THREE VESSELS SUNK

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23479, 6 November 1941, Page 5

THREE VESSELS SUNK

ENEMY LOSES SUPPLY, SHIPS ATTACKS BY BRITISH SUBMARINES (Received November 5, 11 p.m.) (U.P.A.) LONDON. November 5. An Admiralty communique announces that three more enemy supply ships, two of about 4000 tons and one of 1500 tons, have been sunk by British submarines in the central Mediterranean. Two of the vessels were in convoys I escorted by warships. An Admiralty communique announces that 1276 officers and men rescued from sunken enemy submarines are now prisoners of war. Of these 467 are Italians. The communique tells of the increased toll of enemy submarines taken by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. It adds that for reasons well appreciated, particularly by the enemy, British successes against U-boats are rarely published. 'The relationship between the magnitude of the enemy claims, and his own lack of success, was illustrated last week, when the German High Command claimed to have sunk 14 ships, totalling 47,000 tons, from a convoy homeward bound from Gibraltar. In fact, four ships, totalling 8772 tons, were sunk. This was the only success achieved by the enemy, at cost to him 4 self. . A Berlin announcement claims that U-boats sank several merchantmen and a destroyer in the Atlantic and considerably damaged others. BIG AERODROME BOMBED DEVASTATING R.A.F. RAID BUILDINGS AND AIRCRAFT DESTROYED / ' LONDON. November 4, , A Royal Air Force communique from Cairo tells of a devastating raid on a ; big aerodrome at Casteli Benito, south -f of Tripoli, on Sunday. '' '' For four hours high explosive and ' 5 incendiary bombs were rained down 1 : on the field and buildings. Twelve air- • craft on the ground were destroyed, ; either being blown to pieces or set on fire. - Administration buildings, barracks, and ammunition and fuel dumps were ,5 destroyed, and hangars set ablaze. . Sudden bonfires flared up, pouring out clouds of black smoke from full petrol tanks, as bombs pitched among them. , ' ■ v Enemy fighters which attempted to .) intervene were .driven off by the ‘ { British gunners, and. at least one was - ; ’ sent crashing to the ground. The raid • was carried out with systematic deliberation, and no section of the dispersal -• area was left uncovered. After all the. bombs had been dropped, the gunners poured hundreds of bullets Into the , aircraft on the ground and the aerp- , > drome buildings, . ' , One observer said: “There .were ,12 -J aircraft burning on the ground when v we arrived. -We set fire to some more,. ,« and in the light made by the flamea ,5 we saw others apparently, untouched, '; but they did not stay long like that" ; In the Gambut area; dumps south of the Tobruk-Bardia road were bombed. Explosions" and Hies followed the sttsekt • The wireless station at Cape Passerg , 7 was machine-gunned on Sunday, and further machine-gun attacks were car- • -, tied out on the following day On good! trains at Noto and RoSohnl, in Sicily. From these and other operation! \ two British aircraft are missing. BUFFER AGAINST : GERMANY \ ' : ' r RECONSTRUCTION OP EUROPE (Received November 5,; 7 p.m.) , j NEW YORK, November 4. The Government, employer, • and' ',v labour representatives of Poland, ; Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, and Greece, .‘ 3 who are attending the International' Labour Conference, signed a pact 1 creating a confederation, designed as a post-war buffer against Germany, of ■- 100,600,000 persons from the Baltic to the Aegean, proclaiming their united determination to play a strong part in the reconstruction of Europe. AIR ATTACKS ON TOBRUK i LONDON, November 4. A Cairo communique states that in the Tobruk area enemy aerial activity has slightly increased. There were dive-bombing and machine-gunning attacks, but no damage nor casualties resulted. ■ The enemy shelling has slightly decreased in all sectors. In the frontier area there is normal, activity, with no incidents of importance to report. AIRMAN WINS BELGIAN DECORATION (Received November 5, 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 4. The South African airman, ActingWing Commander A. G. Malan, who has won a double D.S.O. and double .D.F.C.. has now been awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. ■ Acting-Wing Commander Malan, who has shot down 35 German aeroplanes, is now in the United State! , with five other outstanding Royal Air Force pilots who are attached to the American Army Air Corps. HITLER’S NEW ORDER U.S. WILL MAINTAIN own way of Life WASHINGTON, November i Mr Roosevelt, in making at informal speech at his home at Hyde Park, said that the United State* * ' would never accept the Hitlerian new order, and would maintain its own system of life, even if it became an oasis in a world ruled by dictatorships. Mr Roosevelt is reported to have . expressed the hope of returning to private life in the not far distant future, and settling down permanently at Hyde Park. This presumably means that he is leaving Washington after the Presidential election .in 1944.