SURPRISE BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 March 1942, Page 3

SURPRISE BLOW

STRUCK BY THE NAVY AT RHODES 1 IN CO-OPERATION WITH AIR FORCE. HARBOUR INSTALLATIONS . SHELLED. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, March 17. A communique from the Middle East headquarters of the Royal Air Force says that bombers attacked enemy objectives at Maritza and Calato, in the Island oi Rhodes, and at Heraklion. in Crete, on the night of March 14. One of the planes is missing, but the pilot is safe. It is now revealed that units of the Royal Navy also took part in this attack and shelled important establishments in the town of Rhodes and also an E-boat base and harbour installations. The warships took the enemy completely by surprise. and the enemy continued firing only against the aircraft overhead. For ten minutes the warships bombarded the coast without opposition. Then the shore batteries opened up. but they failed to get the range, and a few minutes later the British ships slipped away under cover of a smoke screen.

HEAVY DAMAGE DONE TO ISLAND STRONGHOLD. DEFENDERS BEWILDERED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY, March 17. In the combined naval and air attack on the island of Rhodes, off > the south-west Turkish coast, the Navy has taken the Axis completely by surprise and struck a blow at important objectives, which will materially lessen the usefulness of the island stronghold. This opinion is expressed by an agency representative who was the only British correspondent to witness Saturday night’s operation. “As I write this dispatch aboard a British warship,” he said, "the fleet is slipping away in the darkness, leaving bewildered defenders still firing at the aircraft which collaborated with us. Through the smoke-screen we are laying, I can see fires burning on the island. Even after the ships began pouring shells at their targets on shore, the Italian gunners continued firing at our planes and at the flares which they dropped, apparently mistaking the bombardment for a bombing raid. Ten' minutes had passed before they fully realised what, was happening. Then the batteries opened up and shells came whistling over us, but by then, aided by the glare of flares and star shells, we had hit important establishments in the town of Rhodes and also E-boat bases and harbour installations. There were believed to be a nunjber of flyingboats in the harbour. Perfect co-ord-ination between the Navy and the R.A.F. was a feature of this combined operation. We sailed early and it was not. until late in the afternoon, wnen the captain made an announcement over -the ship's loud-speaker, that we knew why we had put to sea. To reach the objectives we had to sail well into the narrow enemy waters off Rhodes or between Rhodes and Turkey.”