GERMAN HASTE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 111, 4 February 1943, Page 5

GERMAN HASTE

Fortifications In South

Of Europe

(Received February 3, 11.55 p.m.)

LONDON, February 2. The Germans, after fortifying the coast of Europe against an Allied attack from North Cape to Biarritz, are now hurriedly fortifying the shores of the Mediterranean, the Madrid correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says, in view of the possibility of Allied landings. . The Germans are most active on the Riviera, which is described as ‘ bristling with guns.” Since the German occupation the famous Cote Bleu lias lost all its gracefulness. The waters on which yachts once sailed are now filled with mines and U-boats, and the bathing beaches have been converted into camps, and the palaces, country houses and villas into barracks. The German programme incorporates all strategic coastal territory, lhe Germans are ordering the evacuation of any zones which they regard as essential, such as Marseilles. Patrols to Cyprus.

Reuters Madrid correspondent says that Germany is speeding up the defences of the Balkan coasts and Dodecanese Islands, using Hungarian, Yugoslav, and Greek labourers, on deep fortifications from Kavala to 'Salonika, in the Vnrdar and Moravia valleys, the Italian Adriatic coast, and also southern Italy and Sicily. The Germans and Italians have doubled their air reconnaissance from Crete to Rhodes, daily making patrols, specially in the Cyprus zone. The Axis forces :n the Balkans are estimated at 28 divisions, excluding the Bulgarians. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says that Mr. Churchill's talks in Turkey were a staggering, unpleasant surprise for the Germans, who are emphatically asserting Germany’s preparedness in the Balkans generally, and in Greece and the Aegean Sea in particular. Their final defences are nearly complete in the Salonika area, and also on the Italian and Sicilian coasts.