RAID ON MESSINA
“ENEMY FIGHTERS THICK AS GNATS” Recd. 6.30 p.m. London, June 26. Flying Fortresses had to shoot their way through swarms of enenr’ fighters to reach Messina in yesterday’s raid, says Columbia Broadcasting System's Algiers correspondent. It was officially reported that antiaircraft fire over the target was intense. Italian and German fighters pressed the attack from all directions, sometimes ignoring their own antiaircraft fire and forcing the Fortresses to fight during their bombing runs. One of our bomber flights was tailed to within sight of the African coast. "Fighters were as thick as gnats,” said one American gunner. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says 200 tons of high explosives and incendiaries were dropped on Messina yesterday. A Rome communique admits that extensive damage was caused by the Flying Fortress raid on Messina yesterday. Casualties were 81 killed, 85 wounded. Reggio di Calibria, one of the two mainland terminals of the Messina ferry, was also raided. Recd. 6.30 p.m. London, June 26. Leaflets calling on the population to surrender were dropped by Allied bombers during the latest raids on Naples, says Romej’adi£.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19430628.2.72
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 150, 28 June 1943, Page 5
Word Count
181RAID ON MESSINA Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 150, 28 June 1943, Page 5
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.