AIR ASSAULT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25238, 29 May 1943, Page 5

AIR ASSAULT

MEDITERRANEAN BASES r ; A WARNING TO ITALY (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, May 28. Aircraft from Allied bases in North Africa yesterday continued the offensive against Italy’s island bases. Sardinia was again heavily attacked, airfields being the main objective. A formation of enemy aircraft endeavoured to intercept the Allied planes, and 13 of them were shot down. Shipping and airfields at Pantellaria were also bombed. v Aircraft from the Middle East Command continued their sweeps against enemy shipping in the /Esean Sea. • The most important target attacked on Wednesday was Sardinia's 1 main power station at Tirso. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says that the pilots of Lightning fighter-bombers saw their bombs bursting among buildings, trucks, and military equipment. They also strafed a gun emplacement and two small vessels on a lake with cannon fire. The processing of Sardinia’s leading copper and other metals depends on the power generated from the Tirso dam and the smaller dam on the river Cighinas. As hundreds of Allied bombers were' continuing the round-the-clock offensive against Italy’s Mediterranean islands, a spokesman from Allied headquarters in North Africa warned the Italians to withdraw from the war. Speaking over Algiers radio, he said: “ Unless you surrender now. Allied bombers will darken the sky over Italy, and air attacks will continue until all Axis obstacles have been swept away. Ask your friends in the cities already bombed what it is like. Ask your soldiers who fought in Libya and Tunisia what the German alliance means. They were abandoned by their allies after lorries and supplies had been taken from them.”