ITALIAN RAID

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20275, 17 June 1940, Page 8

ITALIAN RAID

EGYPTIAN PORT CASUALTIES INFLICTED ROYAL AIR FORCE EAST AFRICAN TOLL EXTENSIVE DAMAGE (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Tress Assn.) (Reed. June 17, 1.50 p.m.) LONDON. June 16. A Cairo message reports a British Middle East General Headquarters communique stating that Italian naval units and planes attacked Solium on Saturday, the Egyptian port 300 miles west of Alexandria, wounding two officers and 20 men of the Egyptian force whose barracks and stores were damaged. These are the first Egyptian casualties reported since the outbreak of hostilities on the Egyptian-Libyan frontier. The Italian air force raided Sido Barrani and caused eight Civilian casualties. These were the first air raid victims in Egypt. When informed of the bombing of Solium King Farouk came to Cairo in his private plane and immediately conferred firstly with the senior members of fhe Cabinet and secondly with the British military commander, Major-General Wilson, The Egyptian Cabinet later met again. Meanwhile the official view is reported to be that the Solium incident does not involve Egypt in the war as the objective, a police post, was not a military objective. Defences of Malta A Royal Air Force communique states the Italians carried out further abortive raids over Malta. British fighters drove off the enemy. The Royal Air Force communique adds: “The Royal Air Force continued its active operations against the enemy yesterday in the attack on Diredawa by bombing aircraft. Extensive damage was caused to the aerodrome and nearby buildings. A large building was seen to be burning. Two other fires were started, one close to the railway junction. “Another raid was carried out on Macaca, direct hits being registered on the buildings and aerodrome bombed. Making a reconnaissance flight over the Kcnya-Somaliland frontier, one machine bombed and machinegunned the Italian frontier post of El Walt.” Twenty-fifth Alarm A Malta message states that heavy firing was heard when Malta experienced the twenty-fifth alarm since Tuesday. The alarm lasted for over an hour. A naval bulletin issued at Alexandria states that the tanker sunk by an Italian submarine reported to be Dutch transpires to have been a Norwegian vessel. Further attacks were made on the enemy’s submarines with some probability of success. The Alexandria correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain quotes an official announcement in reference to the sinking of the light cruiser Calypso which says it occurred during a recent engagement with enemy submarines. The British scored direct hits on two submarines.