PETROL BLAZE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1940, Page 6

PETROL BLAZE

| STARTED IN ERITREA i, R.A.F. RAIDS ITALIAN BASE. ACTION IN OTHER AREAS. A Cairo communique transmitted by Daventry, reports a succession of raids by the R.A.F. Assab Harbour, in Eritrea, was bombed, direct hits being made on a military barracks and a petrol fire started which burned so fiercely that it could be seen 25 miles away. A number of reconnaissances were carried out over various parts of East Africa and Somaliland. ITALIAN REPORT (Received This Dav. 9.15 a.m.) ROME. September 2. A. communique states: "British ' planes bombed open country in Sardinia last night. Others attacked in Piedmont and Lombardy. Three enemy planes were shot down. The enemy, during the raids in Piedmont and Lombardy. dropped four bombs on a village in the Varese district but there were no casualties. Two Italian reconnaissance planes have not returned to their bases. “The enemy, in West Africa. attempted to attack llarniil Island. 80 miles from Massawa. “Two enemy planes were brought down during the Harmi! and Assab raids, which caused slight damage. The enemy hit a military hospital al Tobruk on Saturday. One person was killed. "Cur air force effectively bombed i and machine-gunned a troop camp south oi' 'Mainau, beyond Kassala. “It. is officially established that the enemy lost 22 men and one armoured j car during; a recent, encounter near the . Eritrean-Sudan border." LIGHTLY HELD POSITION AT PUNA. (Received This Ray. 11.50 a.m ' LONDON. September ”. It is authoritatively-stated that it is, impossible to confirm or deny the Italian claim to have occupied Burnt. io which place British troops reared after encounters til Moyale. I debt forces hold Buna, which eon be approached and at- I tacked from the north-west and north- | cast. A road also enters the town from i Italian Somaliland. Thus it is not a’ good position to hold. <