LIBYAN CAMPAIGN

Grey River Argus, 27 April 1942, Page 5

LIBYAN CAMPAIGN

R.A.F. ACTIVITY. (Rec. 10.30.) LONDON April 25 A Royal Air Force Middle East communique states: “W fives in Libya were bombed on Wed nesday night. Sandstorms curta.ed both air and land operations at Cyrenaica yesterday. . , A further communique states. "Enemy rpotorised forces, e P ca^ p ,i ments and personnel were attacked by our fighters in the forward area from Cyrenaica on Friday. O.K Messerschmitt was shot down, ana other enemy aircraft was damaged. Benghazi harbour was raided on Thursday night, as well as an aerodrome in Sicily. O o BOW RUGBY, April 23. ‘A Middle East war communique states: There is nothing to report. The harbour and other objectives M Benghazi were raided by our bomb er aircraft during Monday and Tuesday nights. Night attacks were also made in the Derna, Martuba and Tmimi areas. Fighter aircraft were again afctive by day in th. same region, while further west motor transport on the Jedabaya Road, and enemy merchant vessels off the Cyrenaica coast were attacked witn cannon and machine-gun fire. Eight enemy aircraft were shot down over Malta during raids on Tuesday and Wednesday, three by our fighters, and five by anti-air-craft artillery. Thirty German aircraft Were destroyed by R.A.F. fighters and the anti-aircraft defences of Malta during the first three days of this week. They were 20 bombers* and 10 fighters. In addition, many more were damaged, and it is unlikely that they all regained their Sicilian bases The Sicilian aerodrome of Comiso, and targets at Augusta, were bombed on Tuesday night. One of our aircraft is missing. In a recent R.A.F. raid, two Italian destroyers in the port of Pireaus received direct hits, and the Salamia arsenal was hit, according to information reaching Greek Government circles in London, through a person who recently escaped from Greece.

LONDON, April 23. Bomb plots against senior British' officers of police in Jerusalem were frustrated, reports “The 1 Times’s” correspondent. After the assistant Inspector-General of Police backed his car from a garage in the German colony, an Arab servant picked up in the driveway two sticks of gelignite bound with a' detonator, which' exploded in his hands, killing him. Investigation showed that the bomb had been attached beneath the car, and connected for an explosion when the car’s ignition was turned on.

Children later reported to the police a suspicious object on the road near the house of the InspectorGenera] of Police. An examination revealed that it was a fuse bomb, filled with 70 sticks of gelignite, attached to a long wire, whereby it could be operated from an open field nearby.