BRITISH NAVAL LOSSES LIGHT

Southland Times, Issue 24773, 18 June 1942, Page 5

BRITISH NAVAL LOSSES LIGHT

The supplies got through. That is the keynote of the London reaction to the latest details of the great sea and air battles. The morning newspapers acclaim the daring and determination with which the Royal Navy pressed forward its expedition through the most dangerous areas in the Mediterranean in the lightest season and in the face of tremendous opposition from Axis warships, submarines and planes. The Daily Mail, in a leading article, says the Italian version is substantiated only in the fact that this was one of the biggest air and sea actions of the war, but the Italian claims to have damaged eight British warships are absolutely untrue. It turns out, as usual, that the heavy losses were suffered not by the British, but by the Italian Fleet. We must assume, in view of the strength of the attack, that losses of merchantmen are unlikely to be light. SEVERAL SEPARATE ACTIONS The naval correspondent of The Daily Express says that no British battleship or aircraft-carrier was even damaged. British naval losses were comparatively light and may not involve even a cruiser. It is now possible to piece together a picture of the fluid battle, which covered 500 miles of sea. The Malta-bound convoy sailed from Gibraltar and the other from Alexandria. Several separate actions then resulted. Powerful air squadrons attacked the Malta-bound convoy south of Sardinia. The results of these attacks are not yet known. An Italian naval squadron in the meantime was hovering off Pantellaria, awaiting a chance to attack the convoy should it be sufficiently weakened by the air onslaught, but this squadron, consisting of cruisers and destroyers, never got a chance. Dual air attacks launched from aircraft-

carriers and from Malta knocked it out, setting fire to a cruiser and probably hitting a destroyer. This squadron appears to have taken no further part in the battle. Meanwhile, the main Italian battle fleet was steaming at full speed southward from Taranto and its obvious purpose, according to The Daily Mail’s naval correspondent, was to get among the convoy from Alexandria and smash it up immediately it had been reasonably “softened” by violent air attacks from planes drawn from the Agean and African bases, but, like the smaller Italian squadron, it never was given the opportunity. A swarm of torpedo planes was loosed on it from Malta and another swarm swooped down from Africa. Then came the greatest shock of all—a strong force of Liberators. The sea was alive with torpedoes and powerful armour-piercing bombs from the Liberators were dropping all around the twisting, writhing Italian warships. Fires and explosions were seen aboard the battleships. Bombs burst on the decks of a heavy Trento class cruiser and before long she was ablaze from stem to stern. British torpedo planes swooped in for the death blow and she sank in a few minutes. There were fires in the other warships and the Italians turned northwards at full speed for home. Once again a major sea action appears to have been fought out without the surface ships coming into action against one another. The damage the British inflicted appears to have been the work entirely of planes and our aircraft effectively prevented the two Italian naval squadrons from making battle contact.