London, June 12.
The Allied navies moved swiftly yesterday to tie up the Italian Fleet and barricade the Italian Empire's Mediterranean life lines by mining ten strategic areas, These areas were "rendered dangerous to shipping," the Admiralty warned, The mining was designed to cripple important Italian naval bases and ship building centres, including Venice, Trieste, Taranto, Brindisi and Polo, as well as to hamper communications between Italy, Libya and the Dodecanese Islands.
Although the mine fields were. obviously not complete, the Admiralty's announcement indicated that the mine laying was in progress and that the first mines had already been The Admiralty's announcement said mine fields had been laid in the Gulf of Venice from Garo to Polo, covering Venice, Trieste and Polo.
Another mine field covers the whole of Italy, including Brindisi and Bari, the Admiralty announced. Mines were also placed in Taranto Gulf to cover Metaponto.
The Admiralty said mines were also laid from the east oast of Sicily to Messina Straits and others cover the entire Libyan coast. Still others, the Admiralty continued stretch from the Dodecanese Islands to Rhodes, covering the Italian naval base at Leros—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.