Evening star., 1941-02-16
Military Center Of
Chisimuio Falls to
South Africans
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
CAIRO, Egypt, Feb. 13.-The Brit
ish today announced their South
African fighters, aided by a British
fleet and air force, have captured
the important italian Somaliland
port and military center Of Chisi-
maio.
Much equipment and many pris-
oners were said to have been taken,
but the chief gain was seizure of a
strategic point for Britain's apparent
effort to seal the Somaliland coast,
shutting the FaSciStS off from sup
plies and reinforcements, as she did
in Libya.
The British disclosed they still are
counting men and weapons captured
recently in the desperate Italian at
tempt to break the British Gordon
south of Bengasi when it was cap
tured.
Guns Captured.
The general headquarters COM
munique said guns captured lin the
little south of Bengasi number 103
field, two heavy anti-aircraft and
20 light anti-aircraft."
CAT Alexandria, the British
summarized the following Ital-
ian naval losses as a result of
the Bengasi campaign:
zone cruiser, destroyers, %
merchant ships, torpedo boats
and l tug.
(The old cruiser, San Giorgio,
was found burned at Tobruk,
along with destroyers and II
ships of various types sunk and
wrecked.
1.-TWO destroyers, 4 freighters
and 2 torpedo boats were found
sunk at Bengasi. The Italians
lost one 3,000-ton merchantmen
and one tug at Derna)
BY capturing ChiSimaio, on the
Indian Ocean at the mouth of the
Juba River, the South Africans had
put behind them the most difficult
country, desolate stretch of desert.
Chisimaio is about 100 miles up the
coast from the italian Somaliland-
Kenya Colony border and ahead lies
a good 250-mile coastal road to
Mogadiscio, capital and principal
port of the colony.
Marched From Kenya.
Chisimaio apparently is the bot
tom of gigantic ladder the British
have begun to climb in Italian
Somaliland. It's uprights are two
north-south roads, the one on the
coast and another inland, joined
by connecting rung-ike east-west
roads
The British said the force occupy
ing Chisimaio marched from Kenya.
This, presumably, is one force OF the
British column which began pene-
trating Somaliland in the El Wax
region. 1t advanced 70 miles in two
days from the captured inland town
of Afmadu.
Another has pushed northward
inland in the western part of the
colony near the tri-border junction
of Somaliland. Kenya and Ethiopia.
where some of the largest Fascist
military camps in Somaliland have
been reported at Dolo and Lugh.
Other Forces Along Coast.
Other Italian forces are said to
be along the coast, at Bravo, about
$50 miles north of ChiSimaio and
the next important point on the
line of the British coastal advance;
at Mogadiscio and at Illig and Ben
der Alula, harbors in northernmost
Somaliland.
ChriSimaio's submission, the Brit
iSh said, was due in part to pound
ing by Warplanes and naval forces.
They said oil tanks were ablaze, one
ship was found scuttled and three
others damaged in the port.
ThrustS into a new sector on the
edge of Italy's Ethiopian empire
also were reported by the British.
They said Queissan (Gezan), about
IS miles inside Ethiopia, and Asosa
about Is miles inside and so miles
farther south, had been captured.
Both are south of the Blue Nile in
the region west of Lake Tana.