FEAR OF ATTACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25301, 11 August 1943, Page 3

FEAR OF ATTACK

GERMAN DEFENCE OF GREECE

ITALIAN GARRISON REPLACED (Rec. 11.15 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 10. Germany is reported to have agreed to the return home of all Italian troops hitherto in the European fortress, says the Berne correspondent of the Associated Press. Those in the Balkans and France are already being withdrawn and being replaced by Germans. The agreement is believed to have been reached during Herr von Ribbentrop’s visit to Rome last week. The Madrid correspondent of the Daily Mail says Marshal Rommel is reported to have taken four panzer divisions and other reinforcements to

Salonika to take over from the Italian garrison the 250-mile defence line from Yanina, in western Thessaly, to Dedeagach, on the western tip of the Thracian coast. The Germans, apparently believing that Greece is the next Allied objective, are building new airfields behind this line.

According to the Istanbul correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, a Greek patriot force derailed a German troop train between Larissa and Athens. The dead and wounded taken from the wreckage numbered 120. The line was blocked for several days.