MOPPING UP

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 13, 16 January 1941, Page 9

MOPPING UP

GREEKS IN ALBANIA

COUNTER-ATTACKS FAIL

NAPOLEON'S DICTUM DISPROVED IN MOUNTAINS

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

LONDON, January 15

The Greek radio reported that noncombatants are evacuating Valona and Berat. It states that the Greeks are still mopping up round the Kli-sura-Tepeleni line, and the Italians are apparently still in full retreat. It is not clear where General Cavallero intends to make a stand for the defence of Berat, which is situated on the most important crossroads in Albania.

The Government spokesman in Athens said that the Italians withdrew in disorder after the failure of two local counter-attacks. They abandoned a number of dead and wounded after the first attack and suffered more heavily in the second, in which they lost four tanks, three of which the Greeks immediately turned against the enemy. Greek machine-guns shot down an Italian plane. The Greek night communique states that in the course of restricted operations a number of prisoners were captured. The Athens correspondent of "The Times" says that now the battle for Klisura has ended it is possible to examine the reports of the commanding officers, from which it appears that the Greeks' success was largely due to the superior physical condition of the Greek soldiers compared with the Italians rather than because of a lack of courage among the Italians or even better Greek tactics. The Italians, the correspondent says, cling to the valleys for advance or retreat, and the Greeks, through prodigies of endurance, are able to scale hills up which the Italians are unable to go, let alone take guns. It has been common to find Greeks j holding positions that can be reached I only after three hours' climb unencum- j bered by equipment. Up these mountains the Greeks have attacked and then brought up guns, often at a slow speed. Another outstanding conclusion after the battle of Klisura is that the Greeks have apparently disproved Napoleon's remark that an army marches on its stomach, the correspondent adds. The Greeks seem to march on, leaving their stomachs' behind and trusting to the transport to bring them up a few days later. This means that during battle the men live on six ounces of bread a day.