BEATING A RETREAT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 3 December 1940, Page 5

BEATING A RETREAT

ITALIAN RETIREMENT ALONG WHOLE FRONT Greeks Hold Most Favourable Strategic Positions

SUMMARY OF THE MILITARY SITUATION

I United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright J (Received 3rd December, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, 2nd December. The Italian forces are still being hurled back in Albania. This -doming s Greek communique reports considerable advances along the whole front and the capture of positions of importance. The advance on the right flank is swiftest. The retreat here will take the Italians out of the frying-pan into the fire, for armed bands of Albanian rebels are reported to be waiting to fall on them as they retire toward Durazzo. Only Blackshirt political fanatics appear to have had any heart for the fight. An advance of a few miles from Premet is expected to enable the Greeks to capture Argyrokastron and the port of Valona. A little south of Argyrokastron the Italians have fortified a ridge which dominates the countryside. The organ of the Soviet Army, the “Red Star,” says the Italians have clearly been beaten back by the Greeks who now hold most favourable strategic positions. IMPORTANCE OF CAPTURE OF POGRADEC [British Official Wireless] (Received 3rd December, 1 1.30 a.m.) RUGBY, 2nd December. The latest Greek communique states: ‘‘A considerable advance has been made all along the front. Positions of exceptional importance in the development of operations have been captured.” The capture of Pogradec is regarded by newspaper commentators as dealing a heavy blow to Italy’s strategic position and may have far-reaching consequence. Pogradec lies at the south-western end of Lake Ockrid, through which the frontier with Yugoslavia passes. Reports are current that the retreating mechanised Italian units are proceeding alongside the lake north of this small town, while infantry are proceeding west-north-westwards. It is suggested that the Italians are intent to take up a new position on a line east of Elbasan, twenty miles to the north-west.

BEYOND POGRADEC GREEKS TAKE UP STRONG POSITIONS LONDON, Ist December. The first snow and fog to-day hampered air and land operations on the Pogradec front, where the Greeks yesterday were reported to have taken up positions beyond Pogradec, aiming to cut off the retreating Italians by concentrated artillery fire. Though the Greek troops have been in Pogradec for some days, the Greek High Command has only now announced its capture because it awaited the consolidation of strong positions on the heights to the north-west. The Greeks captured these positions after furious fighting. Their capture facilitates further operations and renders Italian movements difficult in the southern sector. Fifteen officers taken prisoner at Pogradec belonged to almost as many units, proving the Italian hasty efforts to reinforce troops in this area. The Greeks in the southern sector continue their advance. They are occupying heights and consolidating their positions. A summary of the military situation by a Greek source states that along the whole front from opposite Corfu to near the Yugoslav border the Italians are beating a retreat and that the Greek troops are chasing them with the utmost tenacity. Greek soldiers have stormed heights and taken positions which were thought to have been made impregnable. Further south, where some Italian reinforcements had been sent up, it is stated that the Italians are retreating just as fast. Two hundred more prisoners have been taken. On the left wing, the Italian resistance has been broken down and the Greeks have occupied positions of great strategic value. The heaviest fighting is in the south, near the coast. Here the Italians have been counter-attacking with a spearhead of tanks, but reports from Athens say that these have been broken up by British anti-tank guns which were rushed to Greece after the Italian invasion began. An official Greek communique says that operations are developing favourably. Further west, in the centre of the battlefront, there is bitter fighting in the mountains, where the opposing forces are sometimes barely 100 yards apart and are settling the issue with hand grenades, rifles and bayonets. In th-* air, too, the Italians are being badly mauled. Yesterday Greeks caught some Italian machines over Albania, and shot down eight of them. The raiding of Italian supply points goes on without ceasing, and Empire pilots are prominent in these activities. British planes made another successful attack on the Italian port of Brindisi, and Greek warships shelled the'southern Albanian port of oarante without opposition from Italian vessels or aircraft. AXIS RELATIONSHIP SPECULATION ON EFFECT OF GREEK CAMPAIGN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE TBritlsb Official Wireless] RUGBY, Ist December. The magnificent campaign carried out by the Greeks gives rise to speculations as to the effect on Italian and German relations of this serious reverse suffered by the Axis junior partner which this morning’s Greek High Command announcement that advanced units entered P.jgradec will do nothing 1 6 allay. The “Observer,” describing the war, , says So far as it is a war of indepen- \ dence waged by a little Power against a great Power, it is one of th. classic campaigns in all military history.” The “Sunday Times,” discussing the Axis relationship, states! “One must remember, however, not merely the fighting alliance between Italy and Germany, but the personal or, to, be more precise, professional tie that’has so long united the two dictators. Neither can really afford to see the other go down. “If German bayonets were required in Italy to keep Mussolini in power they wuulc be sent. We need not be alarmed ii their advent. Hitler can 1 earn no gratitude nor friendship from 1 the Italian people. He canrwt feed j them nor prevent us from blockading and bombing them. He can merely add one more, in effect, to the list of 1 occupied countries. It will be a further tax on his strength and a further ’ millstone round his neck when he reaches deep water. “Our task and therefore that of our 1

armed forces is for the present clear. It is to continue hitting the Italian forces hard and often and in as many places as we can.” ALBANIAN UNREST SUPPRESSIVE MEASURES [U.P.A.— By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] LONDON, Ist December. The Greek wireless says the Chief of Staff of the Fascist Militia, Signor Starace, has arrived in Albania to supervise measures to suppress the increasing anti-Italian agitation, including the closure of Albania., schools in which pictures of Mussolini are reported to have been torn from the walls. turklSTstand NO CONSIDERATION OF NAZI PROPOSALS LONDON, Ist December. Ankara has given a blunt reply to the Italian suggestion that Turkey is considering favourably German proposals that she should join the new order and to German assurances that the Axis has no designs in the Balkans. The Ankara radio last night pointed out that the Axis had tried to invade the Balkans on two flanks but that the plan had failed utterly owing to Italy’s defeat by Greece. “There are people who prefer not to shed their blood for the schemes of others, but who will die for their own independence,” it was added. BACK DOOR OPENING TO GERMANY POSSIBLE CHANCE FOR ALLIES MUSSOLINI’S MISCALCULATION LONDON, Ist December. Possible future developments of the war as a result of the Greek success were indicated to-day in a speech by Mr Amery, Secretary of State for India. He said that Italy’s misadventure in Greece might give Britain and her allies a chance to get at Germany by the back door if Britain could enable Greece to hold her own while she disposed of the Italians in Egypt. “We shall then have secured for our armies,” he said, “a foothold by which they might threaten the flank of any German attack on Turkej, and from that foothold we might eventually, with our own armies and the new allies whom our growing strength will gather, dare a mortal thrust at the German dragon.” Mussolini’s miscalculation, he said, was not to be found in the inferiority of the Italians as fighting men, but in their unwillingness to sacrifice their lives in a war which the. knew to be unnecessary and unjust. The Greek troops, on the other hand, had fought like heroes because they believed passionately in their cause and fiercely resented the outrage done to them and their country. The nev. possibilities of the situation had cheered Britain’s friends and given pause to those who might be tempted to side with her enemies.