WITHOUT LOSS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1940, Page 6

WITHOUT LOSS

NAVY TAKES HEAVY TOLL OF ITALIANS

SERIES OF ENCOUNTERS IN MEDITERRANEAN.

ADMIRALTY GIVES FULL DETAILS

(British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) RUGBY, October 15. After waiting for full reports from the ships engaged the Admiralty made public this evening the facts of the recent naval actions in the Mediterranean, regarding which the Italian account was put into circulation on Sunday.

The communique states: "The Com-mander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean reports that his Majesty’s ships under this command have carried out an extensive sweep in the Eastern and Central Mediterranean. No contact was made between our main forces and the main forces of the enemy and there is no indication that the enemy main force has proceeded to sea. During these operations, however, H.M.S. Ajax made contact with three Italian destroyers of the 679-ton Airone class, about 80 miles south-east of Sicily at 2.30 a.m. on Saturday. The Ajax at once engaged and two Italian destroyers were sunk outright. Shortly after this encounter the Ajax sighted an enemy force, which comprised one heavy cruiser and four destroyers. The Ajax again engaged and succeeded in crippling an enemy destroyer, but the remainder of the force escaped in the darkness. Believing that the Ajax was in touch with considerable enemy forces, H.M.S. York came up in support, but no further contact was made with the enemy that night. With the assistance of aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm, the damaged enemy destroyer was located at dawn in tow of another Italian destroyer, which had gallantly come to her assistance. On the arrival of the Ajax the towing destroyer slipped the tow line and made off at high speed towards Sicily, under cover of a smoke screen. It was then ascertained that the damaged destroyer was the 1620-ton Artagliere. of the latest class of large Italian destroyers. H.M.S. York soon came on the scene and the crew of the Artagliere a,t once began to abandon ship. Our forces allowed half an hour for abandoning the ship and then sank the enemy destroyer by gunfire. The York dropped rafts to supplement the destroyer's boats and rafts for the survivors. A WISE PRECAUTION.

“A wireless message was broadcast on the commercial wave length of an Italian station, giving the position of the .Italian destroyer’s survivors. This was done in spite of the fact that such a signal comprised the position of the British forces. Also the weather was fine and Sicily was at no great distance. Experience at the sinking of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni on July 19, when our rescusing destroyers were bombed by Italian aircraft, made it impossible for our ships to take any further measures for the safety of the survivors of the Italian destroyer. It was known, moreover, tha? an Italian air concentration and an Italian submarine were in the vicinity. During these spirited and successful actions the Ajax had only a few casualties and the only damage suffered by the Ajax was superficial and in no way impaired her fighting efficiency. No casualties or damage were suffered by the York. “These are the actions iff which an Italian High Command communique, while admitting the loss of two small and one large destroyer, iclaimed that a British cruiser, probably of the Neptune class, was sunk. Following upon these contacts, between our light forces and those of the enemy, our fleet wa» attacked by enemy aircraft over a period of four hours. An Italian High Command communique claimed that one of our aircraft carriers and one of our heavy cruisers suffered damage as a result of these attacks. In fact none of our ships suffered either damage or casualties whilst four of the enemy aircraft certainly were shot down by fighters of the Fleet Air Arm and the anti-aircraft fire of our ships and two more probably were destroyed. All our aircraft returned safely. RAID ON ISLAND BASES. “On the night of October 13, aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm attacked the port of Lago, in Dodes Lago, in the Dodecanese Islands, achieving a complete surprise. Barrackjs, workshops, hangars and a petrol tank were hit and set on fire. From this attack all our aircraft returned safely.” ACHIEVEMENTS OF SUBMARINES. “Our submarines have also achieved success recently in the Mediterranean. One submarine successfully bombarded military objectives in the port of Savona, and sank a 5000-ton armed merchant ship which was escorted by E-boats, off Genoa, and also an armed merchant ship of 3000 tons in the Vado Roads. Another submarine sank an enemy supply ship of about 3000 tons off Naples, and a third submarine sank an enemy supply ship of about 800 tons off Benghazi. “On Sunday naval units, working in co-operation with the Royal Air Force, also successfully bombed enemy troop concentrations at Sidi Barrani.”