KORITZA’S FALL

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

KORITZA’S FALL

VALUABLE PART PLAYED BY R.A.F. RAID BY BOMBERS VITAL BRIDGE BLOWN UP [U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] LONDON, 3rd December. The Air Ministry has released the epic story of how a Royal Air Force raid, carried out by only three bombers, effectively cut the road to Koritza to prevent the Italians from bringing up reinforce, ments and thus enabled the Greek Army to capture the town. When the Italians were fighting back hard and rushing troops into the line in a desperate effort to hold the key town of Koritza, the Greek general staff asked for special assistance from the Royal Air Force. If the Italian reinforcements could be prevented from getting into the line, the scales would be turned against them. That afternoon three Blenheim bombers, led by the acting commanding officer of the squadron, set off to bomb vital communications on the Pogradetz. Koritza road. The weather was extremely bad, and high-level bombing was impossible, but the flight commander, followed closely by his two pilots, dived down through the clouds to the attack. Only one came back. Accounts of the bombing have been given by the sergeant pilot, air observer, and air gunner of the surviving aircraft. The sergeant pilot said they were over Lake Okhrida at about 6000 feet and above the cloud level. They could see nothing below, and the flight commander ordered them to dive. TROOPS BOMBED “We were astern of him,” said the pilot, “and 350 miles an hour showed on the clock. Another sergeant pilot wheeled off, and we never saw him again. We got down through the clouds and spotted a load of transport and troops on the road that runs through the valley. The flight commander dropped bombs on the lorries [and troops, and we machine-gunned them at the same time, doing a lot of damage. We were met by fierce antiaircraft fire, but it did not hit our plane in any vital spot. We lost sight of the flight commander, but saw a stone bridge. It was a three or four-arch affair over a ravine with a convoy crossing if- We let go at it. We got a direct hit, and bits of our own bombs came back and hit us. We still had some bombs left, and went on down the valley toward Koritza, but there were no troops beyond the bridge. It looked as though we had blocked the road at just about the right time. Then fighters came after us, and we nipped into the clouds and came home.” The observer, who had more time to watch the effect of the large-calibre bomb which struck the bridge, said: “I saw the bomb explode at one end of the bridge, and the whole thing collapsed in a great cloud of stones and dust and fell into the ravine below.” The rear gunner said: “When I looked down into the ravine the bridge no longer existed. I could see where it had been. Nothing could get across that ravine I also saw the flight commanders hits on the convoy. He certainly wrecked it. You could see lorries all over the place, and people running like mad.”

Three aircraft went out and only one came back, but the job was well done. Six days later Greek troops marched into Koritza— the turning point of the campaign.