HITTING HARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 July 1942, Page 4

HITTING HARD

— - ALLIED AIR FORCES IN EGYPT ATTACK ON FUKA AERODROME. AND ON ENEMY CONVOY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, July 21. The heavy R.A.F. attack yesterday on Fuka, when, according to a correspondent broadcasting from Egypt, over 100 light bombers, fighter-bomb-ers and fighters attacked the aerodrome, eclipsed the previous assault on El Daba. A very large number of aircraft on the ground were wrecked, said the broadcaster. A Cairo communique stated that there were about thirty aircraft on the ground, and it appears that not one of the many machines parked on the landing ground escaped entirely without damage. The correspondent also states that off the coast, at Sidi Barrani, the R.A.F. spotted one tanker, two schooners, and, escorting them, one E-boat, one Messerschmitt and one CR 42. The Italian fighter dived into the sea as soon as our aircraft approached. The E-boat put up anti-aircraft fire, but within a few minutes we had two barges and the tanker ablaze. The correspondent states that while both armies have paused in their violent battle, the Allied combined air force is hitting the enemy as hard, if not harder than before, and that the raid on Mersa Matruh took the enemy completely by surprise. From all operations throughout the Middle East, six R.A.F. aircraft are missing, but two pilots are safe.