OUTER DEFENCES OF BALKANS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 308, 23 September 1943, Page 7

OUTER DEFENCES OF BALKANS

Pierced By Allies (British Ofllcial Wireless.) RUGBY, September 21. British forces have occupied three of the Dodecanese Islands —Los, Letos and Sanios. Letos has a big harbour which was an Italian naval base. By going into the Dodecanese we have broken through the outer ring of the German defences in the Aegean Sea and the south-eastern Balkans, and are within 100 miles of the Greek mainland. In the Balkans generally the presence of large numbers of Italians, either disarmed or not, is an embarrassment to the Germans. There is one report that the Germans are sending numbers of Italians out. of Greece “to clear the decks.” A Yugoslav communique announces that the Dalmatian coast, with the exception of a few of the larger towns, is now in the hands of the People’s Army of Liberation. All Gorman attacks on the Split sector have been repulsed. Heavy fighting is continuing near Oguliu and Susak. All three towns are firmly in Yugoslav bauds. Five thousand political prisoners have been liberated from Lab Island.