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Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 167, 17 July 1941, Page 8

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IN MIDDLE EAST

Further British Successes In Air War British Official Wireless. Rec. 1 p.m. RUGBY, July 16. An R.A.F. Middle East communique states that early this morning R.A.F. bomber aircraft successfully attacked a convoy of enemy shipping off the Tripolitanian coast. Two heavy bombs struck an 8000ton vessel amidships and completely destroyed _ it. Another ship was damaged in the bows by a direct hit.

Enemy aircraft, which attempted to drop bombs on British merchant vessels off the Libyan coast yesterday, were engaged by R.A.F. fighters and six Junkers 87 and one Messerschmitt 109 were shot down.

During the night of July 14-15 our heavy bombers attacked enemy occupied aerodromes at Eleusis, in Greece, and Heraclion, in Crete. At Eleusis direct hits were made on hangars, runways and dispersal points, causing a number of large fires and explosions. Similar results have been reported about two other objectives.

On the same night heavy bombers of the R.A.F. carried out a highly successful attack on docks and other military objectives at Messina, Sicily, where several tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs were dropped. Great fires were started at the ferry railhead, engine sheds, transformer plant buildings and warehouses, and four lines of trucks were set ablaze. The fires visible from 60 miles (Hstant.

A number of enemy aircraft flew over the Suez Canal area last night. One came down in a lake and another crashed south of Port Said. From the above operations two British aircraft are missing. What must -De the shortest Middle East communique from British headquarters in Cairo states that on all fronts there is no change in the situations.