ATTACKED AT SEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24049, 21 August 1941, Page 10

ATTACKED AT SEA

ENEMY CONFUSED CONVOY LOSES SHIPS TANKER SET ON FIRE LONDON, August 19 Swordfish aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm carried out a highly successful attack on an enemy convoy in the central Mediterranean on Sunday night, says a communique quoted by the British official wireless. The convoy consisted of five large merchant vessels and a tanker, escorted by six destroyers. The communique adds: "A vessel of 6000 tons was hit by a torpedo and sank after two hours. The tanker was also hit by a torpedo, and a violent explosion followed. Aircraft which shadowed the remainder of the convoy reported later that the tanker was still on fire and had stopped. "There was a scene of considerable confusion. Anti-aircraft guns fired in all directions without a definite target. The second merchantman was then tor : pedoed, and reconnaissance the following day showed that it had been beached at Lampedusa Island. The ship was there attacked by Blenheims and a direct hit with a heavy bomb set it on fire. Volumes of black smoke poured from the ship. "An attempt by a large force of Messerschmitts to attack shipping off the Egyptian coast on Monday was foiled by Tomahawk aircraft of the R.A.F., 'which gave combat to the enemy machines and compelled them to drop 'their bombs some miles from the target." SHORTAGES OF FOOD GERMAN PROBLEM GROWS LABOUR DIFFICULTIES (Reed. 8.15 p.m.) LONDON,. AuR-ust 19 Further evidence is contained in the German press of shortages and economic difficulties in Germany, says the British official wireless. The German public was told in May that the markets would soon be flooded with the season's vegetables, to compensate for the shortage of other food and decreased meat ration. However, on June 26, the press stated that the delivery of vegetables was proceeding slowly, and that the authorities were doing all possible to terminate "this unpleasant situation." On July 25 the press was still explaining the shortage as due to the exceptionally severe winter. In July the newspaper Deutsche Volkswirt complained of the "growing queue habit," which it attributed partly to the shortage of goods, labour and transport, and partly to the stupidity of people who "queue up without any idea of what they want to buy." The lack of labour continues to cause difficulties. Another 70,000 Poles have been taken for harvesting in Germanv and 5000 artisans have been sent from" the Warsaw district to make up Germany's need of skilled workers. In Saxony it has been arranged for all students, male and female, to be placed at the disposal of the armament industrv during the summer. A Stettin newspaper announces that conferences are to be held between countries interested in the European timber trade because "perhaps an entirely new means must be found tor transporting timber southward a °d coal northward." This is acknowledged to be due to the impossibility of using sea transport. FERRYING AIRCRAFT NEW YORK, August 19 The New York Herald-Tribun&i commeriting on President Roosevelt s announcement of a ferry service of aeroplanes across the Atlantic for the use of British forces in the Middle East, said it was organised three months ago by Pan American Airways personnel while ostensibly on leave of absence. It has been running from Miami to San Juan (Porto Rico), thence to Trinidad, Belem and Natal, in Brazil, finally to Monrovia, Liberia (Africa), with an alternate terminus _ at Bathurst, capital of British Gambia.