6th/7th. One 600 ton merchant vessel was hit off CAPE BON and another 6,000 ton ship southbound was torpedoed off SFAX. One Swordfish is missing. 7 Wellingtons bombed SIRTE. MALTA. 6th and 7th. A total of 99 enemy bombers and fighters attacked HAL FAR and damaged some buildings. One enemy fighter was destroyed by A.A. fire. BURMA. 6th. 6 Lysanders, with fighter escort, bombed and machine gunned jetties and the railway station at MOULMEIN. On the 5th/6th, 13 enemy bombers attacked MINGALAD00 without causing serious damage and on the 6th-7th RANGOON was raided. Our fighters destroyed 4 bombers and probably destroyed two more. SINGAPORE. 7th. Heavy air raids reported on following areas: CHANGI R.E. Stores Depots. KALLANG aerodrome and GEYLANG - Eastern suburbs. An R.E. explosives dump was hit and the railway station damaged. One enemy bomber was destroyed and one probably destroyed. JAVA. 6th. SOURABAYA was again attacked and some damage caused. 4. There are indications of increased Japanese activity on the SALWEEN River about 100 miles north of MOULMEIN and on the SIAM-BURMA frontier north of CHIENG MAI. Also of Japanese troop convoys near the ANAMBAS ISLANDS at BALIK-PAPAN and off the south west promontory of the CELEBES. 5. On the 3rd and 4th, three French ships arrived at TUNIS and another was discharged there. All four have previously been reported as carrying lorries and supplies from MARSEILLE to TUNIS destined for LIBYA 6. Passenger train services have recently been still further reduced throughout German occupied and controlled territory, the immediate reasons varying between operating difficulties due to severe weather, essential military movements and transportation of fuel and food and coal shortage. While these reasons are plausible and correct as short term explanations, the scale and the extent of these reductions reflect the increasin %g strain upon the European railway system. 7. The recent arrival of two more enemy cargo ships at ISTANBUL and the accumulation there of cargo for both GERMANY and ITALY suggests a resumption of regular sea traffic between TRIESTE and ISTANBUL. 8. A German ship recently arrived at FERROL with a cargo ef 6,900 tons believed to be rubber. It now seems clear that the Spanish have given permission to the Germans to tranship this cargo for transportation in German motor barges to BAYONNE. CORRECTION TO OPTEL No. 41. Page 4, para 4, line 4. Read "One of the biggest Cinemas". |