INTO ALBANIA/,

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 150, 21 December 1940, Page 7

INTO ALBANIA/,

THE GREEK ADVANCE

TRAPPING OF THE ITALIANS

A BLOWN-UP BRIDGE

I swung by a rope over a blown-up bridge into Albania, becoming the first British correspondent to cross the Greek frontier since the war, wrote James Aldridge from Albania to the Sydney "Sun" recently. The roads I followed to reach here are littered with Italian equipment, smashed tanks and cars, and everything I have seen bears witness to the hastiness and completeness of their retreat. Along the road where I am writing, Greek guerrillas have advanced from ten to twenty miles. There is the sound of bombing and firing, as this is being written, and Italian planes are flying overhead. On and over the border bridge, on the Greek side of it, Italian equipment is strewn around, and also is littered inside a rough stone church. The equipment was the property of the 47 th Divisional Mortar Battalion, which had made the church its headquarters. The churchyard is bloodstained now, and contains fresh graves of Italian soldiers. BRIDGE WRECKED. Most of the battalion surrendered when they crossed the bridge. They were cut off when the Greeks blew it up and poured down on them from all sides. Further along, on this side of the border, there is an Albanian bridge blown up and Italian dead scattered about. To get here I had to cross Greece's highest mountain range in the dead of night through a rainstorm, the road running beside terrifying drops. Then, early in the morning, in misty light, I set out for the final run to the border. Immediately through the fog we heard Italian planes. A soldier ordered me to camouflage the car, so I rubbed mud on the nickel parts and put bushes on top of it. Later, more Italian planes passed over and dropped bombs on either side of the road, which is winding, precipitous, and muddy, dotted with craters, mostly caused by 501b bombs. Bombs also fell in empty fields and on small villages. They were obviously dropped from a great height because of the mountains. Later, the Italians came over again and bombed the road ahead *of us. We met a general'returning from the front, who said that the Italians were still retreating and the Greeks pushing forward. CAUGHT AT CROSSROADS. He told us to watch out for a couple of tanks at the crossroads ahead. We found the crossroads, surrounded by bomb craters. The Italians had come this far a few days ago, stopped at the crossroads, and sent out tanks to scout. The tanks actually had gone ahead and taken a small village. Then the Greeks brought in artillery and smashed them up. The Italian infantrymen behind the tanks were caught, and they fought as they retreated. Along the road where this happened, I saw the smashed, burned-out tanks and cars. Clips of machine-gun cartridges strewn everywhere showed the hastiness of the flight. Boxes of small arms ammunition were still lying be- ! side the road.

We bumped across a couple of bomb craters and asked the road guard could we continue.

"Sure," he replied in English. "There's a busted bridge you'll have to be careful of."

STREWN WITH EQUIPMENT.

We crawled along, yard by yard, in the rain, ready to leave the car quickly, because we had been warned of fighting ahead. Suddenly the sun burst out. We stopped dead, looked and listened, but there was no fighting, so we continued until we found a Greek soldier. We asked him. "Where's the fighting?" He replied: "Over there in Albania," and pointed the way. We passed more strewn Italian equipment, also newly-built small defences and machine-gun, posts at the roadside. We skidded down a steep incline, passing more bomb craters. Here shots echoed across the hill, and more bombers passed over. Then we looked out over a great winding river in a red sea of foliage, and found the smashed bridge and the little church that the Italians had stripped and used as headquarters, as I have described. Beyond this was Albania. Here the fighting is going on all day, and the Italians are retreating fast. .. I had doubted this, but the littered equipment behind me in Greece, and before me in Albania, proves the completeness of their retreat. The Italians here are using mixed troops, including some Bersaglieri, most of .whom had been stationed in Albania for some time. I found letters, pictures, and j papers from wives in Italy strewn in the Albanian mud. FIGHTING IN THE HILLS. Fighting now is in the hills, just ahead of this border place, and the roads are the centres of the fighting. Greek soldiers here told me that the roads' get worse further into Albania. Judging by the difficulties I had getting here, I should say that the Italians have had a terrific job. Captured tractors,, cars, and motorcycles are always corning back. A train of mules passed me a while ago, captured from the Italians in Albania. They were carrying Breda machine-guns, which the Greeks quickly ,put back into use. *~.,. Looking at the inventories of Italian regiments picked up here, it seems that most of the transport in this direction had been v/ith mules, and mules are the quickest in the long run. As the rains streak across the high Albanian mountains, it is becoming more difficult for the Italians to use their aircraft.

he was beating out the flames thousands of rounds of ammunition were going off in all directions and he had to fight his way through this fierce internal barrage to save the aircraft. He did not give his own safety a thought. He could have jumped, but preferred to stay behind." PILOT'S OWN COOLNESS. Sergeant J. Hannah, who has now almost recovered from the burns he received, when discussing his action, seemed most concerned to give the credit to his pilot officer." "People don't fully realise," he said, "that while I was doing my best with the fire he was sitting up aloft as cool as a cucumber, taking no notice of the flames, which were only two or three feet away from him, or the sounds of bullets, which were either whizzing close to his head or hitting the armoured plating just above.

"All the time I wondered whether we would ever get out of the flaming aeroplane, but when I realised how cool Pilot Officer Conner was. I knew that if things got too bad he would make an effort to land on the water. Thanks to him we landed at our base."