BATTLE IN MEDITERRANEAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20379, 16 October 1940, Page 5

BATTLE IN MEDITERRANEAN

ITALIAN FORCES ENCOUNTERED THREE DESTROYERS SENT TO BOTTOM TRIFLING DAMAGE TO BRITISH CRUISER SUBSEQUENT ENEMY AIR ATTACK FAILS (Elec. Tel. Copyright-United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. noon. Oct. 15. After waiting for full reports from the ships engaged, the Admiralty made public this evening the facts of recent naval actions in the Mediterranean regarding which an Italian account was put into circulation on Sunday. A communique states: “The Commandcr-ih-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet reports that His Majesty’s ships under his command have carried out an extensive sweep m the eastern and central Mediterranean, No contact was made between our main forces and the main forces of the enemy and there is no indication that the enemy’s main force had proceeded to sea. “During these operations, however, H.M.S. Ajax made contact with three Italian destroyers of the 679-ton Airons class about 80 miles south-east of Sicily at 2.30 a.m. on October 12. “The Ajax at once engaged and two of the Italian destroyers were sunk outright. Shortly after this encounter the Ajax sighted an enemy force comprised of one heavy . cruiser and four destroyers. The Ajax again engaged and succeeded in crippling an enemy destroyer. The remainder of the force escaped in the darkness. Message Broadcast to Italy “Believing that .the Ajax wqs in touch with considerable ' en emy forces, H.M.S. York came up in support, but no further contact was made with the enemy that night. “With the assistance of aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm, .the damaged enemy destroyer was located at dawn in tow of another Italian destroyer which had gallantly come to her assistance. On the arrival of the Ajax, the towing destroyer slipped the .tow and made off at high speed towards Sicily under cover of a smoke screen. “It was then ascertained that the damaged destroyer was the 1620-ton Artabliere of the latest class of largo Italian destroyers. The York soon came on the scene and the crew of the Artagliere at once began to abandon ship. .Our foiccs allowed half an hour for the abandoning of .the ship and then sank the enemy destroyer by gunfire. “The York dropped rafts to supplement the boats and rafts for the survivors. A wireless message was broadcast on the commercial wave-length of an Italian station giving the position of the survivors. This was done in spite of the fact ; that such a signal disclosed the position of the British forces, Also, the weather was fine and Sicily was at no great distance. Denial of Italian Claims “The experience at the sinking of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni on July 19, when our rescuing destroyers were bombed by Italian aircraft, made it impossible for our ships to take any further measures for the safety of the survivors of the Italian destroyer. It is known, moreover, that an Italian air concentration and an Italian submarine were in the vicinity. . “During these spirited and successful actions, the Ajax had only a few casualties. The only damage suffered by the Ajax was superficial and in no way impaired her fighting efficiency. No casualties or damage were suffered by the York. “These are the actions in which the Italian High Command communique, while admitting the loss of .two small and one large destroyer) claimed that a British cruiser, probably of the Neptune class, was sunk. - “Following upon these contacts between our light forces and those of the enemy our fleet was attacked by enemy aircraft over a period of four hours. The Italian High Command communique claimed that one of our aircraft carriers and one of our heavy cruisers suffered damage as a result of these "attacks. In fact, none of our ships suffered either damage or casualties whilst four enemy aircraft were certainly shot down by fighters of the Fleet Air Arm and the anti-aircraft fire of our ships, and two more were probably • destroyed. All our aircraft returned safely. British Submarine Successes “On the night of October 13 aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm attacked the port of Lago in the Dodecanese Islands, achieving a complete surprise. Barracks, workshops, hangars and a petrol tank were hit and set on fire. From this attack all our aircraft returned safely. “Our submarines have also achieved success recently in the Mediterranean. One submarine successfully bombarded military objectives in the port of Savona and sank a 5000-ton armed merchant ship escorted by E-boats off Genoa and also an armed merchant ship Qf 3000 tons in the Vado Roads. Another submarine sank an enemy supply ship of about 3000 tons off Naples and a third submarine sank an enemy supply ship of about 800 tons off Benghazi. “On the night of October 12-13, naval units, working in co-operation with the Royal Air Force, also successfully bombed enemy troop concentrations at Sidi Barrani.