Allied Forces in Greece

Evening Star, Issue 23860, 15 April 1941, Page 5

Allied Forces in Greece

BACK TO PREPARED LINES Germans Suffer Severe Losses Press Association —By Telegraph —Copyright LONDON, April 14. (Received April 15, at 1 p.m.) In Greece the Allied forces have made an orderly withdrawal to prepared lines in the face of heavy and continuous enemy pressure. The covering troops, however, inflicted severe punishment on the Germans, whose most desperate efforts at no time looked like effecting a break in the strong defending line. HITLER’S SPECIAL DIVISION REPULSED. Imperial infantry on April 11 repulsed an attack by the Adolph Hitler Division in northern'Greece, inflicting heavy /losses. The Yugoslavs’ morale continues good. They are still counterattacking north of Nish. It is understood that the enemy has re-taken Kragujevic. A Berlin News Agency report from Budapest says the Hungarians have broken through the second line of the Yugoslav defences in the back region and have occupied two localities. A message from Athens states that the people have been encouraged by the arrival •of further contingents of British Imperial forces. The Germans continue to test the strength of the lines. Many patrols have been repulsed with heavy losses. FALL OF DURAZZO REPORTED. There is good reason to believe that Durazzo, the main centre for the landing of Italian troops and supplies since the fall of the port of Valona on the Adriatic, has been captured by the Yugoslavs. The announcement was made by the Yugoslav Legation in Athens that troops had entered Durazzo. On the Albanian'front only patrol action seems to have been undertaken in the past 24 hours, the Greek communique merely stating that some were restricted local actions. Some air activity is reported, the Luftwaffe having sent three waves over Volo, where bombs were dropped without causing casualties. Three of the attacking planes were brought down by anti-aircraft fire. A large number of sorties were made by R.A.F. bomber aircraft yesterday against enemy*cplumns moving on the roads in the theatres of operations, in Greece. Direct hits were obtained on these columns by most of our aircraft.

In the Koritza area one G. 50 was destroyed and a number of others damaged. One ME.IIO was shot down west of Mount Olympus by one of our fighters.