NEW COMMANDER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 11, 14 January 1941, Page 7

NEW COMMANDER

ITALIAN TROOPS IN ALBANIA

FAILURE OF SODDU

JOB FOR CAVALLERO

OFFENSIVE TO BE CHECKED

(By Telegraph—Press Association—CopjTight.) (Received January 14, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, January 13. A message from Rome states that! it has been officially announced that General IT. Sod'du has resigned the command; of the troops in Albania for health reasons- and that he has been replaced: by General' Ugo Cavallero, who remains Chief of the General Staff! LONDON, January 13. Lively comment has- been aroused by the announcement that yet another Italian General has resigned. He is General Soddu,, who has been Commander-in-Ghief> for the Italian | Array- in Albania for only two months. I Rome radio says thai General Sodduihas- been relieved of his duties at his- own request owing to ill health. Before going to Albania, General Soddu had had. comparatively little military experience, and his two months' command has been marked by an unbroken, series of defeats-.. Hi& place is- to be taken by General Cavallero, Italian Chief of Staff since Marshal! Badoglio resigned; a month ago.. General Cavallero is an experienced soldier, and was Chief of the Operations Bureau in the last war. The fact that Signor Mussolini has had' to call on his Chief of Staff to take over in Albania, shows how short he is of. military leaders, willing to conduct his war. Just over a month, ago Marshal Badoglio resigned and. was followed into retirement next day by Count Vecchi, Governor of. the Dodecanese, and", the day after, that by the Chief

of the Naval Staff, his- deputy, and the chief of the Italian fleet. When General Cavallero takes over in Albania, he. will find the Greek offensive in the central sector in full swing and Tepeleni in a very precarious situation. Latest messages from Athens say that the Greeks in this area are still making gains beyond Klisura. One Athens correspondent describes this effort as the biggest Greek offensive of the war. Retreating Italians lost prisoners hour after hour while Greek batteries kept up an unceasing fire. Eight inches of snow which had fallen in the previous fortnight turned to six inches of mud during the weekend, and now fresh snow has fallen on top of the mud. REVEALING DOCUMENTS. A statement published in Athens today shows that even by the end of November the Italians were aware that the situation in Albania might become grave. Documents seized by the Greek army include a report of the Italian, commander of an Alpine division to the general in command. He asked that his men should be relieved. He said his troops could no longer stand up to front-line fighting. "My men are practically barefooted," he wrote, "and ill clad. They find it hard to stand the severe weather and the cold." The general, replying on November 27, wrote: "As soon as possible we will move your units to the rear, but just now it is impossible. You must hold on firmly in order to avoid creating a situation which might become grave."