BATTLE IN ALBANIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25051, 15 November 1944, Page 5

BATTLE IN ALBANIA

TIRANA ALMOST FREED

YUGOSLAV GAINS REPORTED (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 14 Street fighting is raging in Tirana, capital of Albania, according to a communique from the headquarters of the partisan armies. The Germans are still occupying strong positions in the southern part of Tirana, but partisans have overrun three-quarters _ of the city. The Germans are contesting every inch of ground and using heavy artillery in an effort to regain their lost positions. Marshal Tito reports fighting inside Skoplje, key railway junction in the Vardar Valley, Southern' Yugoslavia. He reports also that patriots have liberated Cetinje, the old capital of Montenegro.

NORWAY AND SOVIET FRUITFUL CONVERSATIONS (Rccd. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 13 The Soviet-Norwegian conversations, which ended on Sunday with tho departure from Moscow of the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Al. Trygve Lie, were most cordial 011 both sides, according to a Moscow message. They gave results eminently satisfactory concernin" the relations between the Soviet Union and Norway, who have recently become neighbours, and provided lor the continuance of the struggle for the liberation of Norway, also aid for the population left homeless and without food by the retreating Germans.

BRAVE CZECH ARMY TREK OVER FRENCH ALPS (Reed. 5.35 P.m.) LONDON. Nov. 18 Soldiers who in the spring still guarded the German ' new order in Prague are now fighting in Northwestern Europe with the Allies after a daring march over the French A'P® from Italy. They belonged to a Czech Government army of 7000 with the Germans' permission in tor police duties. . . In 1944 the Germans grew suspicious that these picked men might common cause with Czech patriots and thereforo sent them abroad. .Several hundred stationed near Turin succeeded in breaking awav from the Germans and for several weeks fought partisans, whom they had bcen Bupposetl to kill. What they re-nlly wished and hoped was to join the <>.c cf i°slovnkinn Army in the west and as soon as the Allied invasion made headway thev inarched over the Alps into France until, after an arduous trek, they made contact with jthe Allied troops. i hey have now been incorporated _in tne Czechoslovak brigade besieging DunKirK.