PRESSURE ON ITALIANS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 41, 28 November 1940, Page 5

PRESSURE ON ITALIANS.

RELENTLESS GREEK ADVANCE.

CUTTING JOF COMMUNICATIONS

LONDON, November 27

Pushing forward without pause, the Greeks; are" preventing the Italians from setting up a solid defence line. And in their rear in the coastal section the Italians are being hampered, for Greek troops who have been landed on the coast are cutting communications.

The Greek night communique reports that in the Koritza sector six aeroplanes which were abandoned by the. Italians have been taken over by the Greeks, in addition to other war material. -. Italian bombers have been active, the communique adds, and have bomhccl 10 villages in Epirus and nonmilitary objectives in the islands of Corfu and Cephalonia.

A Greek. spokesman, who confirmed that Greek troops were cutting communications in the Italians’ rear, said that Italian reinforcements had failed to hold up the advance; but there is no certain information as to how far the Italians have been pushed back. Some agencies say that the Italian lino at Elbasan, 50 miles from Durazzo, is untenable.

The - Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Army (Field-Marshal Badoglio) is reported to have gone to the front, and the Fascist Party, which has been critical of. the High Command’s handling of the campaign, is said to be represented at the front by Signor Starace, Chief of Staff of the Militia. Moslems along the line of the Italian retreat are stated to he outraged by the Italian fortification of their mosques, which usually are very solid buildings. Capture of Pogradetz. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting at the entrance to the town preceded the Greek capture of Pogradetz. More than 300 Greeks were killed and 700 wounded. The Italian losses were three times as great. \ Aeroplanes of Italian “suicide squadrons” are reported to have protected 14 transports which yesterday landed new contingents at Durazzo, from where they immediately went inland.

M. Nicoloudis (Greek Minister for Information) in a broadcast, refuted Italian propaganda assertions and referred to Signor Mussolini as perhaps enjoying his last days of power. He. added: “Italian propaganda pretends that it, is not the Greeks who are the victors, but British gunners, but there is not one British gunner on the Albanian front. Britain’s immortal Navy and her admirable Air Force have reinforced Greek resistance to the invader, but the victory on the Albanian front is exclusively due to Greek bayonets. “Italian propaganda maintains that Italy declared war not against Greece but Britain, but the British, while fighting heroically against their own enemies, were not on Greek territory until several days after the Italian invasion.

“Fate has decreed that the. cause of Fascist Italy -shall collapse in ridicule, thanks to a little country enjoying a single advantage against a powerful invader—the advantage of moral and spiritual superiority.” The Salonika newspaper “Tophus” declares that the Italian general who committed suicide was General Brasco, Commander-in-Chief of .the Italian Army in Albania at, the beginning of the present war, who was succeeded bv General Soddu. •