SURPRISE ATTACK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20631, 12 August 1941, Page 5

SURPRISE ATTACK

BARDIA CAMP SHOT UP HEAVY TOLL OF ENEMY (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Aug. 11. A Glenn-Martin aircraft, piloted by a Canadian flight lieutenant, has shot up 12 motor transport vehicles and inflicted about 100 casualties on enemy personnel in a low-level attack on a camp near Bardia. The crew were members of one of the most famous Western Desert squadrons, the personnel of which includes Free French, South Africans, and Australians. The pilot, who comes from Vancouver, said: “We came down very low from above the housetops. When we swept over for the first time we Went out to sea, and in my next run over the coast I saw the camp. 1 dived down on it with my guns going, andj.the rear gunner was blazing away as well. “Soldiers were standing in little groups of 12 to 15 near their tents. They seemed so petrified by the speed of our attack that they just stood there, but I could see others diving for trenches as the bullets spurted among them. I had one glimpse of four men jammed in the doorway of a dugout. “We strafed all the motor transport we could see, and when a vehicle was hit the back fell out and a number of men toppled to the ground. When I lifted her nose and headed for home, I could see at least 12 vehicles damaged and about 100 men either killed or wounded.