ITALIAN CRUISERS FLED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 291, 13 November 1941, Page 7

ITALIAN CRUISERS FLED.

MEMORIES OF MATAPAN. LONDON, Nov. 12

It is now revealed in London that the two 10,000-ton Italian cruisers escorting the convoy. which was annihilated on Sunday morning ran away without firing a single shot. As soon as the British cruisers and destroyers hove in sight, the Italian cruisers, although twice the size of their opponents, abandoned the convoy to the protection of the escorting destroyers and made for home. A London commentator said they must

have remembered Alatapan ! It is pointed out in London that, though our planes are doing splendid work in intercepting supplies to Libya, only naval surface craft are.capable of making a clean sweep such as that accomplished on Sunday. Apparently the Germans recognise the importance of son-power, for a commentator said yesterday that airpower alone was insufficient to gain control of the seas. To take her place as a world Rower, Germany must have a powerful navy.

AIRMEN'S INGLORIOUS ATTACK. A British Official 'Wireless message says:—lt is recalled here that to-day is the universal I ,v of Ihe Italian aircraft’s visit to Britain when two Hurricane squadrons destroyed 13 of them without loss to themselves, while the rest returned post-haste across the Channel. At that time Mussolini had grandiloquently asked Hitler’s permission for the Italian Regia Aeronautiea to join the Luftwaffe in an attack on Britain—with disastrous results—but now lie has to seek aid from his senior partner in the air warfare in Libya and watch the increased R.A.F. offensive on his own country. According to an Italian communique, Naples and Brindisi were again raided by the R.A.F. last night. The Manchester Guardian says: “Nowhere can the increase in our air strength be more clearly seen than in the Mediterranean. From Benghazi and Tripoli our raids have spread to Naples and Sicily, and from the heel of Italy to the port of Brindisi. As the Italian spirit flags, so they grow heavier and more constant.”