Taken from The Southern Star published August 10th, 1940.

Raiding Airmen

British machine bombs aerodrome in Paris suburb

Activity in Africa

There has been during the week the usual speculation as to when the invasion of Great Britain will take place and German broadcast talk of the imminence of an attack and the might of the onslaught, but so far no sign of translation into action.

Even the activity of the Reich airmen has been on a more restricted scale than usual, their raids being fewer and carried out in less strength.

On the other hand the British air onslaughts on Germany and German occupied territory seem to become more persistent and intense.

Leaflets dropped in England

IT was announced in London on Wednesday night that a British machine had bombed Le Bourget aerodrome, on the outskirts of Paris, which is now being utilised by the Germans. Similar objectives in other parts of France and Holland have also been attacked, while in north and north-western Germany, the naval bases of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, the Krupp works at Essen and other munition factories, oil plants and refineries and numbers of aerodromes continue to receive attention every night without respite.

An authoritative London statement has asserted that portion of Hamburg is in ruins as a result of the constant raids.

The German communiques claim that their airmen have been on similar errands over Britain. However, the details given convey the impression that they were scarcely of the same scope. London reports state that in their flights the Germans have dropped in many places leaflets containing Herr Hitler's recent address to the Reichstag which was supposed to contain the basis of a peace offer. The reason for this procedure is not clear but there must be some purpose behind it. On the face of it it would indicate that the Germans were under the impression the British population was being kept in ignorance of the terms of the speech in question though they must be well aware that it was published pretty fully in all the morning newspapers on the day following its delivery.

OYSTER HAVEN INCIDENT

There is not much news of attacks on shipping in the English Channel, but the following statement was issued in Dublin on Friday night of last week by the Government Information Bureau on behalf of the Department of External Affairs: "The Irish-registered vessel, Kerry Head, was attacked on August 1 near the entrance to Oyster-Haven, Co. Cork, by an aircraft identified as German.

"Several bombs were dropped near the vessel, which sustained some damage. None of the members of the crew was injured.

"The Irish Charge d'Affaires in Berlin has been instructed to lodge a protest with the German Foreign Office and claim compensation for the damage caused."

The "Kerry Head" is a small vessel of 825 tons register.

The Italian advance into Kenya in East Africa has apparently come to a standstill, but they have invaded British Somaliland, three separate columns taking three villages or towns in their march forward, while they are also said to be concentrating large forces on the Libyan border for an attack on Egypt. Curiously enough reports of these activities mainly come from British sources which feature them though at the same time indicating that the operations have a propaganda rather than a strategic motive. The Rome communiques dwell very lightly on the subject, treating the Somaliland adventure for some reason or other, almost as of no consequence.

MERCHANT SHIPPING LOSSES

The British Admiralty announced on Tuesday that for the week ending midnight July 29, eighteen British merchantmen of 65,601 tons, and two Allied vessels totalling 7,080 tons were lost owing to enemy action.

Dealing with a claim advanced by Germany that she had sunk 1,267,007 tons of British merchant shipping in the course of the last five weeks, the statement pointed out that that figure was greater than the total British mercantile marine losses since the war started almost a year ago.

It added that from the outbreak of the war up to August—the German-Italian merchant shipping losses totalled 1,198,000 tons.

Another official London announcement stated that the Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, French and Belgian vessels now taken over have increased the merchant shipping strength of Great Britain by upwards of 10,000,000 tons.

A German High Command issued during the week-end contained the following: "In the South Atlantic an engagement between a German auxiliary cruiser and the British auxiliary cruiser Alcantara took place.

"In this engagement the super-heavily armed enemy ship of 22,209 tons received serious hits, particularly in the engine room, so that the battle was broken off and the refuge sought in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro.

"The German auxiliary cruiser continued on its way, carrying out its tasks according to plan."

OBVIOUS CONCOCTION

This engagement took place over six hundred miles away from land, so that the German auxiliary cruiser could not possibly know where the "Alcantara" was "seeking refuge." She might have made for Montevideo or Buenos Aires which are equally convenient. However, after the news of the "Alcantara's" arrival in Rio de Janiero had been announced by the various news agencies, a so-called official communique incorporates that piece of information. Thus it is obvious that that part of the communique did not come from the German auxiliary cruiser at all, but was calmly concocted in Berlin.

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