AMERICANS IN ERITREA

Evening Star, Issue 24138, 7 March 1942, Page 7

AMERICANS IN ERITREA

NUCLEUS OF BIG FORCE BRITISH STRENGTH IN MIDDLE EAST LONDON. March 6. The Minister of Production, Mr Oliver Lyttelton, speaking in tho House of Commons to-day, referred to a new base which American forces have occupied on the Eritrean coast in the Bed Sea. “ It is not very big at present,” he said, “ but it is going to be a whacker. ’’ Reviewing British strength, Mr Lyttelton said that the forces in Egypt were now in a better position to defend Egypt, or to meet an attack by General Rommel, than when the last campaign in Libya started. COLOSSAL PIONEER CORPS NEW BRITISH DEFENCE REGULATIONS LONDON, March 7. Under new regulations every man and woman in Britain will be pressed into service as one colossal pioneer corps should the need arise. The provisions of the regulations are merely precautionary, and will not become effective unless invasion takes place, or is considered likely to take place. Under its measures civilians may be sent anywhere, and be put to work on any typo of defence activity, but not given actual combat duties. ACCURATE BOMBING RENAULT WORKS RAID (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 5. The accuracy of the R.A.F. bombing of the Renault motor works, near Paris, is established beyond all doubt by night photographs and by Wednesday’s daylight reconnaissance. In these photographs, taken during the bombing, much of the works is obscured by the top of the engines and the confusion of smoke, but the daylight photographs, taken some hours later, show that tires were still burning. The has cleared away, and the extent of the damage is plainly seen. It is evenly distributed over the whole area of the works. The only two sections which seem to have escaped the crippling attack are the tyre-manufacturing shop, which is not in the target areas, and the Diesel engine assembly shop, at the extreme tip of the island. Two of the most vital sections—the power station and the tank assembly shops—have been very badly knocked about, and other sections which appear to be badly damaged are the engine shops, the rolling mills, the chemical products department, the Keller tank assembly shops, the western tank assembly shops, the main gasometer, the metal stores department, the aircraft depot, the administrative offices, the modelling department, and various repair shops and foundries. The power station shows a heavily-damaged roof, and it is probable that the interior suffered extensively. The north-east part of one of the tank assembly shops appears to be almost entirely destroyed by fire, and when the original photographs are closely examined the wrecked tanks can be seen inside the building through a hole caused by a direct hit. It is believed that this assembly shop was producing 27 tanks every week. One photograph shows tho great destruction in the area in which the administrative offices, engine shops, and components workshop are concentrated, and hero the fires were still burning when the daylight reconnaissance was made. In the other photographs collajjsed roofs have exposed destroyed assembly lines. The fact that many bombs would naturally not explode until they pierced tb roofs and the walls of the buildings makes it probable that the damage to stocks and machinery was even greater than was seen in the photographs. The target area was almost totally surrounded by residential buildings, and it was unfortunately unavoidable that such buildings should also suffer damage. There was certainly some damage outside the Renault works—mostly occasioned by blast—but having regard to the scale of attack this damage was astonishingly slight and provides fine testimony to the care ana accuracy of the pilots. The daylight photographs were taken by a reconnaissance aircraft of the Coastal Command, which came down as low as 400 ft over the city. It took off and landed in exceptionally bad weather, and flew through the German fighter defences.

NAZI-CONTROLLED FACTORIES MORE VISITS FROM R.A.F. LONDON, March 7. Colonel Britten, broadcasting to the V army in Europe, warned workers to keep away from factories that were being used in producing material for the Germans. Deferring to the R.A.F. raid on the Renault factories in Paris, Colonel Britten said: “ The R.A.F. will come to all those factories that are helping the Germans, and will come more and more often.” NAZI PROPAGANDIST FOUND GUILTY BY JURY (Rec. 8 a.m.) WASHINGTON, George Sylvester Viereck, journalist and author, who was considered the foremost Nazi propagandist in America, was found guilty to-night by a jury or violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act. AIR COMMAND IN INDIA SIR RICHARD PEIRSE APPOINTED (Rec. 8 a.m.) LONDON, March 6. Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, who recently relinquished the appointment as Air Officer Comraanding-in-Chief of the Bomber Command, has now been appointed as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chiof, India.