ITALIAN PLANES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 March 1941, Page 6

ITALIAN PLANES

DESTROYED IN ETHIOPIA SUCCESSFUL SOUTH AFRICAN OPERATIONS. LAND FORCES CONTINUE TO ADVANCE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.0 a.m.) RUGBY. March IG. An official communique issued at headquarters at Nairobi states: "The South African Air Force destroyed eight Italian aircraft at Diredawa yesterday morning. Three enemy fighters, comprising a CR42 and two DR43’s. were shot down in aerial combat. Two 579 bombers and three Romeo R 137 reconnaissance aircraft were attacked on the ground and burned out." A communique issued from headquarters at Cairo states; "In Libya and Eritrea there is nothing to report. British forces operating in Abyssinia from Italian Somaliland continue to advance on all sectors.” • ACTIVITY IN ERITREA ENEMY TRANSPORT SUFFERS HEAVILY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.25 a.m.) RUGBY. March 16. An R.A.F. Middle East communique reports: "There was considerable air activity in the Keren region in Eritrea yesterday and on the previous night. Enemy troops and gun positions were bombed and machinegunned. while motor transport on the Keren-Asmara road was so harassed by aii- attack that it was compelled to halt. /X. train of from 30 to 40 trucks was machine-gunned and set on fire. It was still burning fiercely 2! hours afterwards, with frequent explosions. From all these operations all of our machines returned.”