HEAVY TOLL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1941, Page 5

HEAVY TOLL

TAKEN OF ENEMY SHIPPING IN MEDITERRANEAN BY BRITISH SUBMARINES & AIRCRAFT. NUMBER OF VESSELS SUNK. LONDON, July 14. Still furl her successes by British submarines in the Mediterranean are reported in an Admiralty communique. As a result of these operations five enemy vessels were accounted for. An Italian tanker of 5,000 tons was sunk while proceeding from Istanbul to- an Italian ].iorl for repairs. It had earlier put into Istanbul seriously damaged by torpedo attack by one of our submarines. A heavily laden supply ship of -5.500 tons was sunk while sailing escorted by an armed merchant ship and destroyer. A large sailing vessel carrying troops and stores in the Aegean Sea was sunk. Another submarine attacked by gunfire an enemy anchorage near Benghazi and a supply ship of about 1,500 tons and an armed trawler were certainly damaged and probably sunk. Enemy shipping has also been attacked by the R.A.F. A 7,000-ton vessel was destroyed off Tripoli, in North Africa, yesterday, during an attack on an enemy convoy. A three-masted schooner carrying oil or munitions was blown up and another vessel was damaged. Several large bombs were also dropped on enemy shipping in harbour. From these and other operations in the Mediterranean, during which an enemy plane was shot down, all the British planes returned safely.