HEAVY POUNDING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20488, 24 February 1941, Page 9

HEAVY POUNDING

ALLIED AIR FORCES ITALIANS IN ALBANIA INVADERS SEVERE LOSSES DESPERATE FIGHTING (Elec. Tel. Copyright—-United Press Assn.) (Reed. Feb. 22, 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 21. Better weather enabled the Allies to intensify the bombing and machinegunning of Italian positions and encampments in Albania with good re-, suits. Greek troops achieved new successes, notably in one engagement in which an Italian battalion was almost wiped out. The Italians, in another operation on the central front, resisted to the last. Their losses were terrible. Most of the soldiers were killed and some were captured but very few escaped before the position was taken at the bayonet point. The Italians lost 20 officers.

In a desperate effort to ward off persistent blows from the British and Greek air forces, the Italians are putting large formations of fighters in Albania but are suffering heavy losses. A German communique claims that bombers in the Mediterranean successfully attacked British troop concentrations in Libya. An Italian communique says that enemy planes again raided Catania but the damage was insignificant. “Our air force bombed and machinegunned enemy positions in the Kufra zone causing vast fires,” the communique adds. “The German air corps attacked the harbour, airfields and gun positions at Benghazi. “The battle continues on both banks of the lower Juba River in Italian Somaliland. The enemy carried out air raids at several points in Eritrea, causing some damage and casualties.”