WHITE FLAG HOISTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 June 1943, Page 3

WHITE FLAG HOISTED

PROMPT LANDING BY BRITISH TROOPS German Dive-Bombing Attacks BEATEN OFF BY AMERICAN FIGHTERS STRONG NAVAL SQUADRON SUPPORTS OCCUPYING FORCE LONDON, June IL British troops landed on Pantelleria at noon today, soon after the Italians had hoisted the white flag. Within 24 minutes all the first objectives had been occupied. Between 50 and 60 German dive-bombers attacked the British troops as they were landing tanks and other equipment. American fighting planes dashed at the enemy aircraft and forced them to drop their bombs at random. Not one of the British vessels engaged was hit, though bombs fell all round them. There was a little resistance • from some of the Axis troops, who had not been told of the surrender. A strong British naval force, including cruisers and destroyers, supported the troops. When Flying Fortresses went over the island this morning to give it another battering they saw the white cross of surrender on the aerodrome and a white flag flying on a nearby hill. When the crews saw the flags they flew back to their base without dropping their bombs. The air onslaught on the island reached a climax yesterday when the North-West African Air Force dropped more bombs than it dropped in the whole of April on targ’ets in Tunisia, Sardinia, Sicily and Italy. When the order finally came to surrender, the whole island was enveloped in thick clouds of smoke. This is the first occasion on which an enemy fortress has been reduced by attack from the air. The attack smashed and pounded the airfield into uselessness, put all ships in the harbour out of commission and silenced the gun emplacements one after another.