ENEMY HAD NO CHANCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLX, Issue 22028, 30 July 1941, Page 5

ENEMY HAD NO CHANCE

Suicidal Attack On Malta

By Telegraph—Press Association—copyright (Rec. 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, July 29. Malta earned the honour of repelling the first sea attack against British territory, during the teceHt E-bokt attack oh Vaietta. The local men are prolid of the part they played, as they have waited a long time for a chance of using their gtuis alongside the British garrison. , Islanders rushed to vantage pointe at the first sound of he. •’ gunfire and saw the foreshore of the Grand Harbour illuminated by bursts of dazzling light amidst the mist as the guns flashed from the massive emplacements where guns in other days pounded at pagan pirate craft. A criss-cross of fire was concentrated on dancing white dots—enemy E-boats rushing in for an attack. The leading E-boat went up with a flash, then a sharp detonation leaving no trace of the boat or survivors. Mingling With the explosions and whine of the shells over the water was the roar of aeroplanes as they dived eager to participate m the fight. The accuracy of the gunfire was so great that streams of shells appeared to be attracted to the frail hulls of the E-boats as by magnets. E-boats an instant before, alive with speed were suddehly transformed into scattered motionless de Tlie “Times of Malta” described the attack US suicidal. “The enemy were thwarted by Malta’s coastal defences which are not less powerful than the air barrage. Nevertheless Rome boasts of the rape of Malta with effrontery which rivals Goebbels’s biggest he.