YUGOSLAVS' FIGHT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1944, Page 6

YUGOSLAVS' FIGHT

FREE STATES THE AIM I 36 Nazi And Satellite Divisions Kept Occupied X.Z. Press Association—Copyright I Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 13 Thirty-six German and satellite I divisions are at present doing their \ utmost on seven fronts to crush th i Partisan armies of Yugoslavia, said ; Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Dedier j who has been attached to j Tito's staff for two years and a half ! He is now recuperating at Cairn I from severe head injuries. In a special article distributed bv I the Associated Press he asserts that ! more German divisions are ! in Yugoslavia than on any frmjt j except Russia. '"Although the Parti j sans are fighting without'heavy artil" I lery, anti-aircraft guns or tanks we j have carried out an offensive* even i against the German main j On January 1 of this year we broke I through the German defences at Ban I jaluka. the headquarters of the ! Second German Armoured Corps. "This German base has been liquid. 1 ated. 2000 Germans being killed and i several hundred captured. When the I task was accomplished the Partisans : withdrew as the town could not be J defended against new German tank I divisions. This victory was achieved ! entirely with armaments captured i from the enemy when the peonle rose three years ago against Hitler I Only every tenth men had a shot J gun or out-dated rifle. Many Women in Front Line ''There were many fighting women iin the front line* in the a«ault j against Banjaluka. some of whom i were expert with hand-grenades I Women also hold certain commands' ! Our liberated territory i≤ now more j than half of Yugoslavia. Our Army : has increased from 100.000 to 300,000. "Our peoples, the Serbs. Croats Slovenes. Macedonians and Montenegrins at the finish of our war of

independence will form a free demi cratic federal State in accordance with the Atlantic Charter, allowing all free people the right to choose their own form of Government at free elections. "For this principle our people have spilled rivers of blood and are still fighting to-day."