YULETIDE VICTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 155, 28 December 1940, Page 7

YULETIDE VICTORY

SPIRITED ATTACK

ADVANCE ON WHOLE FRONT

BATTLE FOR ELBASAN

LONDON, December 26,

Agency messages from Athens state that the Greek troops celebrated Christmas with a new victory in the region west of the River Dryno, driving back the enemy in a spirited attack. In addition to eight guns already announced as having been captured, they have taken ten heavy guns and important material and a number of prisoners, including officers. Farther north, after a successful attack, some villages were occupied, despite snow and fog. Italian reinforcements sent from Italy were unable to alter the situation.

The Athens radio stated: "The advance of the Greek troops continues on the entire front. Along the coast our troops captured several strategic heights, despite snowstorms and blizzard. West of the River Dryno we pushed back the Italian forces. Further north we captured ten villages and took many prisoners."

After a slight abatement caused by the piercing cold, the battle for Elbasan continued today with increased violence. The' Greeks vigorously atatacked north of Pogradetz in the direction of Lin (on the shore of Lake Ochrida), which Greek patrols are reported to have entered.

The Greek pressure is also very strong in the valleys of the Shkumbi and Devol Rivers, particularly in the direction of Shukas. The Italians are making a great effort to hold their positions in the northern sector and also doing their utmost to cover the retreat from Khimara. They are desperately organising defences on the heights protecting Valona.

The Athens correspondent of "The Times" says that the Greeks retain the initiative along the Albanian front and that Christmas brought no respite for the Italians. West of the Dryno River and roughly within a triangle embracing Argyrokastron, Tepeleni, and Khimara the enemy rearguards have been kept moving, despite the establishment of barbed-wire defences.

Local attacks on Christmas Day followed the capture on Christmas Eve of an important and stubbornly-held position north-east of Tepeleni, and also several villages. Fighting continues near Klisura, towards which the Greeks are advancing from the east after a magnificent manoeuvre in which they rolled up the Italian line with a wide encircling movement till heavy snow intervened to aid the Italians.

The Italian radio says that the Italian forces are experiencing heavy resistance in Albania, and claimed that the enemy, being numerically superior, the Italians were obliged to retreat.