MALTA HITS BACK

Evening Star, Issue 24287, 31 August 1942, Page 3

MALTA HITS BACK

EFFECTIVE RAIDS ON SICILY 14 ENEMY PLANES DOWNED—MUCH DAMAGE INFLICTED (British Official Wireless.) (llec. 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY, August 30. After months of heroic defence in the face of constant pounding by enemy aircraft, Malta has turned the tables on the Axis, and is proving more of a troublesome thorn in the side than over. In 24 hours the island has destroyed 14 enemy aircraft for certain and done much material damage to tile Axis. On Wednesday night, says the Air Ministry Nows Service, the enemy sent over a small number of bombers. They did no military damage, and two of them were shot down and another probably destroyed. That night B.A.F. lighters attacked the seaplane base in Sicily, and a seaplane was shot down and a motor vessel shot up. The enemy attempted a high-flying fighter sweep near Malta on Thursday morning, but Spitfires met and dispersed them, and damaged two. That afternoon Spitfires swarmed across the Sicilian coast almost at ground level, raking with cannon and machine-guns hangars, huts, barracks, stores, buildings, railway, and water tanks. Fitters working in Italian aircraft were killed and soldiers shot up. Hostile aircraft were attacked in the air and in the act of taking off. The aerodromes wore enveloped in dense smoke when the aircraft left after having destroyed four bombers and two fighters in the air, and three bombers and one fighter on the ground. Many others , were probably destroyed or damaged. On the way home three schooners wore shot up. At dusk an Axis convoy was attacked with torpedoes and bombs, and a medium-sized merchant vessel was hit squarely amidships, and sunk, and an escorting destroyer was shot up and left smoking. An Italian bomber which attempted to interfere, was shot down, and a fighter damaged. Bombers made a second attack on Sicily on Thursday night, and scored hits on two aerodromes and hangars. Oars, and a large building with all lights on, were shot up. During the whole of these activities Malta lost only three fighters. It is announced from New Delhi that the R.A.F. bombed Magvve, in Burma, on Friday, starting fires in several places. All the planes returned safely. SECOND FRONT FORGES GENERAL MARSHALL MENTIONED FOR SUPREME COMMAND NEW YORK, Aug. 29. The Chief of the United States Army Staff, General George C. Marshall, is mentioned in messages from both Washington and abroad as the probable

choice as supreme commander of the United Nations second front forces, says the ‘ New York Times.’ The Berlin radio announced that Mr Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt, and M. Stalin agreed to appoint General Marshall as commander-in-chief of the invasion forces. A BRILLIANT CAREER Sixty-one years of age, General Marshall has been a soldier all his adult life. He entered the Virginia Military Instituto at the age of 17, and passed out four years later to take a commission in the infantry. He then had a term at the Army Staff College, and went from there to the Philippines. During the last Great War Marshall was Chief of Operations of the Ist Army of the American Expeditionary Force in France. His best achievement perhaps was the organising of the secret movement of 500,000 men and 2,700 guns in 14 days preparatory to the Meuse-Argonne offensive. A British military man said it was the “ most difficult staff operation of the war.” When ho was appointed Chief of Staff in 1930 Marshall jumped over the heads of 34 officers senior to him.

A tall, lean man, with an incisive manner, General Marshall is said to he equipped with an “ elephant’s memory ’’ and a reasoning, reasonable mind. In America he was one of the first to realise the need for building up a mechanised corps, adapting the German example to American needs. Marshall and Douglas MacArthur are certainly the two outstanding soldiers in the United States to-day. RECORD PACIFIC FLIGHT NEW YORK, (Roc- 1 P-m.) August 30. The I lying Fortress in which Lieu-tenant-general Brett returned to America broke all records in a transpacific ilight of 36 hours 10 minutes. The plane took an active part in the Philippine campaign.