AGAIN RAIDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 June 1941, Page 5

AGAIN RAIDED

HARBOUR OF BENGHAZI DIVE-BOMBERS SHOT DOWN AT TOBRUK. MORE PRISONERS ROUNDED UP IN ABYSSINIA. LONDON. Juno 3. Another raid was macle by the R.A.F. on Benghazi on Sunday night. At Tobruk anti-aircraft gunfire shot down two German divebombers. Today’s communique states that there is no change on any front. Another 650 Italian prisoners have been rounded up in Abyssinia. The R.A.F.. South African Air Force and Free French units have effectively bombed the enemy near Gondar. LATEST CAPTURES REMAINDER OF BATTALION. (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) LONDON. June 3. It is authoritatively stated that the remainder of the Sixteenth Italian Colonial Battalion in the Soddu area, amounting to 650 prisoners, have been rounded up. HEROIC EFFORTS BY ENGINEERS OF IMPERIAL ARMY. FIGHT AGAINST FLOODS IN ABYSSINIA. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.25 a.m.) RUGBY, June 3. Working up to their necks in rising Abyssinian rivers, with currents running more than six miles an hour, the Engineers of the Imperial Army combated floods in Southern Abyssinia and defeated the efforts of the Italians to stay the advance by bridge demolitions. A Nairobi message states that bridges have been rebuilt although in many cases the piles were turned down to below the surface of the water, which rose with great rapidity after every downpour. Engineers were putting up landing stages at a small town in Southern Abyssinia when the river rose. A laconic telegram was sent to headquarters: "Compelled to discontinue work, as stage is twenty feet below water.' 1 A ferry cable broke when a vehicle laden with stores was being transported across a river. Sappers were thrown into the water. One, who could not swim, was rescued by his comrades. Eventually a new bridge was launched, but at midnight there was a torrential downpour and flood debris were hurled against the bridge. The water went over it and the suspension cable parted. The bridge went off down stream, leaving eight men marooned on the other side. When daylight came, the storm ended and an officer navigated a frail flatbottomed boat across the swollen river to rescue his men.