ITALIAN FLEET AT MALTA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24052, 14 September 1943, Page 5

ITALIAN FLEET AT MALTA

Fifth Battleship Arrives

HAZARDOUS VOYAGE FROM VENICE

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 13. Six more Italian warships have arrived at Malta. They include a battleship, the fifth to have arrived, a seaplane-carrier of 5000 tons, and four destroyers. The battleship arrived after a hazardous voyage from Venice. Several more Italian submarines have also arrived at Malta.

An earlier message said that 42 Italian warships and 14 submarines had escaped from Italian ports. Reuter’s correspondent at Valetta identifies four of the battleships at Malta as the Ita (formerly the Littorio), Vittorio Veneto, Caio Duilio, and Andrea Doria.

Admiral Bagliria, the Commander-in-Chief of Ihe Italian fleet, died when his flagship, the Roma, was sunk by German bombers, so it was ActingAdmiral Ruba who came ashore and met Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham. ■ The Italian admiral and his officers were given a full naval.guard of honour on the quayside. while the warships lying in the Grand Harbour piped the Italian admiral’s barge as it passed down the line.

The story of how some of the Italian warships joined the British has been told by a young naval officer who was aboard the battleship King George V. The King George V steamed right into Taranto to within sight of the shore batteries. It was a tricky moment, and everyone was at battle stations.

The British ships were not worrying about the Italians, because they knew they would comply with the armistice terms, but they did not know what the Germans were up to, said the officer. They had been shadowed all day by German reconnaissance aircraft, and they did not know when the Luftwaffe might attack. Shortly after dark they saw five ships astern. They were unable to identify them and flashed the ships a signal in Morse. Back came the Morse signal “GA.” “We knew then that they were the Italians, because that was the signal that Admiral Cunningham had instructed them to use,” said the officer.

A British correspondent says that five warships, including the battleships Guilio Cesare and Andrea Doria, came from Taranto. Thirteen others escaped from Spezia. He continues: “The action of the Italian fleet was technically not a surrender. . The warships are still flying the red, white, and green Italian tricolour, and they are still under their commanders. What they did was to comply with the terms of the armistice and sail into tbe shelter of Allied ports to avoid falling into German hands. The visit of the Italian Act-ing-Commander-in-Chief to Admiral Cunningham yesterday was a formal visit by one naval chief to another." General Eisenhower told correspondents that even if the terms of Italy’s surrender gave the Allies nothing material beyond possession of th? fleet, that in itself was wholly worth while. A powerful, well-bal-anced fleet had reached Malta, and the implications of its possession were very broad. Its service and disposition were matters for decision by the Allied Governments. General Eisenhower added that the taking possession of material from a conquered enemy entitled the victors to make whatever use of it they deemed advisable. This would place the fleet at the immediate disposal of the Allied naval forces. Even without that, the surrender of the Italian fleet had released the enormous power of the British Fleet from the Mediterranean to reinforce sea power at Scapa Flow, in the Indian Ocean, and the south-west Pacific. As the enemy now had only submarines and E-boats in the Mediterranean, only light forces would have to be retained to combat them.

' General Eisenhower is quoted by a representative of the combined British press as saying: “I was thrilled when I watched the glorious sight of the Italian fleet steaming to Malta.” He added: “Developments in the campaign in Italy in the last few weeks have placed the United Nations in a more favourable position from which they can begin the bitter battle for Italy.”

RESISTANCE TO GERMANS

BADOGLIO’S ADVICE TO ITALIANS

LONDON, Sept. 12,

The Algiers radio says that Marshal Badoglio has issued the following declaration to Italians: "The Germans have attacked us violently on our national territory, in our towns, our harbours, and our ships. I invite you to reply to each act of violence with another act of violence.” Mr Roosevelt and Mr Churchill yesterday issued a joint appeal to Marshal Badoglio and the people of Italy to rise against the forces of Germany on Italian soil. The appeal said; “The liberating armies of the Western World are coming to your rescue. We have strong forces, and are entering at many points.” . Some quarters in Washington interpreted this statement as indicating that the Allies are not receiving the desired co-operation from the Italian ai> The message was presumably broadcast by short-wave radio to the Italian people and dropped from Allied aeroplanes. „ , German attacks on Italian forces in various parts of Italy are construed in London as justifying the inference that a state of war between the German and Italian Governments exists in fact, if it has not been declared.

U.S. Glider Expert Killed.—-Mr Richard Dupont, special assistant to General H. H. Arnold, and one of America’s foremost glider experts, was killed in a crash at March Field, California. Mr Dupont was a former soaring champion of the United States and established altitude records for gliders. Three others were killed in the same crash—New September 12.