SIGNAL PRAISE—AND EXCUSES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 119, 13 February 1941, Page 7

SIGNAL PRAISE—AND EXCUSES

Italians On Genoa Exploit

LONDON, February 11

It is revealed that in the bombardment of Genoa gunners of the heavy and light ships registered definite hits on the following targets: Very large oil tanks, dry docks, the Ansaldo boiler and engine works, the main power station, railway marshalling yards, and the enormously important Ansaldo electrical equipment works. Writing in the Rome newspaper 1 , “Giornale d’ltalia,” Signor Gayda says that the valiant deed of the Royal Navy will rank second after the Charge of the Light Brigade. He asserted that mist was a powerful ally since it not only preserved the British force from the lire of the Italian coastal batteries but successfully enabled them to escape when an Italian naval squadron arrived on the spot at high speed. Rome radio has since put out a different version. It says the Italian fleet was cruising in the Sicilian Channel at the time and was not able to make contact.

The fact that so many important targets were hit during the naval bombardment of Genoa suggests in London naval circles that there is no truth whatever in the Italian statement that the weather at the time was foggy. This bombardment of military objectives from the sea is another example of the importance of sea power and of the British control of the Mediterranean, for the British Fleet was undamaged, in spite of the Italian air power, the coastal defences, and the navy.

A modern bombardment of this nature differs very greatly from that carried out at Gallipoli in 1914-15. The subject has been closely studied for many .years, and the invaluable use of aircraft made it possible to direct accurate fire by the ships on targets of military importance from a range of 15 miles.