AXIS STILL PAYS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 118, 21 May 1942, Page 7

AXIS STILL PAYS

SEA AND AIR LOSSES

R.A.F. And Submarine Score

Successes

Rec. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY, May 20. The submarine Ursula, which sank a German cruiser off the mouth of the Elbe in December, 1939, is stated to have been recently serving in the Mediterranean and to have sunk or seriously damaged more than 50,000 tons of enemy shipping. Her patrols in the Mediterranean added four bars and a red star to her "Jolly Roger" ensign, the "successes" flag of submarines operating from Alexandria and Malta. The star is for the destruction by gunfire of an important railway bridge on the Italian coast.

The Ursula took part, in conjunction with naval aircraft, in an attack on an enemy convoy. A submarine officer said: "We could see flares dropped by a Swordfish plane many miles away. They led us to the - convoy and we attacked and fired torpedoes, scoring hits on two separate ships. We dived deep to avoid coun-ter-attack, but no depth charges followed us down.

"Later, when we raised to periscope height, we thought that at least one of our targets had escaped. We could see her masts and they looked at first as if she was over the horizon, but they were really vanishing beneath the surface. She went down as we watched."

The R.A.F. Middle East communique states: "Our bombers attacked harbour facilities at Bengasi on Monday night and again at daylight yesterday. Dust storms hampered aerial operations in the forward area of Cyrenaica. From noon on Monday to noon yesterday our fighter aircraft shot down one Messerschmitt 109 and one Cant. Z 107 over Malta. One of out aircraft is missing from these operations, but the pilot is safe."

By the shooting down of a German fighter by the R.A.F. late on Monday afternoon Malta's defences brought the total enemy aircraft destroyed over Malta during the first 18 days of May to 100. Up to 10.45 a.m. local time on Monday, one Italian bomber, three fighters and six German fighters have been destroyed and five enemy fighters damaged.

On Tuesday afternoon a small formation of Italian bombers, flying at a great height, attacked an aerodrome. They were engaged by antiaircraft fire as they crossed the coast. Later they were attacked by R.A.F. fighters, who destroyed one bomber. The R.A.F. suffered no loss.