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Show Planes, U-pcqSs Attack Peas' . Sea Breadline England Declares Royal Air Force ""Scouts Berlin by Night; Naval War Takes Neutral Toll LONDON, March 1 (AP) Bomben and submarines, Germany' Ger-many' twin weapon of attrition against Britain' tea-born breadline. truck telling blow at British and neutral hlppLig ' today. An authoritative British source acknowledged that a British convoy con-voy had been attacked at sea, nad planes raided the east coast from the mouth of the Thame to the fog-bound coast of Yorkshire and the 7418-ton British liner Pyrrhua was reported sunk off the west coast of England. The Pyrrhus was reported sunk by "enemy action," presumably by a submarine. t Meanwhile, Britain announced that her big reconnaissance planes had flown during the night over Berlln-and other German cities In the most extensive scouting flight f th war. Aa authoritative source said a convoy had been attacked, but "no ships were hit" It was understood under-stood the attack took plaos ome way out" over the sea too fsr for British fighters to go into action effectively. J Claim Vessels Bunk (The official German newV agency, DNB, asserted that Ger-V, man bombers had attacked "numerous" British warships, con- voys and armed merchantmen today, to-day, dlsperainr a convoy and eink-tng eink-tng several lare ships.) Cautfht In tae b-- n s- 1 r fun auacks on trans vnn n i i British said were fmhing emit the Norwegian steamer Brott, 1j i ' tons, bombed from the air and escorted, es-corted, listing badly. Into aa e t , coast port Six of her men were adrift on a raft and two others were picked up. (Norwegian Foreign Minister Halvdan Koht said only yesterday -that Norway was protesting against German attacks on Norwegian Nor-wegian vessel.) The 6340-ton Italian steamer Mlrella, plying normally between Rotterdam and Italy, sank within two minutes after striking a mine 14 mile off the Suffolk coast last night, and today two of her lifeboats life-boats reached the coast, bearing 14 men suffering from exposure . and the body of one of their mates who had died. Eleven others axe missing.' Bring Aaawerlng Fir i Nazi raids on the coast .brought antiaircraft guns on the Thames estuary into action, but at the moment mo-ment that headlines In ail evening newspapers were telling of attacks there the air ministry denied there had been enemy activity la that region today. An officially approved statement said of the flight over Germany that they were the longest of the war, ranging from six to ten hour. All craft returned safely without encountering enemy opposition "either In the air or on the ground," the Matment said. The captain of one plane report- ' ed that he had Identified aa "important "im-portant railway junction" south of Berlin and dropped flares before be-fore continuing on to the capital, France was disclosed today to have loat two cargo boat by German Ger-man action In mid-February. Burgeoning of aerial activity la the half-year-old war lent point to the comment of a British aviation avia-tion source which said German air attacks oa shipping "apparently (Coattnutf e Pass Til O'OlllW ?!) NEUTRAL SHIPS CAUGHTIII WAR (CaatlaM Tnm Past OM) are part of a long term attempt to bleed Britain whit." "The essence of the German plan." aald the British aviation authority, au-thority, "seems to be to strike at Britain in a way in which Germany cannot well be struck in return and to refrain from measures which would invite Immediate and overwhelming over-whelming counterattack." Failure of Germany to launch mass attacks which Great Britain expected hourly during the first weeks of the war has bolstered confidence In the nation's antiaircraft antiair-craft defense and has permitted expansion of the British air force without disturbance of major fighting. Britons apparently are beginning to believe that even if the German air force la capable of mass raids on Britain, it is refraining either because Germany cannot afford to expend men and materials or for fear of reprisals. Tbe comparatively late start made by the British and French In "serious air rearmament" waa described de-scribed aa paradoxically an advantage. advan-tage. Germany's big sir fleet already la built, said a British aviation observer, and consequently it is becoming obsolete, while the allies al-lies "have gained In modernity of design what they lacked in numbers." num-bers." Even though mass bombing attacka have not developed, the British government has been periodically pe-riodically warning the public that an aerial "blitzkrieg" might come with the warm weather of spring, and has continued to move hundreds hun-dreds of clerks out of London to disperse the machinery of government govern-ment in the event of air raids. , The extent of expansion of the fighting force on land, sea and in the air la cloaked in wartime secrecy, but the navy is known to be increasing Its strength at a rate in excess of the "one new ship every week" program disclosed dis-closed last year. It haa borne the brunt of the war thus far, with 30 naval vessels acknowledged lost and about 3000 men killed In a three-dimensional struggle against mines and submarines, subma-rines, surface craft and aerial raiders. A merchant ship convoy system, adopted in the first week of the war, waa described as a success, with only a score of ships lost out of about 9000 convoyed. The cost of this snd the other war efforts isn't often mentioned these days. Taxation takes at least 37 per cent of everyone's Income to help provide the 6.000.000 pound (nearly (24.000.000) a day, which the war is costing. |