COMPLETE MASTERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 131, 4 June 1943, Page 5

COMPLETE MASTERY

CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN (Rec. 1 p.m.) LONDON, June 3. ,"The Allies in the past 24 hours have demonstrated their complete supremacy in the central Mediterranean by air and sea," says the Algiers correspondent of the British United Press. "We have smashed an Axis convoy south of the toe of Italy and sent its ships off hopelessly routed. We have bombed and strafed Pantelleria, at will, and also, from ground level, we have attacked objectives throughout Sardinia. The engagement against the convoy and the almost unchallenged double bombardment of Pantelleria a day earlier demonstrate the complete mastery we now hold in the Sicilian Straits and elsewhere in the central Mediterranean. The convoy, which was engaged off Cape Spartivento, was relentlessly battered until it steamed off for cover. A merchantman which blew up is believed to have been laden with explosives. Our medium bombers and fighter-bombers yesterday roamed southern Sardinia. The objectives included Axis soldiers in camp areas, wireless stations, telephone installations, and military buildings in the Teulada area. Pantelleria got its daily dose of trouble from Marauders, Lightnings, and Warhawks, which ceaselessly raided the island, attacking- military targets and also dockworks in the tiny harbour. We managed to do there what the Axis failed to do in^Malta, knock out the air opposition. The result was that we attacked at will and did not lose a single plane."