Only a few planes, scouting ships investigating conditions, were heard after the first night alarm.
Twenty-five raiders were destroyed yesterday, the Air Ministry announced at 530 pin. They included 12 German and 13 Italian planes, the Air Ministry said.
Seven bombers and six fighters brought Italian, aviators were taken prisoner, Two British planes were lost, the Ministry said.
All the Italian planes shot down were of considerably lower performance than corresponding British and German planes, authoritative sources sai The Italian bombers all were Caproni 135 two-engineed planes designed for a maximum speed of 229 miles per hour, it was reported. The fighting planes were Fiat 42 biplanes, with a speed listed at 272 miles per hour.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.