WAR IN AFRICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1940, Page 5

WAR IN AFRICA

MANY RAEDS ON ITALIAN BASES SPLENDID WORK BEING DONE BY R.A.F. SERIES OF MAGNIFICENT SUCCESSES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 1. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Cairo correspondent says the steady wearing down of Mussolini’s bases in East Africa was carried a big step forward in September. This aspect of the war has not received Hie publicity it deserves because of Hitler’s assault against Britain and Graziana’s push against Egypt. The British and South African air forces have been on the job night and day and have chalked up a series of magnificent successes. The pilots have flown tremendous distances over savage, mountainous country where a forced landing is certain death. The British planes raided 32 military and air forces bases in September, making 66 full-scale attacks, apart from countless reconnaissances. Assab, the chief target, was raided 10 times, resulting in the sinking of ships and the burning of aircraft, petrol dumps, hangars and barracks. The vital airport of Gura was raided seven times, and Kahsala and Asmara each four times. 'Mussolini in September lost 57 planes throughout Africa for certain, and probably another 44, making the totals since the outbreak of war 214 and 124. Tell-tale columns of smoke throughout Abyssinia reflect the systematic war of attritipn against the Italian bases. DEVASTATION OF TOBRUK The latest news of R.A.F. activity in the Middle East gives details of a further raid on Totti’uk, where a direct hit was scored on a ship and large fires were started among buildings on the foreshore. A low-level attack on Marawa aero-; drome by a formation of Blenheim bombers resulted in the destruction of three Savoia 79’s—two • blown up and one set on fire —states an R.A.F. Cairo communique. Others are believed to have been severely damaged. The aerodrome buildings were also attacked and two suffered direct hits. On the homeward journey one flight of the British aircraft was intercepted by 15 enemy fighters (CR 42’s) and in an engagement two fighters were shot down and a third fell in flames. One British plane is missing. R.A.F.- bombers raided Gura and a fire followed a large flash on the target area. The railway at Culdehar, Italian East Africa, was attacked, and the entrance to a tunnel was hit. Bombs were dropped on military quarters and a jetty at Berbera, some buildings being hit also. Berikan, in Italian Somaliland, was also bombed. Bombs landed on the administration buildings, some of which were gutted. SOUTH AFRICA TROOPS. It is reported from Nairobi that South African troops in Konya are now fully trained. For some weeks they have been holding an important and difficult front line at Tokana. A correspondent reports that one patrol was so excited in reaching the enemy’s country at last that it needed little encouragement to press on. The Tokana front is the remotest in the African campaign. Normally it is a tribal battlefield between the tribes of Tokana and the Waziri. Relations between the South Africans and the Tokana tribesmen have been splendid. They are based on mutual admiration, for the South Africans have shown great regard for the Tokana warriors. Because of the need to observe the black-out rigidly, minarets of the mosques at Alexandria, Port Said, Suez, and Ismailia, and other places in Egypt, will not carry their traditional illumination during the Fast of Ramadan, which begins this week. The firing of cannons to mark the end of the daily fast has also been suspended. The chief Moslem official in the Sudan declared that in accordance with the Koran fighting men need not fast during Ramadan. ITALIAN REPORT (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, October 2. An Italian communique says the enemy raided Bugbug and Tobruk, resulting in some wounded ) and slight damage. The enemy also raided Gerile and the railway near Hara Pass, northeast of Diredawa.