HEROIC STRUGGLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 234, 3 October 1942, Page 5

HEROIC STRUGGLE

YUGOSLAV GUERILLAS Reports Of Patriot Activities In Europe Rec. noon. LONDON, Oct. 2. There is further news to-day of the heroic struggle of patriots in occupied Europe. The Moscow radio reports that six divisions of the Italian army in Yugoslavia suffered heavily in recent attacks against territory which guerillas had liberated in Slovenia. The Italians gained little success, although they were supported by tanks and artillery. Stout guerilla resistance also defeated a recent attack by about 2000 Germans and Croats in the region of the Kupa River, on the SloveneCroat border. The attackers retreated after 15 days' fighting. A party of guerillas in the same region forced the garrison of a Croat village to surrender practically without resistance. Two hundred were made prisoners. Another party of guerillas captured several truckloads of grain from the Croats and handed over the grain to the local population. A Yugoslav guerilla detachment, which crossed the Sava River early in September, successfully attacked the oil wells in the Kupa region, wiped out the German and Croat garrison, set fire to the wells and destroyed most of the buildings and machinery. French Resist Conscription The Moscow radio also stated that youths in Alsace Lorraine were strenuously resisting conscription for the German Army. A group killed three Germans, who were attempting forcibly to take them to a conscription office. Laval is organising special French storm troops to suppress the patriotic movement in France. A special board, headed by General Bridoux. has been «et up under the War Ministry to train troops on similar lines to Hitler's Black Guards. This decision was reached on instructions from Berlin demanding more determined steps to maintain internal order. French officers and men openly demonstrated against their new role, and several dozen were arrested.

An independent Belgian news agency states that a bomb was thrown into a guardroom occupied by Rexist guards at the Nagant Works in Liege, which is manufacturing war material. A number were wounded when another bomb extensively damaged the German Labour Exchange at Liege. Details have reached Norwegian circles in London about the fate of 450 political prisoners recently taken by the Germans from a concentration camp at Grini to northern Norway says the British Official Wireless'. They included O. Nansen, a son of the famous explorer, and a number of clergymen.

The prisoners were loaded into sealed cattle trucks and had a 35 hours journey to Trondheim, where ™^ y i t^ ere PPut. ut . on a steamer under £" s -> slmi J ar to th °se on the hell ship used for the deportation of Norwegian teachers. Several of the prisoners died on the journev.

CIVIC GUARD

Rec. 9.30 a.m. RUGBY, Oct. 2. London is to have a city civic guard as an invasion defence. Volunteers, men and women, must be prepared at a certain stage of the invasion defence precautions, to remain in the city and be available for duties until the threat of danger is over.