IN YUGOSLAVIA
36 AXIS DIVISIONS
SUCCESSES OF PARTISANS (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 14. Thirty-six German and satellite divisions are at present doing their utmost on seven fronts to crush the Partisan armies of Yugoslavia, says Lieut.-Colonei Vladimir Dedier, who has been attached to General Tito's staff for two and a half years. Lieut.Colonel Dedier is now recuperating in Cairo from severe head injuries.
In a special article distributed by the Associated Press he asserts that more German divisions are engaged in Yugoslavia than on any front except Russia. "Although the Partisans are fighting without heavy artillery, anti-air-craft guns, or tanks, we have carried out an offensive even against the German main bases," he says. "On January 1 of this year we broke through the German defences at Banjaluka,. headquarters of the Second German Armoured Corps. This German base has been liquidated. Two thousand Germans were killed and several hundred captured..
"When the task was accomplished the Partisans withdrew, as the town could not be defended against new German tank divisions This victory was achieved' entirely with armaments captured from the enemy.
"When the people rose against Hitler three years ago only every tenth man had a shot-gun or out-dated rifle. There were many fighting women in the front line in the assault against Banjaluka. Some of them were expert with hand-grenades. WOMEN HOLD COMMANDS. "Women also hold certain commands in our liberated territory, which is now more than half of Yugoslavia. Our army has increased from 100,000 to 300,000. Our peoples, the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, and Montenegrins, at' the finish of our war of independence, will form a free, democratic, federal State in accordance with the Atlantic Charter, allowing all free people the right to choose their own form of government at free elections.
"For this principle our people have spilled rivers of blood and are still fighting today."
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 11, 14 January 1944, Page 5
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314IN YUGOSLAVIA Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 11, 14 January 1944, Page 5
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