ITALIAN BASES BOMBED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23965, 4 June 1943, Page 5

ITALIAN BASES BOMBED

SHIPPING SUNK IN AEGEAN SEA DAMAGE AT MESSINA DESCRIBED (N.Z Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. June 3. Warhawks of the North African Command yesterday attacked San Pietro Island, off the south-west coast of Sardinia, and medium and fighterbombers attacked Pantelleria. Longrange fighters of the Middle East Command were again over the Aegean Sea. They sank two ships at anchor and damaged another, which was abandoned by her crew, All the Allied aircraft returned. According to reports from the French frontier the Italian garrisons in Pantelleria, Sardinia, and Sicily have been ordered to stand* to, because an Allied invasion is feared to be imminent, says the Madrid correspondent of the British United Press. These reports add that the Italian Fleet is ready to sail at one hour’s notice. “Whether the Navy has given Italy’s strategically valuable and muchbombed island of Pantelleria the final knock-out is not known for certain, but no enemy ships are reported to have put in there in the last few days,” says the British United Press correspondent with the Mediterranean Fleet. “As recently as the final days of the Tunisian campaign our light craft patrolling the Sicilian channel to prevent any evacuation moves met a fair amount of shellfire from the island’s batteries when they approached the coast. The fact that enemy shelling was negligible during the latest naval bombardments shows that the recent air attacks have taken toll of the island defences.” “Messina is no longer even recognisable,” said a special correspondent of the “Popolo d’ltalia” after a visit to the city “The modern street of San Martino and the business quarter are almost destroyed. The university, the Law Courts, and churches and schools have disappeared. All the theatres are badly damaged, and the cathedral which was previously damaged. has been hit again.” “Those acquainted with Messina,” says a British United Press correspondent, “will know that if the town is flattened, then the vital port with its railway communications and ferry slips must also be flattened, because the whole town clusters round the port.” Cagliari, the principal port of Sardinia, has suffered the same fate, according to the Morocco radio. For all intents and purposes Cagliari is razed. An overwhelming majority of its people have fled to the hills. Flying almost at water level, Warhawks attacking the seaplane base on Stagnone Island, off Sicily, on Tuesday, strafed a line of seaplanes moored in the harbour and destroyed a considerable number and damaged others. The only serious fighter opposition was at Terranova, a port and rail terminus in north-east Sardinia, where the Allied aeroplanes set fire to two ships. An indication of the development of the Allied air offensive from North Africa has been given by the Algiers radio, which states that in the attacks on the Italian mainland and islands from May 22 to last Friday, 1400 tons of bombs were dropped. The attack started with the raid ’on Leghorn, which was severely damaged, and continued with increasing intensity throughout the week. Five hundred and seventy-eight Axis aircraft had been found in the Tunis, Bizerte, and Cape Bon peninsula areas. Only the remains of some machines were found. Four hundred and thirty-three of the total were German aircraft.