Evening star., 1937-08-06
MYSTERY PLANES
BOMB BRITISH AND
ITALIAN STEAMERS.
LIoyds Reports Attack OFF
A|giers by Craft Dropping
40 Projecti|es.
ITALIAN COMMANDER
SERIOUSLY WOUNDED
Gasoline-Laden English Tanker
Reaches Port Safely With
Crew of 43.
BACKGROUND

Late in May Spanish government
narplanes bombed German pocket
bdttleship Deutschland of Ibiza, in
Balearic Isles, killing 26 sailors.
Previously sir Italian officers had
been killed 1rhen auxiliary naUdl
peSsel Barlettd pas bombed by
planes.
On May 81 Italy and Germany
severed relations Nth the Nom
Intervention Committee uhich had
been set up by 27 nations in an
attempt to keep Spanish ciUil 1Cdr
from spreading to rest OF Europe.
On the same day a German bat
tie squadron shelled Almeria in re-
tdliation for the liues of her sailors.
By the Associated Press.
LONDON, August 6.-Lloyds, the
British underwriters, reported from
Gibraltar today that an Italian and
a British steamer had been bombarded
by warplanes at almost the same spot
off the coast of Algeria, near war-torn
Spain.
The British tanker British Corporal
flashed an o S that she was being
bombed, later Cancelled it, and steamed
into Alglers, 60 miles southeast. Her
crew of 43 was safe and her wireless
receiver which she had reported
smashed, was repaired
The Corporal's owners we're advised
from Algiers that three monoplanes," :"
nationality unstated, bombed her for
an hour But the gasoline e-laden ship
was but slightly damaged.
One Reported Wounded.
A few hours later, Lloyds said the
italian steamer Mongolia dispatched
an S o S saying that she was bonn
barded from the air. The ship, Of
Glib tons, was bound from Genoa to
New Orleans
One Algers report, not Immediate
ly confirmed, said the Mongolia was
trying to aid the British Corporal and
that the Italian commander, one
Ferrito, was wounded seriously.
The first flash from the Corporal, en-
route from the Port of Abbadan in
the Persian Gulf to Lands End, Eng
land, said, I'VE are being bonn
barded. Hurry!"
In neither case was the aerial at
tacker identified
Dropped 40 Projectiles.
The monoplaneS bombed the Brit
fish tanker from $40 am. to els
am, dropping 40 proiectiles. None
of them made a direct hit but the
wireless apparatus Was damaged by
conclusion and the tanker was
sprayed with shrapnel.
Then, when the crew tried to take
to the boats, the planes sprayed the
decks with machine gun fire.
Beyond the S O S, nothing was
heard from the Italian ship for sew
eral hours.
Both Spanish government and in
surgent planes are based within strik-
ing distance of the scene of the
bombings.
Pleas Are Picked Up.
The tanker's pleas for assistance
were picked up both at Gibraltar by
the agent for Lloyd's, the British un-
derWriters, and at Marseille by French
radio.
The British admiralty said it had
received no official confirmation of the
bombardment in the fringe of SPANS
civil war churned waters and did not
know whether any British warships
had been sent to the vessels assist
ance.
The British Tanker Co., Ltd, own
ers Of the British Corporal, said she
was homeward bound with a full load
of gasoline from the Mesopotamia
oil port of Abbadan on the north side
Of the Persian Gulf.
The 440-foot tanker is registered out
Of London and was built at Newcastle
IN 1922.
INSURGENTS SHELL MADRID.