AXIS BLUFFED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20865, 18 August 1942, Page 3

AXIS BLUFFED

CONVOY FOR MALTA SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY AIR ATTACKS REDUCED (9 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 17. Admiral Sir Henry Harwood’s strategy fooled Axis tacticians who planned the attack against the Maltabound convoy. The enemy, it is believed, knew that the convoy had left Gibraltar but not until it was within a few hours’ steaming of its destination did he realise that it was bound for Malta and not Alexandria. Admiral Harwood, by ordering bomber attacks against the four Italian cruisers at Navarino, and an and sea bombardment of Rhodes, and increased Royal Air Force attacks on the Libyan coast air bases, gave the impression to the enemy that the attacks were designed to cripple his immediate striking power against the convoy as it neared Alexandria. The attacks compelled the Axis to maintain forces in the east Mediterranean which might temporarily have been diverted to increase the strength of the sea and air assault against the convoy.

When the convoy entered the Sicilian channel it expected to meet a holocaust of Stukas and heavy German bombers, but, thanks to the presence of Spitfires from Malta, the attack was not a quarter as hot as was thought possible. Magnificent work was done by the Fleet Air Arm fighters, which smashed up attack after attack. Hundreds of Axis planes attacked the convoy, but most of the bombs exploded harmlessly in the sea.

A Malta communique to-night states that there has been no enemy aircraft activity over the island in the past 24 hours.