ITALIAN TROOPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 107, 1 November 1940, Page 7

ITALIAN TROOPS

Fighting in Greece

OUTPOST SKIRMISHING CONTINUES

It was announced in Athens today—the fourth day of the war in Greece —that the greatest depth of the Italian advance at any point is only six miles. The main fighting still seems to be along the coast of north-west Greece, where Italian troops have crossed the Albanian frontier, but it still does not appear that the main Greek advance line has been reached. One Greek report says that the Greek troops have launched a counterattack in this sector and have retaken a hill previously captured by the Italians.

Fighting along the rest of the Albanian frontier still seems to be confined to skirmishes between outposts, but there has been more activity on the shores of Lake Presba, where the .Greek, Albanian, and Yugoslav frontiers meet. In this sector the Italian push seems to be to the town of Fiorina, 90 miles from Salonika.

Reports from Rome say that a violent artillery barrage has begun on the frontiers near south-west Albania.

Italian warplanes again carried out a bombardment on the port of Patras today. Rescue workers are still digging for the bodies of the people killed in the Italian air raid on that town on the first day of the war, and it is now known that 110 people were killed in this raid.

An Italian newspaper' publishes a dispatch from its correspondent on the Greek frontier claiming that the Italians have crossed the Kalamas River, which flows ten miles south of the Albanian frontier into the Adriatic, but there is no confirmation of this.

One Greek fighter plane has been lost behind the Italian lines, and it is claimed that an Italian seaplane has been brought down.

local commander, taking advantage of the rout, pursued the enemy into Albania.

There have been no air raids on Salonika. Fifty coastal vessels lie immobilised in the harbour.

An Italian communique says: "Our forces advancing in Epirus have reached the River Kalamas at various points. Their movement has not been slowed down by the unfavourable weather or obstacles created by the enemy. Our air force bombed Patras and several troopships, and also military barracks at Lepanto, Metsovo Pass, and fortifications and Junctions in the Kalamas Valley."

A report from Belgrade says that the Italians are shelling Janina and that heavy fighting continues near the border, of Greece and Yugoslavia.