CLEARING ATHENS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25083, 22 December 1944, Page 5

CLEARING ATHENS

SOME BRITISH PROGRESS R.A.F. HEADQUARTERS ('APT I THE It. BY ATTACKERS (Reed. It.MO p.m.) LONDON, Dec. '2l Progress continues in clearing the Greek insurgent forces from Athens and the port of Piraeus. Renter's Athens correspondent says it is stated there this morning that British forces have now cleared about one-third of the city. Weapons and prisoners are being taken. In the remainder of Greece the situation is unchanged. Although General Scobie's ultimatum to the guerillas has expired there is no sign yet of any development. E.L.A.S. forces have captured the R.A.F. headquarters, on the outskirts of Athens, states the correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Women, buys and giris helped the E.L.A.S. forces to capture the R.A.F. headquarters in a fight which la.sted throughout Monday and far into the night, states Renter's correspondent in Athens. Altogether about 1000 E.L.A.S. troops, after dark, closed in on the buildings, on which they had been firing with mortars from a range of "200 yds. The final assault came after they had dynamited the walls of the Cecil Hotel. The defenders had then practically exhausted their ammunition. The last wireless message from the garrison was received in Athens before midnight on Monday. The defenders were overcome just before dawn on Tuesday. British Relief Force An armoured column which was rushed from Athens in the first light of dawn arrived in time to pick up a number of Britishers who had managed to escape. The relief force combed the buildings, from which E.L.A.S. troops had withdrawn, in a search for British wounded, but the fate of the remainder of the garrison is not known. It is stated that Air-Commodore G. W. Tutt'e, air officer commanding in Greece, had recently moved his headquarters into Athens, and that the buildings attacked were rear headquarters. The buildings are situated at the hillside resort of Kifissia. ten miles north-east of The garrison numbered more than Hoo men, including •Joo air personnel and some R.A.F. staff officers. The British United Press correspondent says that the women and children did not confine themselves to carrying ammunition. They had rifles and grenades. and fought like men. Demolition squads crept up and placed ot explosives at tlie ends of ono building after another and retreated after setting off the charges. In the meantime, mortar units kept up fire from a distance. The garrison beat back one attack after another. , British Taken Prisoners The E.L.A.S. forces carried off a number of prisoners, but when the British armoured column rushed up a number of prisoners broke away. Machine-guns caused casualties among fleeing E.L.A.S. troops. The sound of shelling and machinegun fire was heard in Athens early yesterday morning, hut comparative quiet has now returned to the city. Planes dropping flares droned over the Athens area most of the night, but there was only spasmodic machine-gun fire from outer districts. The ex-Prime Minister of Greece, John Hal lis, who escaped from a political prison when the E.L.A.S. were attacking, has been recaptured. He was found hiding in a friend's house in a fashionable suburb of Athens. BOMBED HOMES REPAIRED (Reed, fi.Mo p.m.) LONDON, Doc. '2O Sir Trustrnm Eve. who is in charge of the repairs of bombed houses, has given the first figures of the progress made, says the British official wireless. He said 258,8-1!) houses had already been made habitable for the winter. He added that 132.000 men were now on repair work.