LIBYAN PORT USELESS

Southland Times, Issue 24231, 14 September 1940, Page 5

LIBYAN PORT USELESS

WRECKED SHIPS IN HARBOUR

R.A.F. AND FLEET ARM IN ACTION ITALIAN MOVEMENTS IN NORTH AFRICA (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. September 13, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, September 12. The Times says that the combined operations of the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm have left Tobruk utterly useless for supplying Italian troops and for a base for submarines and warships. The harbour has been cleared of its crowded shipping, including five submarines of which' at least one has been sunk. The harbour is now littered with ships sunk or lying drunkenly on their sides.

While in the past day or two there have been Italian troop movements in the north of Libya in the neighbourhood of Capuzzo —a movement which was to be expected—no Italian troops have yet crossed the Egyptian frontier, according to statements in authoritative circles in London today. It has been suggested that the Italians are forming three armies for an attack on Egypt. According to these reports, one is to go along the coast, via Colum, the second is to operate north-west towards Wadi Haifa from Kassala, and the third along the Sudan-Egyptian frontier from the neighbourhood of Taheida, which is its base. This army, it is presumed, will attempt to travel straight across 400 or 500 miles of almost waterless desert towards Wadi Haifa to join with the Kassala army. Informed military circles in London, while regarding it as quite possible that there might be raids, emphasize that reports of an attack coming from this direction with’any force which could fairly be described as an army should be treated with reserve. So far as is known there are no German formations supporting the Italian forces in Libya.

There is no news from British sources regarding Italian claims that an invasion of Egypt has begun. REPORT OF INVASION The British United Press Rome correspondent says that informed circles declared that reports that an Italian offensive has begun in Egypt cannot be denied, “but official confirmation must await the communique.” A Royal Air Force communique issued in Cairo says that British bombers yesterday launched a series of raids against Libya, starting four fires at Amseat and bombing the landing ground at Derna. Bombs fell among aircraft and two large fires broke out in the harbour and on the jetty at Derna. Several fires were started at Bardia. The enemy tried to bomb Mersa Matruh but suffered a high proportion of losses. Four Savoia bombers were destroyed. The South African Air Force bombed Sciascia Manna in Central Abyssinia and destroyed one plane and damaged four.

Another communique issued in Cairo states that on Wednesday Mersa Matruh was again bombed without any important damage and only one casualty. Enemy aircraft have been active against our forward troops, but have caused no damage. Our patrols in Kenya actually engaged the enemy in a northern frontier district on a 200 miles front between Walquaris and Turbi and inflicted losses. In the Sudan on Tuesday in the Kassala area enemy defences on the west bank of the River Gafh were heavily bombed.

BOMBING RAIDS The Cairo correspondent of The Times says that the Royal Air Force, the South African Air Force, the Rhodesian squadron and French units have carried out more than 250 successful bombing raids in the last three months, in which the Royal Air Force Middle East fighters and reconnaissance planes have flown over 2,500,000 miles. The casualties in the Italian raid on Tel Aviv totalled 228, of whom 104, including 96 Jews, seven Arabs and one Australian, were killed. The remainder were seriously wounded. The raid has done nothing to lower the exceptionally high morale of the Jewish popula-x tion, and the Arab reaction, both in Jaffa and the neighbourhood, is one of warm sympathy with the Jewish sufferers and intense anger against the Italians. Pamphlets which Italians dropped among the Arab population have been treated with scorn.

Today the Mayor and members of the Municipal Council of Jaffa, all of them Arabs, attended a mass funeral of Jewish victims of the raid.