BIG GREEK ATTACK

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23204, 16 December 1940, Page 7

BIG GREEK ATTACK

Advance North Of Pogradetz

IMPORTANT GAIN ANNOUNCED

(UNITED TRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 15, 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, December 15, Reports from the Albanian border indicate that the bloodiest fighting of the war has broken out on the northern front. The battlefield north-west of Pogradetz is strewn with dead.

Artillery fire was opened on the whole north front early in the morning and the Greeks threw their troops forward under the cover of a heavy barrage against fortified Italian positions, attacking with particular violence in the Devol valley and the Shkumbi valley.

The Greeks are advancing slowly under very heavy fire north-west and north of Pogradetz. Big guns, both Italian and Greek, are roaring continuously from Moskopolis to Lake Ochrida. Italian bombers are very active on the whole north front.

The Greeks are using tractors and snow-ploughs in an effort to push on to exploit fully the Impetus of each local victory. .

Italian prisoners bring talcs of desperate chaos in the Italian provisioning. The breakdown of this resulted in large numbers of soldiers being found dead from hunger.

The Greek communique issued last night said that the offensive was proceeding successfully. Important heights had been occupied and many prisoners, fit) anti-tank rifles, mortars and other arms had been captured.

An Athens spokesman said that the new heights captured were the last Italian stronghold.

The Tepeleni correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph” says the Greeks here have taken a mountain which was a formidable barrier to their advance to Valona, separating the Tepeleni area from the coastal region. The Greeks are now confronted by a series of hills sloping to the coast at right angles to this mountain, thus facilitating their advance and further gravely circumscribing the Italians. A Greek military spokesman said that Italian prisoners, not including the most recent captures, totalled 200 officers and 7000 other ranks. The booty included 120 guns, 55 anti-tank guns,

230 motor-cars, 15,000 motor-cycles and bicycles, many tanks, thousands of automatic arms, many pack and haulage animals, and vast quantities of munitions and other materials amounting in value to millions of pounds.

It was later stated that the Italians were reported to have evacuated Khimara and were falling back towards Valona.

A large part of Tcpeleni is stated to be ablaze.

A dispatch from Greek Army Corps Headquarters near the Greek-Albanian frontier says that on Friday the Italians, for the first time since the Greeks began to hurl them back on November 12, counter-attacked in the snow in the mountains north-west of Premeti, but they were repulsed after a five-hour battle, with heavy losses. Advance in South The Greek forces in the south have accelerated their advance and now menace Khimara. The Italians, concentrating on the heights in front of Khimara, drafted in fresh troops to relieve the units worn out with the rapid retreat and the relent less Greek attacks, but the Greeks quickly dealt serious blows to these troops, A Greek column on the coast has joined up with a column pursuing the Italians from Argyrokastron which was already two miles from Tepeleni. The two Greek columns together occupied Borci, three miles from Porto Palermo. Thus Ihe Greeks have full lateral communication from the coast to the region of Klisura.

The Italians, therefore, face formidable forces on what is possibly their last effective defence positions before Valona. The “Daily Telegraph” points out that it is difficult to see how Valona can be held it these defences fall.

, The Greeks entirely wiped out an Italian regiment which crossed a ravine not knowing that the Greeks held the commanding heights. The Italians came under a withering fire. Greek infantry later went down to clear the ravine, but found not a single Italian alive.

The Ankara radio stated on Friday that the capture of Valona was only a matter of days. This might become a stepping stone to the‘downfall of the Fascist regime. . The brilliance of the Greek victories since the campaign began is well indicated by a comparison issued by the Greek High Command of the strength of the opposing forces on October 28, when the Italians began their attack.’ In the coastal sector the Italians had one army corps, consisting of three divisions, three regiments of cavalry, one regiment of grenadiers, and 18 batteries of heavy artillery. The Greeks had one division.

In the Pindus area, in the central sector, the Italians had one division of Alpini, reinforced by heavy artillery. The Greeks had one regiment and one battalion.

In the northern sector, the Italians had one army corps of three divisions, two Albanian battalions, eight batteries of heavy artillery, and a section of tanks. The Greeks had one division and one brigade.