Evening star., 1940-10-04
Bigger Italian Force
Runs From Encounter
With British Fleet
Fuscists Make OFF us
English Man Bottle
Stations for q Fight
By RICHARD MOWRER,

ny LNAo AsAAss
Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
WITH THE BRITISH FLEET IN
THE MEDITERRANEAN, Oct. A.
For several days I have been at sea
with a portion of Great Britain's
Mediterranean fleet. The admiral
had an assignment in the Central
Mediterranean. With battleships,
aircraft carriers, cruisers and de-
stroyers, ne carried it out without
notable interference from the 1tal-
lars, although, on the second day
out, the Italian naval forces, su-
perior in numbers and endowed with
greater speed, could have engaged
his squadron. But they did not
choose to do so.
Two facts stand out from this
1 300 mile cruise. The first is that
even under the most favorable
weather conditions, the Italian Navy,
for some reason, is avoiding contact
with the British fleet. The second
is that the presence of an aircraft
carrier with a squadron makes a
tremendous difference in dealing
with enemy air attacks.
During the cruise the planes from
the carrier shot down three Italian
machines, while a fourth was shot
down by the anti-aircraft guns.
Normally the feet would have been
bombed many times. The presence
of the aircraft carrier discouraged
the enemy's pombers and its fight
ing planes kept others from coming
anywhere near the fleet.
Shadowing Planes Feiled.
On the morning of the first day
out, the fleet was shadowed by an
enemy plane. The carrier turned
into the wind and three long-nosed
fighters took OF. Ten minutes later
a great plume of gray smoke rose
from the horizon astern and the
three fighters returned to the car
rier. That was the end of the
enemy snooper. Later. one of the
cruisers behind us opened fire but
from the bridge of our destroyer,
which was operating as part of the
anti submarine screen ahead OF the
big ships, I couldn't make out why.
I LEARNED afterwards that an Italian
seaplane from Rhodes had at
tempted torpedo bombing attack
but was driven away.
Later the same day, we learned
of the presence of enemy planes
coming in our direction. Again our
carrier turned into the wind, the
destroyers performing aquatic aero
battles simultaneously to maintain
screen coverage. Again the
fighters took of from the, carriers
broad flight deck; again we were
treated to the sight of a distant
column of smoke rising skyward and
the three fighters returning to their
nest. This time no destroyer was
dispatched to pick up possible sur
vivors.. The submarine screen had
had to stick to its job.
Bomber Shot Down
s.~EAe ahead we could Just makeout
4txnget airarm' s pixnes keepfnE
lookout watch. In the afternoon
enemy planes again approached.
This time one enemy formation got
past the British fighters. Giant
Sa&sT6pouts, mingled with brown
smoke, suddenly leapt out of the sea
among the ships astern. Our AA
guns opened up and the first salvo
scored q hit. Nose down, a Savoia
bomber began a long, twisting dive,
turning on itself as if following the
twist Of an invisible corkscrew. It
did not catch fire. The propeller of
the port engine was almost idling
before the machine crashed into the
sea.
Below some clouds two parachutes
hung in the Sky-two of the bomb
ers normal crew of five had bailed
out. From the destroyer's bridge I
could just make out faint splash
when one of the dangling men and
then the other hit the water. For
at least 10 minutes the billowing
parachutes sat on the sea like a
couple of white mushrooms. A de-
stroyer was sent to pick up the men.
! wondered if 1t would reach them
before the chutes finally collapsed
and sucked the men under. I later
learned that one of the italian flyers
was found drowned, with his leg
tangled in his chute when picked up
by the destroyer. He was given a
sea burial. The other was dragged
down by his chute in the swirling
water as the destroyer maneuvered
to approach.
There was another air attack. For
a moment waterspouts and the
smoke of what one British tar re-
ferred to as quite a packet" COM
pletely hid the battleship. Then we
saw the bow emerge from the smoke,
then the whole ship, unscathed, was
moving along just as before.
The first news that the italian
fleet was at sea reached us at noon
of the second day out. One report
u