Germans Pour More Troops Into Balkans

Northern Advocate, 28 September 1943, Page 2

Germans Pour More Troops Into Balkans

I (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 27 While Yugoslav chetniks and Croat patriots are fighting desperately to, maintain their hold on the Dalmatian coast, the Germans are reported to br pouring reinforcements into the Bnl-i 1 kans. It is difficult to get a reliable pic-j ! ture of the situation in Yugoslavia, but | lit appears that patriot armies have] badly breached what military experts consider a probable Axis defence line] l along the east Adriatic coast. Patriots j hold Split and great stretches of the; Dalmatian coast. Berlin radio says that patriots are receiving supplies by sea and many Allied officers are aiding them. Axis sources also tacitly admit that patriots | cut rail communications between' Yugoslavia and Northern Italy, by a I statement that seven trains were held; up on the line between Trieste and] Yugoslavia. Using Italian Equipment Some disbanded Italian troops arc; aiding the patriots, but to what ex-, tent it is impossible to ascertain. It is j certain, however, that patriots have taken over, quantities of Italian equipment which is enabling them to ex- ; tend their operations. ; The military commentator of the .“Daily Telegraph” says that the mouni tainous shores of the east Adriatic. Albania, Greece and the Aegean quadrilateral surely constitute a front which i iho Germans will still try to re-estab-lish and hold. This front line at present is breached both in the Balkans and the Aegean and the Germans, reacting violently, are pouring in reinforcements because they must reestablish this front at all costs. Patriots Take Initiative The capture by Yugoslav partisans oi Plevlja. GO miles south-east of Serajovo. CSacko and Avtovac. GO miles north-east of Dubrovnik and Savnik, and -10 miles | north of Oe tinge, is announced in a com-] iminiqiie from the headquarters ol (he Yugoslav People’s Liberation Army, and broadcast hv the “Free” Yugoslav radm.j hi the Split area, patriots have taken i the initiative and are strongly pressing die, Germans in the direction ot Sinj, J j I miles north-east of Split. I Stirring Up Anti-Nazi Feeling | j Cairo will soon become the centre or la lMission organised campaign to stir up! anti-Nazi unrest in the Balkans. The; Soviet Government lifts been granted the: ; use of the Kgyplian broadcasting sys-j itom for news broadcasts to the Balkans.] Programmes will tie arranged by Georgi ] Dimitrov, who was Secretary-General oi i iliv Communist Internationale until it, was disbanded last May, Dimitrov is; reported then to have visited Bulgaria secretly to assist his brother. Ivan Dimi-; trov. the B til gar guerilla leader, in arcus-; ing opposition to the Nazis.