A SLIGHT RETREAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 113, 8 November 1940, Page 7

A SLIGHT RETREAT

Greek Forces on Epirus Front

ALL GAINS FIRMLY HELD

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Eeceived November 8, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 7. A Greek communique admits a slight retreat on the left extremity of the Epirus front. "An exchange of artillery fire took place yesterday along the whole of the northern front,'' it is stated. "Our troops on the extreme left near the sea coast have fallen back slightly." Otherwise the news from the front continues to give satisfaction. All the gains in Albania are reported to have been firmly held and the troops reinforced.

The Greeks have taken nine howitzers, four field pieces, and 32 machine-guns, besides prisoners, on the central front, where an Italian force was cut off in the Pindus region. Most of the captures were made as isolated units attempted to escape from a trap in a network of deep ravines. The Greek Ministry of Security announced that Italian raiders destroyed a church at Volo and also damaged a monastery. They bombed Corfu, Patras, Corinth, and Larissa, insignificant damage being done, and also a seaside resort where a few women and children were killed. British planes co-operated with the Greek air force in patrol work. In raids yesterday British bombers attacked towns-and ports in southern Italy and ports in Albania. Valona, an important receiving base for the Epirus front, was heavily damaged. Italian pilots who were brought down in recent raids and who arrived in Athens said: "We understood that Greece would not defend herself." The first British airman to die for Greece is to be buried with military honours today. All unconscripted Greek workers between the ages of 16 and 60 have been mobilised for the war effort. An Italian communique claims that the Italians crossed the Kalamas River and that the air force bombed a number of Greek towns.