NAVY’S GREAT PART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1943, Page 3

NAVY’S GREAT PART

IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CAMPAIGN 4 DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY SHIPPING. MR CHURCHILL’S MESSAGE OF CONGRATULATION. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 12. The Mediterranean was reopened by British mine-sweepers last month. The extent of Allied domination of that sea which led to this result is shown by the disclosure in a message of congratulation on the Navy’s work, which was sent by Mr Churchill to Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham that the Axis lost one-third of its shipping in the Tunisian campaign, while the Allies lost just over 2 per cent of the vast convoys which carried and maintained their North African armies. Mr Churchill said: “The daring and devotion of our submarines succeeded in sinking 47 ships, and the surface forces sank 42 ships, an aggregate total of 268,600 tons. When to this is added the sinkings by air, a grand total of 137 ships of 433,400 tons is reached. This is 32 per cent of the estimated shipping initially available to the Axis at the bineginning of the Tunisian campaign. “During the long struggle on the mainland the Navy and Air Force, working in closest co-operation, sank 21 enemy destroyers or torpedo-boats, and many small craft, and prevented 35 per cent of the enemy supply ships and transports from reaching Tunisia. “To the mine-sweepers fell the honour of reopening the Mediterranean by clearing channels 600 miles long between May 9 and 21. The protection of our own convoys was carried to the very highest point, and the losses between November 8 and May 5 were less than 2J per cent. Motor torpedoboats in the first fortnight in May sank nine enemy ships with a loss of four. Destroyers with motor torpedo-boats and cruisers in support made a close blockade round the Tunisian tip in the final phase, through which practically nothing was able to pass and the prospects of a Dunkirk were denied to the enemy. “All this could not have been accomplished without the support of battleships, aircraft-carriers and cruisers, which were denied the meeting with the Italian battle fleet they so ardently desired.”

OFFER TO SURRENDER RECEIVED BY SOLITARY AIRMAN. AFTER FORCED LANDING ON LAMPEDUSA. LONDON, June 12. The British United Press and Associated Press correspondents at an advanced North African base report another account of the surrender. They state that when Sergeant Pilot Cohen of the R.A.F. made a forced landing cn Lampedusa Island today while the island was still Shuddering under the blast of Allied bombs Italians with a white flag rushed toward him shouting, "Can’t you do something about this?" The Italians, to Cohen s amazement, offered him the surrender of the island, which he accepted. Cohen, during his flight from Malta, had landed on Lampedusa because Im was short of petrol. The engine of his plane had been working badly, but trie vibration from the Allied bombs inexplicably righted the engine. Cohen, after sheltering for two hours from the Allied bombs, induced the Italians to refuel his plane, and he flew oil to a North African uase to report the island’s surrender. Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says the Italian garrison on Lampedusa is. estimated to be about 3000.