PORT USELESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1943, Page 5

PORT USELESS

Devastation By Allied Planes At Ferryville IMPORTANT AXIS BASE Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, April 16. Aerial photographs show that the entire dockyard area of Ferryville, south of Bizerta, which is most important to the Axis for supplies, has been devastated by the Allies Strategic Air Force, says a North African correspondent. Traffic in this once-busy port is non-existent.

Cargo landing facilities were severely damaged by Flying Fortresses on March 24. Every building in the dockyard area has been rendered useless and the few buildings left standing are roofless. Four of the six oil storage tanks in the area have been blocked out.

Reuters correspondent with the Allied air forces says the Axis is beginning to hit back in the air. There were many more enemy fighter raids yesterday than usual, besides a few bomber raids along the battle sectors. The enemy's capabilities of effecting a reasonable come-back in the air at this stage of the campaign should not be underestimated. Allied air strategy at present is devoted to neutralising the enemy's airfields. The Allied air forces are relentlessly bombing the few aerodromes left in German hands, also the harbours at Bizerta and Tunis. The air offensive against Sicily and southern Italian bases is also developing with a violence never before obtained. A radio report states that the Axis in the past 24 hours has lost 84 planes, and that in air combats in the past 16 days the enemy has lost a total of 414 planes.