ARK ROYAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 August 1941, Page 5

ARK ROYAL

DEMONSTRATION ON COAST OF SPAIN AFTER RAID ON SARDINIA. EXTENSIVE CORK FOREST SET ABLAZE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 26. A trip in the aircraft-carrier Ark Royal, which so repeatedly has been claimed sunk by both Germany and Italy, is described by a special correspondent on his return to Gibraltar. This trip, he said, had one usual and two unusual features. “The usual feature,” he said, “was that Italian warships, in spite of their superior strength, demonstrated their unwillingness to attempt attacks against the British surface craft. The unusual aspects were that we attacked and set blazing an important cork forest in north Sardinia, and we showed the Spaniards that the Ark Royal has once again been resurrected from the watery grave to which the wishfulthinking Axis communiques so often consigned her. We steamed for an hour off Valencia and gave an air display. “The suddenness of the attack on the cork forest was aptly expressed by the admiral in a congratulatory signal which said: ‘Estimate enough burnt cork to give every Nazi a Hitler moustache.’ “It is learned that several hundred 251 b explosive bombs and incendiaries were dropped over an area of 16 square miles of the forest. A cork factory was also set on fire. The raid lasted an hour, but no Italian fighters appeared and only one anti-aircraft gun went into action.

“We interrupted our homeward journey to look in on Valencia, and as we approached the Spanish coast we passed many small fishing craft whose crews must have received a tremendous shock at seeing the powerful British naval vessels steaming so near to Spain. When the morning mist lifted we could see the tall chimneys of the industrial quarter of the town, and the white houses gleaming in the sunshine. When the ships were about eight miles from the coast we turned and steamed parallel with the shore. “Fifteen of our fighters roared overhead in full view of the townsfolk, their formation making a huge V for victory; then 18 bombers escorted by fighters flew to and fro just outside the three-mile limit in V formation. While the display, which lasted for an hour, was in progress, a submarine came to the surface two to three miles ahead, and an aircraft was dispatched to look at it, but found it to be a Spanish submarine.”