Evening star., 1941-09-29
; Merchant Vessels
In Convoy Also Are
Declared Sent Down
BY the Associated Press.

~ SA'N FASooSANNCd 4 Atont
ROME. Sept. 29.-In a sudden
burst of violent air and sea fight
ing, italian torpedo planes have
sunk three British cruisers and
at least three merchantmen in a
11ine-hOur attack on Mediter-
ranean convoy, and the British
have answered with an all-out
bombing offensive against Italy,
the high command reported
today.
Wave after wave of Italian planes
pounced on the British convoy sail
ing eastward from Gibraltar Satur-
day, keeping up the attack on it
despite fierce sky fighting in which
British planes were shot flaming
into the sea and eight Italian planes
-ere lost. the high command said.
The British. it said, raided four
cities Of the Italian mainland. four
in Sicily. and blasted at the island
of Rhodes and the North African
coast last night, one of the most
intensive air raid incursions the
Italians have experienced.
Score for Battle Given.
A special communique gave this
score for the battle which. it said,
churned the waters of the mid
Mediterranean from l pm. to 10
pm. Saturday with Italian torpedo
planes striking repeatedly at the
aircraft carrier, battleship, cruisers
and at least 10 destroyers guarding
the British convoy:
Sunk: Two heavy cruisers, one
light cruiser and three merchant
men.
Possibly sunk: One merchantmen.
Damaged: A battleship, another
Large undetermined unit" six
smaller units and a destroyer.
Battleship Named as Nelson.
The radio identified the battleship
as the 33,950-ton Nelson, one of
Britain's newest and biggest capital
ships up to the start of the war.
Gan Admiralty communique
In London earlier said a British
Mediterranean convoy which was
attacked by Italian planes had
reached its destination with only
one merchant ship lost and one
destroyer damaged The Ad-
miralty had no comment to make
on these later Italian claims.
(The merchant ship was dam
aged too badly to continue and
was sunk by the British them
selves. the Admiralty said, and
the destroyer's damage was not
sufficient to impair its fighting
capacityD
Two Of the merchantmen were
torpedoed by light Italian war YES
sells, the communique said, one in
the narrow pass between Sicily and
the African north coast, and the
other off the Algerian coast The
two sunk by Launched torpedoes
were said to have gone down be-
tween Sardinia and Tunisia and to
have aggregated $4,000 tons.
In the furious air battles, the
special communique acknowledged,
the colonel commanding the Ital-
ian operation and three squadron
commanders must be considered as
having fallen at the head of their
formations"
Eleven Killed in r. A. F. Raids.
The raids on Italy and Sicily
killed II persons and injured 33,
while IL casualties were caused at
Rhodes, where bombs fell on a hos
pital and civilian residences, a COM
munioue declared.
In addition, 10 persons were re-
ported injured by splinters from
italian anti-aircraft shells on the
mainland and two others were killed
In traffic accidents-apparently the
result Of blackouts.
The Italians said one British
raider was shot down over Italy and
four over North Africa, while two
others were reported destroyed over
the central Mediterranean by Ital-
ian fighters.
The Fascist air force, meanwhile,
(See RAIDS, Page ARD