DESPERATE FIGHT IN BALKANS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 3, 29 September 1943, Page 5

DESPERATE FIGHT IN BALKANS

Breach Of Axis Front

PATRIOTS’ BIG HOLD LONDON, September 27. While the Yugoslav chetniks and. Croat patriots are fighting desperately to maintain their hold on the Dalmat-i ian coast, the Germans are reported to be pouring reinforcements in the Balkans. It is difficult to get a reliable picture of the situation in Yugoslavia, but it appears that the patriot armies have badly breached what military experts consider is the probable Axis defence line along the east Adriatic coast. The patriots hold Split and great stretches of the Dalmatian coast The capture by Yugoslav partisans of Plevlja, 60 miles south-east of Serajevo, Gacko, and Avtovac, 60 miles north-east of Dubrovnik, and Savnik, 40 miles north of Cetinje, is announced in a communique from the headquarters of the Yugoslav People’s Liberation Arm?. ac ~ cording to a broadcast by the “Free” Yugoslav radio. In the Split area the patriots have taken the initiative and are strongly pressing the Germans in the direction of Sinj. 16 miles north-east of Split. The “Daily Telegraph” military commentator says that the mountainous shores of the east Adriatic, Albania, Greece, and the Aegean quadrilateral surely constitute a front which the Germans will still try to re-establish and hold. This front line at present is breaphed, both in the Balkans and in the. Aegean, and the Germans, reacting violently, are pouring in reinforcements because they must re-establish this front at all costs. Berlin radio says that the patriots are receiving supplies by sea and that many Allied officers are aiding them. Axis sources also tacitly admitted that, the patriots cut railway communications between Yugoslavia and northern Italy by the statement that seven trains were held up on the line between Trieste and. Yugoslavia. Some disbanded Italian troops are aiding the patriots, but to what extent it is impossible to ascertain. It is certain, however, that the patriots harg. taken over quantities of Italian equipment, enabling them to extend their operations. STIRRING UP UNREST Campaign From Cairo LONDON, September 27. Cairo will soon (become the centre of. a Russian-org i nized campaign to stir up anti-Nazi unrest in the Balkans. The Soviet Government has been granted the use of the Egyptian broadcasting system for news broadcasts to the Balkans. The programmes will be arranged by M. Georgi Dimitrov, who was Secre-tary-General of the Communist International till it was disbanded last May. M. Dimitrov is reported to have then visited Bulgaria to assist his brother, M. Ivan Dimitrov, the Bxilgar guerrillaleader, in arousing opposition to the Nazis. UNDERGROUND ARMY Estimated At 200,000 LONDON, September 27. A Vichy Government report reaching French circles in London estimates that the French secret underground army which is preparing to co-operate with Allied landing forces numbers 200,000.. The document refers to the ; patriots as “AjS.” (Armee Secrete), and states that it was formed last year when certain elements of the regular and territorial armies decided to co-operate with the resistance organizations in preparing for the Allied landing. It is probably this army to which Marcel Deat, the French Fascist leader, referred yesterday , when he said there were clear indications J that treachery similar to Marshal Badoglio’s was brewing in France.