ALBANIAN LULL

Grey River Argus, 18 March 1941, Page 5

ALBANIAN LULL

ITALIAN OFFENSIVE Peters Out [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] (Received March 17. 8.25 p.m.) LONDON, March 12. Saturday and Sunday were relatively quite on the Albanian front. The Italians did not attempt to /launch any serious offensive, ATHENS, March 16.

A Greek semi-official statement says: The Italian' offensive is checked. The enemy has failed to occupy a single yard of territory. The statement reveals that though the offensive raged principally in a sector 20 miles wide, the Italians threw the Heaviest concentrations into action oyer a width of only two and ■ a half mile?. The Greeks have taken over 3000 prisoners, including several high officers, who state that one division suffered 40 to 50 per cent, of losses. Another was decimated and replaced. A third was completely smashed. The Blackshirts also suffered heavily.

In spite of their recent bitter repulse, the Italians .on Friday returned fiercely to the attack in Albania, but with as little success as before. Messages from xyar correspondents with the Greek Army on the Albanian front state that the Italian forced thrown into the offensive launched by Mussolini’s orders six days ago, are put at 120,000, operating on a front of about 20 miles. Mussolini, the messages state, lost several of his closest collaborators, including six members of the Fascist Grand Council, of whom some, like Professor Pellegrini, were taken ( prisoner. Others, like Barbelini, were killed. The Italian losses are estimated at some 50,000 killed, wounded or captured. The debacle is attributed by the correspondents to the accuracy of the Greek artillery, the skill and ability of the machine-gunners, and the alertness of the infantry, as well as the lack of morale among the Italian troops. Whole Italian regiments, it is stated, have been flung against positions held only by small Greek detchments, only to be mown down by shell-fire when they were still 500 yards from their objective. < What enthusiasm these unfortunate croops had when they started soon evaporated. Their formations were broken up and thrown into a state of confusion. Officers were trying vainly to restore some sort of order at the revolver point, but few. of them lived to return to the starting noint. J T General Papagos, congratulating the Army, said: “Six days’ effort on the part of the enemy left you unshaken. Moreover for four months since the attack against Greece was launched, you have proved yourselves victorious ’ and covered yourselves with unprecedented glory. The efforts of the enemy are now spent. Your determination remains as strong as ever. Your faith in victory has not wavered a hairsbreadth.” Last night’s Greek communique, indicating that the Italians have been unable wholly to maintain the violence of their attacks in the face of reneated defeats, was elaborated in Athens bv an authoritative commentator, who said: “At 4.30 a.m. the Italians launched an extensive attack in the central' sector, against positions they vainly attacked on the previous day. They were repulsed with heavy losses. At six o’clock there was. a new attack by reserve forces in the same direction, but this failed lamentably, the Italian suffering heavy losses. At 6.30 a.m., a carefully prepared attack -was carried out on another position in the same sector, but the result for the Italians was even worse, their losses being particularly heavy. Following artillery and mortar fire preparation, the commandant of. the Eleventh Italian Army launched a new attack at 2 p.m. Strong effectivesy which recently arrived from Italy, supported by large numbers of ,aircraft, took part. The battle raged throughout the afternoon, fresh waves of Italians being thrown in to take the place of those who had fallen. By nightfall, however, the attack was checked. The Italians left many dead or

wounded on the field before the Greek lines. The 1 Greeks did not lose an inch of ground. They captured a great deal of war material, and 50 prisoners. The prisoners stated that during the six days’ offensive the Italian losses had been terrible.” An Italian communique admits that enemy torpedo-carrying ■ aeroplanes attacked Italian ships anchored at Valona. One merchantman was damaged. It says that raids were made on Tripoli, where slight damage was caused, and on the island of Rhodes, where bombs were dropped on several villages.

Marshal Mussolini “TIMES” CORRESPONDENT’S THRUST lAus. N.Z. Cable Assn.] (Received March 17, 8.10 p.m.) LONDON, March 16. “The Times” Athens correspondent says: “A fourth Italian Commander-in-Chief, this time the Italian Empire’s great Marshal Mussolini, left Albania badly beaten by Greeks after six consecutive days of the bloodiest attacks, which infuriated Italian prisoners call butchery, costing over fifty thousand casualties, so many dead lying on the battlefield that the a’ir was polluted, despite snow and intense cold, compelling the Greeks to take special sanitary measures.” GREEKS RESCUE BRITISH AIRMAN [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] ATHENS, March 16The newspaper “Elefthonvima” reports that a British airman who baled cut over No Man’s Land came down .safely near Italian lines. The Italians prepared to capture b ; m but Greek troops sprang from postiions and victoriously engaged the Italians, after which the Greeks triumphantly carried back the rescued airman ’r.a.f. ACTIVITY RUGBY, March 16. A communique issued by the headquarters of the R.A.F. in Greece states: Successful attacks were made by R.A.F. bombers on enemy aero-

dromes at Berat and Valona yesterAt Berat, a number of aircraft on the ground were destroyed, and others were damaged. A petrol dump was set on fire, the blaze being visible for a distance of 50 miles. Direct hits on the runway were scored at Valona, and four aircraf on the ground were destroyed and others probably damaged. All the British aircraft returned safely. It is now definitely confirmed that in the air combat on March 11 seven enemy aircraft were destroyed, instead of five as originally announced. On March 13 the total enemy aircraft lost in the battle in the Kelcyra area was 15 instead of 14. . The pilots of two R.A.F. aircraft, who were seen escaping by parachute during a successful engagement on March 14, reported unharmed to their units. AIR RAID ON MALTA. [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] (Received March 17, 7.30 P. m -L VALETTA (Malta), March 16i Several enemy planes carried out individual attacks on Valetta on Saturday night. Many bombs were dropped, but bafd visibility hampered the raidersj Most of their salvoes fell into the sea.