Evening star., 1941-01-11
Germans Join Italian Air Attack
On British in Mediterranean;
4 Worships Are Reported Hit
Two Aircraft Carriers
Cruiser, Destroyer
Declared Damaged
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Germany has actively entered
the war against Britain in the
Mediterranean Basin, lendine
Italy a hand in an apparent at
tempt to offset reverSeS in NORTH
Africa and loosen the sea block,
ade.
A British naval formation, the
italian high command said today
was attacked in the Sicilian chan
mel" yesterday by cooperating
formations of Fascist and Nazi dive
bombers and torpedo planes which
shared honors in the reported dam
aging of two aircraft carriers, a
cruiser and destroyer.
For the first time" the italian
communique said, units of the Ger
man air force, in fraternal close
cooperation with the Italian air
units, participated brilliantly in the
attack, hitting one of the aircraft
carriers and the destroyer"
IL NdS dll dlIdCh vi d CONVOY
Presumably the convoy was the one
reported previously attacked in the
Western Mediterranean January 9
when the Italians said their bombs
hit British battleship. That claim
has been denied unofficially in
London.
: Five paragraphs gave details of
the Italian hits on the other aircraft
carrier and the cruiser.
Germans Tell of Operations.
At the same time the German
high command communique in Ber-
lin devoted a paragraph to the Nazi
side of the event:
German airplane formations on
January 10 for the first time par
ticipated in a fight in the Mediter-
ranean region. In this operation
several hits were scored by them on
two Warship units, among which
was an airplane carrier"
London was free OF raiders
throughout the night.
British pilots followed up yester-
days six-hour daylight drubbing of
Northern France with a hard over
night raid on the big German sub
marine base at Brest, informed
sources reported in London.
Alarms in Switzerland.
Bern and several other neutral
Swiss cities reported air alarms
shortly before dawn today. These
alarms usually indicate R. A. F.
bombers are on the way to or from
attacks in Southern Germany or
Northern Italy.
An R. A. F. communique issued in
Cairo last night said several tons
of explosives were dropped Thursday
night on the italian harbor of Mes
sina, Sicily, and that one group of
explosives fell across anchored Fas-
cist cruisers. The results were un-
determined, the communique said,
because of a smokescreen put up by
the cruisers.
British batteries were reported
pounding outlying Notifications
around the italian base of Tobruk
in Libya, with the British still mar
shalling more siege artillery brought
up from battered Bardia.
From captured Klisura, cross
roads town in South Central
Albania, Greek shock troops were
reported smashing on north and
west today in a double-pronged
drive toward the Southern AL
banian port of Valona and the oil
center of Berati.
New significance was attached to
the oft-questioned harmony of Ger
man-Russian relations by news of
the new Soviet-German trade treaty
signed yesterday in Moscow, where
by the Russians undertake to ship
great stocks Of grain, other food
stuffs and war materials to Ger
many in exchange for manufactured
articles.
A Russian communique declared
the pact gave fresh evidence of
mutual confidence"