Cairo, June 5.
A "highly successful" aerial attack on an enemy convoy is recorded in an RAF. Middle East communique. It states that as a result of reconnaissance R.A.F. bombers yesterday attacked a convoy of enemy merchant vessels escorted by destroyeis which were proceeding southwards off the Tunisien coast.
One ship of about 8:000 tons blew vp with such tremendous force that flying debris hit and damaged other ships in the convoy. The debris also struck one of the bombers which crashed in the sea. Direct hits were Tegistered on another ship in the convoy of about 5,000 tons and it was left burning. Other vessels were damaged.
An Italian three-engined. aircraft was shot down by British fighters into the sea at Malta. The crew was last seen on the wing of the machine.
In Cyrenaica South African fighters machine-gunned a number of planes on a landing ground at Gambut, destroying them. Benghazi was raided again during the night of June 2 and large fires were started on the moles and among military buildings.
Petrol dumps at Beirut in Syria were bombed and maching-gunned by British aircraft, on Tuesday.
Enemy positions in Abyssinia, particularly at Debarech. were attacked. From all these operations two planes are missing. Two aircraft reported missing in the communique of June 2 and 3 are now known to have returned safely—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.