ROME REPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 July 1940, Page 5

ROME REPORT

INVENTED TALE OF BRITISH LOSSES NUMBER OF SHIPS “SEVERELY DAMAGED.” PROGRESS TOWARDS ITALY ADMITTED. (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) ROME, July 10. An official communique, issued late in the afternoon, states that Italian aerial and naval forces engaged in a battle with the British Fleet between Crete and North Africa. A number of British ships were hit and severely damaged and fire broke out aboard various units. The Italians lost one destroyer, the Zessiro, and one submarine, and the British certainly lost one cruiser, which was torpedoed by an Italian submarine, and maybe one battleship was sunk. Notwithstanding the damage sustained, the British continued toward Italy, intending to attack Italian ports. Italian aeroplanes and nayal units continued the attack, duung which an Italian ship was hit by a shell and 29 of her crew were killed and 69 wounded. It is also announced that on Monday another British squadron, from Gibraltar, was engaged by Italian aviation, south of the Balearic Islands and was bombed with effective results It is also announced that in the battle of Tuesday all Italian planes ieturned safely. In the battle of Monday three Italian planes were lost. MORE FAIRY TALES? ALLEGED BOMBING OF BRITISH SHIPS. RESULTS CLAIMED IN VIOLENT BATTLE. ROME, July 10. An article in the “Messagero,” the war correspondent, Raffaello Guzman.

states: “Movement of enemy ships was discovered somewhere in the Mediterranean yesterday, whereupon two formations of our bombers were ordered to attack. The battle was most violent, the ships answering with intense anti-aircraft fire: however, enemy units were repeatedly hit and damaged and great tongues of flame were seen aboard the ships. "During last night the aeroplane crews in numerous airports throughout Italy were held in readiness to attempt a large-scale offensive action in collaboration with warships against a British squadron, whose movements our scouts followed step by step.”