AERIAL WAR ON ITALY

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1943, Page 5

AERIAL WAR ON ITALY

ISLAND BASES RAIDED

ENEMY LOSSES HEAVY

(Recd. 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, May 20. An Algiers radio safys: The strategic Ail’ Force heavily attacked the airfields of Sicily and Sardinia. Flying Fortresses, escorted by Lightnings, attacked Milo airfield, Sici.y. The target was well covered with bomb bursts, and fires started. Strong formations of enemy fighters were encountered over the target, ten oi which were shot down. Medium bombers, escorted by fighters, attacked four airfields m Sardinia and scored numerous hits on aerodrome buildings, and also among a large number of planes on the ground. Formations of enemy fighters were encountered, eighteen of which were destroyed.

SEVENTY-THREE FOR FOUR

RUGBY, May 20

The Allied air forces had a very successful day in the Mediterranean, destroying a total of 73 enemy planes for the loss of four of their own.

ANTI-BRITISH PROPAGANDA

LONDON, May 20. Signor Bastianini. speaking to the Italian Senate, urged Italians to fight. “The law of life made this fight a necessity,” he said, and it demands that we should resist an enemy who wants our enslavement. Italy refuses this fate. Italy does not want to renounce her honour.’ The strange course which Italian propaganda had taken in recent weeks, took a new turn to-day, when all the radio stations unleashed a spate of fury against Britain. The Express Listening Station intercepted this as an attempt to whip the Italians into a fighting mood. The stations broadcast long stories of British “beastliness,” nbt only in this war but in the Boer War and during the Irish troubles. The announcers •frequently repeated the lie that the British were dropping explosive pencils, lipsticks, cough-drop tins and other terror objects. One station insinuated that the British executed prisoners of war, asking: “Has mam, no longer any right io fight for his country in self-defence?” The commentator spent twenty minutes telling listeners what dirty fighters the British were, declaring that British and American methods were not those of soldiers and men of honour. FLEET AT~GIBRALTAR.

(Recd. 11.5 a.m.)

LONDON, May 20.

Huge Allied convoys are now at Gibraltar, says the Berlin radio quoting reports from Algeciras. There are 72 ships, including tankers, cargo ships, and transports in the harbour. Twenty-five arrived today from the Mediterranean in ballast. The warships include two air-craft-carriers, two battleships, 22 cruisers, 18 British and some American destroyers.

SUBMARINE'S SUCCESSES

RUGBY, May 20

To have sunk five enemy vessels on her first patrol as an operational submarine in the Mediterranean, is the proud record of His Majesty’s Unbending (Lieutenant E. T. Stanley D.S.C.), recently returned to .home waters.

The Unbending left Malta in October, to patrol tlie Gulf of Hammamet in search of shipping supplying the Axis in Africa, and sank a schooner, tanker, coaster, destroyer, and transport... The destroyer and transport were part of a convoy of four ships, escorted by seven destroyers, which the Unbending intercepted on her way home. The submarine penetrated the screen and let go all her four remaining torpedoes. The Unbending has had several narrow escapes from depth charges.

FRENCH LINER TORPEDOED

(Recd. 11 a.m.) LONDON, May 20. The Paris radio says that the liner General Bonaparte, with 590 passengers and fifty of a crew, was torpedoed at four o'clock yesterday afternoon, forty miles from land. Two German destroyers from Toulon rescued the survivors.