RAF. Bombs Airfields and Shipping

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 186, 7 August 1941, Page 8

RAF. Bombs Airfields and Shipping

NORTH AFRICA FRONT RUGBY, Aug. 5. R.A.F. bombers carried out a number of successful operations in Cyrenaict during the night of August 3/4, report* to-day’s R.A.F. Middle East communique. One formation attacked the port of*Derna, causing considerable damage and starting a number of fires. Two buildings at the base of the mole were destroyed. Bombs were also dropped on the landing-ground and on a battery, which was silenced. Other aircraft attacked the landingground and dispersal area at Gazala, causing a series of explosions and fires. Huts and a camp in the vicinity were machine-gunned from a few hundred feet, and about 25 tents caught fire. Martuba landing-ground also wu bombed, and fires and explosions were observed among dispersed aircraft. An attack was delivered on enemy shipping off the coast near Appollonia, and hits were made on one ship and possibly on another. Enemy merchant vessels were again attacked in the same area yesterday, and two are believed to have been hit.

R.A.F. bombers carried out a successful attack on shipping in the harbour of Tripoli on August 3. A merchant vessel of about 8000 tons was hit by a heavy bomb, and a violent explosion followed, throwing a great quantity of wreckage into the air. Two direct hits were obtained on military buildings, which were also machine-gunned. A reconnaissance of Reggio, in Southern Italy, showed that, in the attack on the aerodrome reported in yesterday’* communique, ten Macchi-200’s and a Breda-20 were destroyed, while about 20 more Macchis were damaged, several very badly. From the operations reported in the communique, all the British aircraft returned safely.