Bloodiest Fighting of Greek War

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 307, 16 December 1940, Page 7

Bloodiest Fighting of Greek War

Italians Still Being Pushed Back FORMIDABLE MOUNTAIN BARRIER CAPTURED United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. Received, Sunday, 6.30 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 14. Reports from the Albanian border indicate that the bloodiest fighting of the war has broken out on tne northern front. Tho battlefield north and north-west of Pogradec is strewn with dead. Artillery fire opened along the whole north front in the early morning. The Greeks threw their troops forward under cover of a heavy barrage against the fortified Italian positions, attacking particularly violently in the Devoli Valley and the Shkiunbi Valley. The Greeks are advancing slowly under very heavy fire north-west and north of Pogradec. The big guns, both Italian and Greek, are roaring continuously from Moscopolye to Lake Okridsko. Italian bombers have been very active on the whole nortn front. The Greeks are using tractors and snowploughs in an effort to push on and exploit fully the impetus of each local victory. Italian prisoners bring tales of desperate chaos in Italian provisioning. The breakdown of this has resulted in large numbers of soldiers being found dead from hunger. The Daily Telegraph’s Tepelena correspondent says the Greeks here have taken a mountain which has been a formidable barrier to their ad- ; vance to Valona, separating the Tepelena area from the coastal region. The Greeks are now confronted with a series of hills sloping to the coast at right angles to this mountain, thus facilitating their advance and further gravely circumscribing the Italians. The Greek military spokesman said Italian prisoners, not Including the most recent captures, total 200 officers and 7000 other ranks. The booty includes 120 guns, 55 anti-tank guns, 250 motor-cars, 15,000 motorcycles and bicycles, many tanks, thousands of automatic arms, many pack and haulage animals, vast quantities of munitions and other materials amounting to millions sterling. A later message stated that the Italians are reported to have evacuated Himara and are falling back towards Valona. A large part of Tepelena is stated to be ablaze. A despatch from the Greek Army Corps Headquarters near the GreekAlbanian frontier says: “On Friday the Italians for the first time since the Greeks began to hurl them back on November 12 counter-attacked yesterday morning in the snow amidst the mountains north-westward of Premefci, but were repulsed after a fivehour battle with heavy losses.”