English Translation

- 3 - The Australian Prime Minister stressed that Australian troops were involved in the successful battles in the western desert and stated: Our troops had been prepared for the fight for months, their excellent training and equipment enabled them to strike excellently. The hectic ital. Army report conceals the loss of Sollum and Fort Kapruzzo to the Jtalians. He speaks only of fierce fighting on the Libyan border. The Jtalieners were expelled from the so-called Hellfire Pass near Sollum. Many Italian soldiers will be a terrible memory of this Hellfire pass. They were taken under fire by the Rab and the fleet months ago, when they marched into Egypt, and they went through it in the dirt. Now, on their retreat, it was the same. Many soldiers fell on this mountain road and a lot of material was left behind. The British fighter planes are constantly carrying out patrol flights to secure the previous troops. Bardia was violently attacked yesterday evening. Jn Tobruk and 5 other Italian military posts in Libya were seriously damaged. Yn a communiqué of the air force from Cairo are given details about the activity of the British yes aircraft. The report shows that ll enemy machines were shot down. Not included are the l5 ital. Machines which fell into the hands of the British armed forces when taking Sollum. The machines had been rendered unusable during the previous British air raids. The British Air Force also carried out further attacks on Italian bases in East Africa. Jtal. Machines undertook 4 attacks on Port Sudan. The aircraft facilities were not operated and no brit. During all of the above operations, the British Air Force did not lose a single Mazchine. The Ministry of Air Navigation announces: The enemy air activity over England was only extremely low today. No part of England received reports of bombings. An enemy fighter plane was shot down this afternoon. Beromünster-frenz. The army staff informs; Jn der Nanht on the 17.l2. enemy planes dropped bombs on Basel. The Basel station was damaged and bombs also fell on places in the vicinity of Basel. There are 4 dead and several injured. The damage is significant. The Untersuchuhg about the origin of the bombb was initiated. sed ctg s eedp Report on the bombing of Basel. The Swiss political deüartement states: After the investigation the British origin of the aircraft and the British. The Swiss embassy in London has proven the origin of the bombs dropped, and is authorized to protest even more strongly when the full moon and snow offered a good view and enabled the pilots to orient themselves over the area. The embassy will demand full reparation of the damage and insist that appropriate countermeasures be taken to avoid the rebuttal of such incidents. -↓-