TROOPS IN ACTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21581, 7 December 1944, Page 5

TROOPS IN ACTION

PATROLS FIRED UPON (11 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 6 British tanks and paratroops went into action this morning against the E.L.A.S. forces, reports Reuters ■Athens correspondent. The British operations are being directed from attack headquarters in a t rucH v Tanks and armoured cars directed machine-gun fire against E.L.A.o. machine-gun nests on the rflofs ol buildings from which home-made bombs were being dropped. One British officer was killed and one other ranker seriously wounded on the road to the Piraeus. Fighting was resumed before b a.m., after a British platoon was fired at on its way to the Piraeus. Firing rapidly flared up over a wide area, and fighting is continuing, principally in the neighbourhood of Hadrian’s Arch and the temple of the Olympian Zeus. Greek regular troops have joined the British forces in support of the police and gendarmerie against the E.L.A.S. The British armoured cars and tanks have so far used only their machine-guns. The Associated Press’ correspondent at Athens says: “The fighting in Athens has passed from the stage of desultory sniping, and mortars and heavier weapons are now being used. The British and Greek patrols are closing in against a big E.L.A.S. concentration in the public gardens, near the centre of the city.” A communique from the Allied G.O.C. in Greece, General Scobie, issued to-day, states: “In defiance of all orders from both the Greek Government and from General Scobie, the E.L.A.S. troops have continued their advance towards the centre of Athens, overwhelming police posts and even firing on British troops on guard duty. British and Greek regular forces have now gone into action in support of the civil power.”