the flermans establish themselves in thi* area, they will attempt to use t*ie port k a matter for eonjectiire. They may <l<i so if. as a naval officer well acquainted with recent events in that region expressed it. "they don't mind us dmpping a few brick. Dropping brick*, is a game at which two can play.* . The sensational Hattle of Matapan rather distracted attention from other very satisfactory naval developments in the Mediterranean. There was. for example, the work of British r-uhmarinc-.. The sinking by submarine of 10JU100 tons of enemy supply and other shipping since January 1 has already b?cn announced, and that figure may certainly be taken a> the minimum sunk by this means. There is also the tonnage destroyed by air attack. Much of this skippin? wa* destined for Tripoli. The submarine force with the Mediterranean Fleet was never expected to be able to prevent all enemy transport to Africa. but those who can speak with knowledge of what has been accomplished say, significantly enough, that the enemy has been able to pot through by no means all he had hoped. The enemy, of course, has endeavoured to get supplies to the Dodecanese as well as to Tripoli, and the navy i* no less watchful to prevent <«n«* than the other. .Another way in which tinnavy has hit. the Italian* hard i< by the destruction of 22 Italian submarines—four of them east of Suez. Of the seven destroyers and two torpedo boats the Italian* had in the Massawa region when the African campaign opened, four ha\e Von -link and two scuttled.