WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24142, 8 December 1941, Page 8

WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA

SUCCESS OF PATRIOTS ARMY OF 80,000 FIGHTING MOST OF SERBIA HELD (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 6 The forces of the Yugoslav leader, General Mikhailovieh, totalling about 80,000 men, are apparently fairly widely disposed, effectively harassing the Germans. General Mikhailovieh has organised a complete general staff. His special seal is inscribed "unoccupied Serbia." Ho is aged 49 and is a native of the Serbian district of Shu-

mndija. The main patriot forces seom to bo concentrated in Sluunadija, Bosnia and Montenegro. They hold an irregular lino from Podogorac to Ub and thence to Paracin. Behind this lino the patriots hold most of Serbia proper except the largest towns and also hold Montenegro. They have drawn a ring round Sarajevo and are also reported to be developing operations in the Negotin district near the Bulgarian frontier. German Reverses The patriots are working mainly in I small groups to which General Mikhailovich has attached staff officers. The Moscow radio stated that 3600 German officers and men were killed in heavy fighting with .the Serb patriots in the second half of November. The main battle occurred 40 miles south-east of Belgrade. The Germans 70 miles south-cast of Belgrade suffered a severe setback when two armoured columns were completely wiped out. Numerous guerilla detachments are successfully operating against the invaders and a large area has been cleared of German and Italian troops.

A Belgrade newspaper stated that the entire electricity system of the city was cut off recently as a result of shortage of coal owing to strikes and slow production by patriots throughout Serbia. Insurgents have sabotaged the pits and driven off miners offering to work. Organised Campaign Admiration of the unconquerable spirit of the Yugoslavs is expressed in London in connection with the publication of a Cairo communique from the Yugoslav headquarters. The Daily Telegraph says: "What is afoot in the mountains between Belgrade and the Albanian border is neither insurrection

nor a guerilla escapade. It is regular war, carried on by organised military formations which Hitler has been unable to subdue in eight months. "The size of the force ho has bet n compelled to muster against the Yugoslavs is the measure of his respect for their fighting qualities and the importance he attaches to their discomfiturn. He would not detach German troops ?it the present critical stage of the Russian campaign without a very cogent reason, and would not have employed Germans had he thought Italians were equal to the task." SHIPS TORPEDOED 14 NORWEGIANS PERISH FORMER GERMAN VESSEL (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 6 A Norwegian merchant ship of 4000 tons was torpedoed and sank in one minute within sight of Gibraltar. Twenty members of the crew jumped into the water and were saved, but 14 others went down with the ship. The survivors reached the shore on rafts. The former German freighter Uhenfels, which was captured by the British and .renamed the Empire Ability, has been torpedoed and sunk near the Canary Islands, says a New York message. Two members of the crew were ! killed, but the remainder were rescued. NAVAL PATROLLING BIG DECLINE IN SINKINGS (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 6

United States Navy circles said that large-scale patrolling'by American warships in the North Atlantic was largely responsible for the sharp decline in tonnage sunk, and it was quite possible that the activity of surface craft, aeroplanes and even submarines had enabled the British, for the first time, to bring convoys across under a sufficient guard. A message from Ottawa states that an order has been placed with two Pacific Coast shipyards for the construction of 17 twin-screw corvettes, representing an expenditure of approximately 25,000,000 dollars. These vessels are part of the general shipbuilding expansion programme for completion in 1943, which includes an additional 38 corvettes, 25 minesweepers and 16 trawlers.