FALL OF PALMYRA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1941, Page 5

FALL OF PALMYRA

IMPORTANT ALLIED GAIN IN SYRIA VIGOROUS AIR ATTACKS ON BEIRUT. DAMAGE DONE TO SHIPPING & MOTOR TRANSPORT. LONDON, July 3. In Syria, the important town of Palmyra has fallen to Allied forces, by whom it had been completely encircled for some days. It was officially announced in Jerusalem this afternoon that Palmyra had surrendered. It stands 150 miles north-east of Damascus, on the Tripoli branch of the Iraq oil pipe line. No other major change has taken place in the situation in Syria. Allied patrols are steadily increasing their offensive activities. The R.A.F. and the Royal Australian Air Force last night bombed Vichy shipping and the port at Beirut and attacked motor transport near the town. Transport vehicles were destroyed on the coast road. An Ame-rican-built plane was shot down last night over Haifa. BRITISH COLUMN ADVANCE IN EUPHRATES VALLEY. VICHY REPORTS INCREASED PRESSURE. LONDON, July 3. An intensification of British pressure in the Syrian desert is reported in a Vichy communique, which added that a strong British motorised column from Iraq made contact with the Vichy forces defending Deir Ez Zor, after advancing along the Euphrates. The Vichy communique says that advanced British posts in the Jezzin sector retreated under pressure from Vichy patrols and that the. R.A.F. continued to borhb Beirut. It is learned in Cairo that about two-thirds of the Vichy tanks engaged in an unsuccessful counter-attack at Nebk were destroyed. PASSAGE OF TROOPS REPORTED FRENCH REQUEST TO TURKEY. LONDON, July 2. A report' from Washington states that Vichy is pressing the Turkish Government to permit French reinforcements to pass through Turkey into Syria.

It is suggested that this is the real reason for the presence in Ankara of Marshal Petain’s envoy, who is stated to have carried a personal message to the Turkish Prime Minister.

It is stated that Turkey has refused the Vichy request.