PATRIOTS' FIRM HOLD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 99, 28 April 1945, Page 7

PATRIOTS' FIRM HOLD

MORE TOWNS LIBERATED

LONDON, April 27. The whole of north Italy is reported to have risen against the Germans and Neo-fascists.

The Free Milan radio, summarising the position in northrwestern Italy, says that patriots firmly hold Genoa, Novara, Varese, Gallarate, Legnano, Busto Arsizio, Parma, Reggio, Piacenza, Arona, Varallo, and Vercelli. The advancing Allied troops will soon engulf Milan and Venice. The radio warned that all armed Fascists caught after midnight tomorrow would be shot.

The only direct report among many from the Continent which reached London yesterday suggesting the widespread liberation of parts of northern! Italy by the partisans came from Milan radio, quoted by a British United Press correspondent. " ■ ■ The radio announced tonight: "Milan ii? liberated. We earned our liberty with our own blood. We are able for the first time to talk freely."

Rome radio said tonight that partisans had liberated the provinces of Savona and Imperia. Savona is midway between Genoa and the FrenchItalian border. Imperia is 20 miles from the border at its nearest points. The Rome radio announcer had said earlier: "Our congratulations to the Genoa Committee of National Liberation and the brave patriots who scored the important successes. Their victory will shorten the war of liberation "

tion." • • . . ' , Milan radio, giving details of the rising in Turin, said that after the great strike in the city on Ap^il 18 the insurrectionary forces took the factories, squares, and streets, forcing the Germans and Fascists to surrender en masse. Partisan forces in Brescia were welcomed by the people, who flocked down from the valleys to the city and took the public barracks of the Republican Guards and the Wehrmacht by storm. CONTROL OF PASSES. Referring-tb the radio reports, Reuter says that if they are correct two of the most important frontier posts on the Italo-Swiss frontier guarding the Simplon and Saint Gotthard Passes— Chiasso and anothef—with their railway lines, are in partisan hands. The local committee of National Liberation which seized power in Genoa is issuing permits fqr citizens to circulate after the curfew, and a special branch of the committee is already controlling prices and supplies. The Exchange Telegraph correspondent in Rome states that General Cadorna is directing the operations.of the Italian partisans'fr«m Milan. The response to his appeal to attack . the Germans, occupy depots, and obstruct the retreat took the enemy by surprise. Mopping up of the remaining Germans in north-western Italy is i claimed to be proceeding rapidly. FASCISTS RESISTING. | The Exchange Telegraph agency's correspondent at Zurich,* quoting eyewitnesses from Milan, says that the National Liberation Committee has made several hundred arrests and is combing out the city for Neo-fascists trying to hide among the civilians. Tbhere have been fierce battles in streets and houses. The Committee is doing its utmost to prevent an outbreak' of lynch law. Fighting is going on everywhere from Milan to the Swiss frontier. The Neo-fascists, most of whose weapons the Germans took, are suffering considerable losses. Brisk shooting is heard along the border from battles between patriots and Germans. It is officially announced in Rome that, by agreement between the Allied, Command and the Italian Govern-* ment, the North Italian National Liberation Committee is authorised to exercise governmental powers in north Italy during the interval between the German retreat and the Allies' arrival. SPREAD OF REVOLT. The Italian revolt is spreading rapidly all over the Po Valley and in the alpine regions, it is reported from the Genoa anc^ Milan, radio stations. These and other north Italian radio stations continue to issue triumphant reports of the progress of the general rising. Genoa radio said last night that the German fleet in the harbour had surrendered and that its personnel had been interned. A German general is reported to have surrendered to the partisans. He is Major-General Meihholt. :-

The terms made by..the- partisans for general surrender by the Germans, as broadcast, Avere:—All ..German land and sea forces-< must .surrender unconditionally;- the Italian Committee Of ; National Liberation pledges itself to extend to. the prisoners the .treatment required under international law; ithe Committee' reserves the. right to deliver'prisoners to the Allied commi^hd. -.i Genoa radio alsob announced that all Germans who do. not.'.Surrender immediately will be regarded as snipers. Turin radio announced that Riccardo Lombardi, a partisan, has been appointed Governor of Milan, and Banduci Farral Governor of Genoa. Turin radio also announced that Milan was taken by the partisans without fighting, and that the Germans had agreed to hand over the local Fascists.