AFRICAN OPERATIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 December 1940, Page 7

AFRICAN OPERATIONS

BRITISH AERIAL SUCCESSES HEAVY LOSSES INFLICTED [BY CABLE.r-PRESS assn.—copyright.’ LONDON, December 2. Fighter aeroplanes of the South African Air Force, which encountered three Caproni bombers, shot down one and damaged the other two. A communique issued in Cairo reports that British troops ambushed some Italians at Gallabat, capturing one officer and nine men. In Royal Air Force raids in the Eastern Desert, a large number of enemy aircraft on the ground at Benina were attacked. Two Italian bombers were destroyed and two others were severely damaged.' Enemy troops and motor transport on the Metemma-Gondar road, 10 miles west of Wahni, in Italian East Africa, were machine-gunned and bombed by the Royal Air Force. Four direct hits were registered on motor transport, and heavy casualties were observed as a result of the machine-, gunning. Further south a successful raid was carried out on a camp at Mubba, where a number of fires resulted from direct hits on barracks. A camp at Nagila, containing several battalions of colonial troops and Blackshirts, were attacked. Fires were started and much damage was done.

No Royal Air Force aeroplanes were lost in any of these operations. Aeroplanes from Aden raided Eritrea and Abyssinia 50 times in November. Assab was raided 30 times. One series of attacks against Assab lasted for 36 hours.

All the aeroplanes operating in November returned, although they flew thousands of miles in difficult conditions.

VALUABLE INFORMATION RUGBY, December 3. The R.A.F. was active in the Near and Middle East. A fort in Italian East Africa was raided. Considerable damage was done to motor transport and enemy personnel. Metemma was also attacked. Numerous reconnaissances were carried out over enemy territory on all fronts, and valuable information was ..received. From all these operations, all the British aircraft returned. NAPLES RAIDED. RUGBY, December 3. R.A.F. headquarters at Cairo announced that long-range bombers raided Naples, last night. A railway junction and oil refineries were attacked successfully. One well-placed stick of bombs straddled the oil refineries, and started a fire visible 20 miles away. All the British aircraft returned safely. SICILY ALSO. (Recd. December 4,2 p.m.) LONDON, December 3. ■-. The R.A.F. last night bombed objectives in Sicily.

KASSALA CAPTURES. , RUGBY, December 3. A Cairo communique states: Further details are now available of the action in the Kassala area of the Sudan, on the night of November 13. In addition to capturing prisoners, as already reported, our patrol destroyed a lorry, and counted 11 enemy dead. Subsequently, a further party of Italian motor-cyclists were ambushed, leaving in our hands three prisoners, seven motor-cycles, and a quantity of equipment, including machine-guns, rifles, and ammunition. In the area east of Gallabat, our artillery is again active. There is no change in the situation on the other fronts.

EGYPTIAN PROTEST \ CAIRO, December 2. The Prime Minister (Hussein Sirry Pasha), in a speech in Parhament, said that Egypt had protested against the Italian bombing of Egyptian cities. Egyptian air raid casualties since June 12, when the first bgmbipg occurred, total 155 killed and 425 injured. All were civilian casualties.

TANGIER OUTRAGE. (Recd. Dec. 4, 11.50 a.m.). TANGIER, December 3. Twenty Italians partly wrecked the British post office and damaged a British house. No arrests were made.