ENEMY CRUISER TORPEDOED

Southland Times, Issue 24601, 25 November 1941, Page 5

ENEMY CRUISER TORPEDOED

SUCCESS IN CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN VESSEL PROBABLY SUNK LONDON, November 23. An Admiralty communique states that an enemy cruiser has been torpedoed and possibly sunk by a submarine of the Mediterranean Fleet. When the cruiser was attacked it formed part of a force of three cruisers and three destroyers. Subsequent air reconnaissance showed that a large area of the sea in the locality where the attack had been made was covered with oil, while only two cruisers were with the enemy force. An enemy destroyer has also been hit with two torpedoes and probably sunk,

while two enemy supply ships were torpedoed. All these successes were in the Central Mediterranean. In the Central Mediterranean on Saturday night Royal Air Force and naval aircraft attacked an enemy convoy, which was escorted by one cruiser and five destroyers, said a Royal Air Force Middle East Command communique. One torpedo scored a direct hit on the cruiser, causing a large flash and clouds of black smoke. One large merchant vessel was probably hit and sticks of bombs straddled the other ships. RAID ON ARGOSTOLI In a raid on Argostoli harbour on Saturday British aircraft bombed a naval vessel which was left with a heavy list. Patrol vessels and other craft in the harbour were machinegunned. According to a high neutral diplomat at Ankara 6000 Axis troops perished in the two Italian convoys sunk in the Mediterranean on November 9. Large quantities of ammunition also went down. The work of the British Navy in the Mediterranean during the great battle in Libya is described by a special correspondent on board the battleship Barham off the coast of Cyrenaica. “Our cruiser squadrons nightly continue to fling six-inch salvos into the enemy coastal positions and supply dumps,” he writes. “With our submarines and light units we are taking care of the Central Mediterranean and our powerful Eastern Mediterranean Fleet is playing the role of watch-dog along the whole of the coast of Cyrenaica. Thus we ensure that the Axis force shall receive no supplies or reinforcements while General Cunningham’s army thrusts across Libya. JUNKERS DRIVEN OFF “On Friday evening two Junkers 88’s approached the fleet at dusk and circled round, apparently reporting our movements, but they kept a' a distance when we opened fire and they were subsequently driven off by naval aircraft. “The enemy appeared to be too much occupied ashore to give us much attention and we have not seen any signs of the Italian Navy endeavouring to protect the Libyan sea flank of the Axis desert forces, despite the numerical superiority of the Italian sea forces.”

SIR THOMAS BLAMEY PLEASED MELBOURNE, Nov. 23. “The destruction of half the enemy’s effective attacking strength means that Britain has won the land battle on which the result of the whole offensive hinges.” This was the comment offered by Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Blarney, general officer commanding the Australian Imperial Force and Deputy Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, in an interview given in Melbourne.

“Things are going very well,” was the single sentence in which the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr A. V. Alexander, summed up the position in a speech, states a London message.